I didn't seem to have much to choose from this month except for outtakes from Pet Portrait II. I really liked what Yanko did in this one and used that as a starting point. I tried for a "softer gentler" kitty look.
Convert from raw
rotate
crop
tone-map, merge tone-mapped B&W with original
shadows/highlight
Run dragonizer and merge dragonized layer with original
create another dragonized layer and add gaussian blur, merge in multiply mode for softness
Dodge/burn in many areas (especially eyes)
clone out a stray hair
some cloning around eyes
curves
levels
hue/sat
add a bit more blue to eyes (close to natural color)
NI in noisy area under chin
resize
save for web
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Place: 58 out of 488 Avg (all users): 6.3933 Avg (commenters): 7.7143 Avg (participants): 6.3145 Avg (non-participants): 6.5741 Views since voting: 1251 Views during voting: 256 Votes: 178 Comments: 18 Favorites: 0
This somehow seems to have a soft focus yet be full of detail and texture at the same time. I lingered on it for awhile, so it gets a couple extra points just for that. I love the super close crop. 7 from me.
Beautiful eyes on this little critter. I like the square treatment, but the darkness at each of the corners is slightly distracting. Overall a good entry.
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