Love it! What a great shot with some amazing light! Realy creative and unusual, in a good way:) Regards, Kyrre

Very creative shot, I like the way it turned out. I especially like how the light illuminates the hands around the dark crystal ball. Thanks for sharing the blog, "Strobist". I am definitely going to read through it. I know zero about how to utilize flash properly and creatively.

As usual you take something I've been working at for ages (in this case off-camera flash via Strobist) and in one shot absolutely blow my own achievements out of the water. It may not be technically great (in your opinion - to me it seems technically just fine thanks very much!) but as ever it's your imaginative framing that makes the shot work.

DAMN YOU.

;)

Just laughing at Owens comments, I concur with him... Dave I don't think you have an issue with artificial light, I think you have an inner fear of being judged on your artificial lighting, but at the end of the day, its another great / interesting image and technique that you've nailed......in this image and you don't have anything to worry about. And where did you come across a Crystal Ball just lyeing around, is this for predicting some future happenings, or picture ideas?...csj

This is nothing short of amazing. I love to read through strobist and try some of the techniques. I haven't been there in a while so I should probably spend some more time there.

Wow this is awesome! Great effect, nice contrast!

You complained a while ago about British winter and hibernation - well there you go, indoor flash fun was what it was made for. As for recommending Strobist; careful, lest you give your audience a habit as addictive and potentially expensive as crack.

And nice shot - I'm with Owen on this one.

I love the reflection of the fingers around the "upside down" face. Really an amazing shot. Love the creativity and the eyes :) I wonder what this crystal ball would do to your shore? Artistry Dave... this is reflective of your artistry.

I'll just ditto what Owen said!

Chuckle - what a fab shot. I hate flash - but this may well make me have a play.

I'm with Owen & CSJ on this, it's worked out great. I've been reading the strobist stuff for a while but I've yet to try it-because iIneed some flash gear.................Dear Santa, I've been a very good boy this year..................

It certainly is a very beautiful and perfectly composed photo.

For some reason I particularly like the detail on her index fingers.

The result is great! Thanks for mentioning the crystal ball in the description, otherwise I would continuously wonder how did it. The light is good and it looks like it comes from a bigger light source (look at the eyes). One improvement: the eyes are not sharp which is disturbing. The hands are in focus, which is good. To overcome this problem you would probably need to make 2 images and merge them.

I'm a big strobist fan. I was lucky to attend the workshop of David Hobby last year in Paris.

Sometimes the obvious is the most un-obvious. I have stared at "psychic Camilla" for the longest time just trying to figure out the perspectives, where, what, and how... This is what makes a great photograph, when your audience, your viewer is so drawn in they can't leave! I especially love the levels, layers, of focus. I can't believe how long I looked at this before I realized that was a face, Camilla's face, behind the crystal ball. As obvious as it is to me now, for the longest time I "saw" her face as shadows of say the texture of carpet on the floor. Excellent and intriguing!

And by-the-way, did you process to B&W using your Channel Mixer layer? I was recently shown another method of using an Adjustement Layer with a Gradient Map. I can't say it gave me a "better" result, just subtly different.

For sure, this is one of the best shot I have seen... The light is the "good" point of the image. Without it, it will be probably not as good as it is now. I like it very much. Well done despite being not comfortable with the artificial light!!!!

This is your most interesting shot in a long time! Nice!

I really like it, I must be one of the most un-original users of flash, this gives me a few ideas though, thanks Dave!

awesome work

Unuasual, but excellent shot !

Well when I saw this I immediately thought "wow, this guy knows how to use a flash!"
I love strobist too. I read it almost every day. I recently did some experimental photos that took me out of my comfort zone too and they turned out alright. I posted them in the strobist pool and seemed to inspire a few others because I have seen more and more like it floating around. Maybe I will see some crystal ball shots in there soon, because this is a neat idea!
You can see my experimenting with flash shots here... if you want...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessicarunkel/

As for feeling under the weather.... I feel ya.

I agree, the use of artificial light flummoxes me. I am still getting to grips with natural light.

I like the shot. It has great impact and the light looks spot on!

' Open the pod-bay door, Hal...'

' I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that...'

:-)

Thanks everyone.

owen-b: I think I got lucky with this one – the rest were rubbish :)

Carlos: I've tried a few shots of the sea, shot through the crystal ball, but I haven't been happy with any of them so far. When I get it right I'll post one.

LightningPaul: on reflection I think it would probably have been better if I'd shot this at a smaller aperture; i.e. greater depth of field.

Jessica: rest assured, I'll be borrowing your idea at some point soon :)

Ok...so if these are the photos you're less good at...how are your best pictures then? This goes beyond photography. This is art.

This is art, being provocative in the imagery is the key to photography IMO. The crystal ball and the big eyes... amazing, great work.

Scary but very cool shot!

this is awesome David, nice shot, worth the efforrt and experimentation! Cheers

Really interesting shot. The symmetry and contrast between shadows/highlights are well done, and I think the monochrome suits it well.

Very nice effect. Really love the lightning

Just perfect

You certainly have an eye for composition, but where this image stands out from the others is that it conveys real feeling, something unstable and more twisted. It's easy to get caught up in the technical aspects to make beautiful postcards, but this moves beyond that. Nice.