A version of the blue velvet hat that isn't legal in Basic Editing, using some new tricks I've learned this weekend from Djabordjabor and jaxed and putting my own flair on it all. You're seeing a lot of self-portraits lately because I've been very busy studying for two classes and a business school entrance exam and haven't had any time to go adventuring.
Convert from RAW
Crop
Duplicate Layers: Screen, Soft Light, Luminosity at various opacities
Desaturated background layer
Hue/Sat, Color Balance, Selective Color
Cut eyes to new layer, Color mode at about 80%: dodge highlights, burn shadows, brightness/contrast, and some fairly aggressive USM
Flatten Image
Clone skin flaws
Dodge eye whites, shadow under eye, some other skin shadows
Burn eyebrow, eyelashes, lips
Sharpen tool on eyelashes
Resize, USM, Save for Web
Statistics
Place: 311 out of 501 Avg (all users): 5.5195 Avg (commenters): 7.0000 Avg (participants): 5.5248 Avg (non-participants): 5.5094 Views since voting: 1000 Views during voting: 225 Votes: 154 Comments: 6 Favorites: 1 (view)
Too bad this didn't score higher! It's a quite cool shot with an interesting atmosphere. Your lighting is very interesting, not the casual style you see every day. I don't think the shadows are unflattering - they add depth to the photo. I like your facial expression: On the one hand you look relaxed and happy. On the other hand you look as if you were up to something (I hope I used the right phrase here...). When I saw this during voting I thought this would be your new personal best.
In some ways, I like this one a bit better than the first - though I didn't score the first one low (7). I prefer the skin and wall tones of the first, but the framing, pose & shadow is nicer here. Hmmmm... 8
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