Donna Sturla
About the Image(s)
This was an image I took for a Photo History class at Sierra College. I was "imitating" a photograph taken by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), who was one of the early portraitists of the 19th Century. This was supposed to be "Ophelia" from "Hamlet" and the model was my foreign
exchange student from Finland. I don't remember what my light source was, but I believe it was a dimly lit shadow box light. I always wanted to re-do my original conversion, which was very dark brown sepia, and I like this one better (sorry, Julia).
Shot with my Nikon D7000, Tamron 17-70 lens (F2.8 - 4) and shot at F 5.6 for 1/40 second at ISO 400. The intention was to NOT make a sharp focus, as those early photographers did not have the technology to do that, so this is a slightly "soft" focus. For post-processing, in Lightroom I used a preset for a Sepia tone, then added a bit of contrast
and adjusted shadows and highlights. I then went into Photoshop and flipped her horizontally, as the original was photographed in that position. I created an adjustment layer for levels and slightly darkened the hat brim because I thought it stood out too much. I brought out the
shadows in her clothing and added a few shadows to her face under the hat brim. I cleaned up some spots here and there and did a slight crop expansion on the sides.
NOTE: The second "original" is Julia Margaret Cameron's image (for reference).
3 comments posted
Very nice portrait. I especially like the light on "Ophelia" nice soft effect.
Emil   Posted: 10/06/2026 14:55:07
Cheers
Mike   Posted: 10/08/2026 10:43:35


