The shadow of the braids makes it a little hard to see what's going on at first; perhaps standing a few inches to the left would have helped that (if you wanted it to have that kind of "help").
Great take on the challenge and I'd say the weird lighting makes the shot.
Curves could have fixed up the darker spots, there's a few good posts in the forum on how to do this if you do not know already.
It's a great subject, and I really like the composition. The lighting has done some wonderful things to the photo; but it has also done some terrible things Right in the middle of the photo the pigtail shadow and the triangle of light on the shadowed hand create some confusion, IMO. And the blown white highlights of the cotton tops somehow add to the confusion and distracton.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
