Breanna and a friend of hers, who could pass as a sister in a heartbeat. The two girls are both half-native, so are also family in, deeper way.. although this won't be something that will come across in the challenge itself.
This shot will get slaughtered in voting.. I think. I can't guarantee it.. but I think it will. The problem is, it's a *great* shot.. it's dynamic, it's fun, it's spontaneous..
and it's not something the voters will care for.. if I have any idea. (which I seldomly do).
Post-Processing was a little involved for this one..
First of all, I duplicated a layer, added a layer mask, and then applied a hard sharpen to it. Then, I selected the mask, and painted back in the areas that didn't need the sharpen at 100% opacity, and a few areas at lesser degrees of opacity, depending on what needed it. Then I merged the layers. Next I dodged up the eyes of the girl on the viewer's left. I then made a channel mixer adjustment layer, monochromed it, messed with the settings, and then dropped the opacity of the channel mixer layer to approx. 50%. I then selected the layer mask, and painted back in the color to one shirt, one girl's hair, and the eyes. I then merged the layers. Then I adjusted the hue/saturation and contrast to my liking. Then I applied a very thin neatimage.
*AFTER CHALLENGE*
Thank you everyone. I got a lot of "wish the other girl was in focus" comments, which I expected.. but not as *many* as I expected.. and the voting sure wasn't as bad as I expected.. but, I *am* known to be wrong now and then.
Here's the outtake that I had submitted right up until the last few minutes before turn-over, before I finally decided to go with the one I did:
My pleasure to comment on your pics. This is a lovely photo of your beautiful brown eyed girl. Her friend appears to have a "secret". Stay sweet girls.
Cute! Wish they were both in focus. Girl on the left has gorgeous eyes and beautiful smile. Both very cute. If it were a portrait challenge and you croppped to jsut the older girl, it would be a 9 or 10 form me. For this challenge: 7
Well, either I lied or I came back and bumped it to an 8. Congrats on a top 20! She is just captivating!
My favorite to win! I love this image. The tones are gorgeous, and I love the action on the younger sister and the clarity of the elder. What beautiful children!
This is a potentially great portrait. The girls have wonderful expressions. I only wish they could both be in focus. I like very much the soft focus on the background however. This is more comfortable and conveys the "family" feel better than a studio background would.
Cute! Wish they were both in focus. Girl on the left has gorgeous eyes and beautiful smile. Both very cute. If it were a portrait challenge and you croppped to jsut the older girl, it would be a 9 or 10 form me. For this challenge: 7
Interesting the similarities between this and the photo of the two little boys. Beautiful children. Like the crop. Can't decide how I feel about the amount of blur on the right. It certainly conveys movement, and I'm guessing she doesn't sit still long. The only nitpick I have is that the small piece of shoulder at lower left keeps getting my attention. Great shot.
The blur of the girl on the right is great, the focus on the left, the light is flattering, catchlights are interesting, colour is muted (Slightly desaturated?) Nice neutral background.
I hope this does well.. The technical nit-pickers on DPC probably wont like the blur, but I think it's great.. In contrast to the other girl it's what makes this photo alive.
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