This is Stefana, a friend of mine. We made the picture for fun without having the challenge in mind, only after that I realised it fits the b/w portrait challenge.
Editing:
1) Levels, curves, selective color and all those to make the color version as natural as possible.
2) made it a quadtone.
3) cropped it a little bit to enhance the composition.
4) added a little bit of lens blur to a duplicate layer than used the blending between the 2 layers to make the soft focus efect.
5) dodge/burn in verry small amount, mostly on her hair and the eyes to darken them a bit and eliminate the shiny light reflections.
6) cloned out a few artifacts that were anoying, not too much tho.
Statistics
Place: 24 out of 491 Avg (all users): 6.5563 Avg (commenters): 7.7059 Avg (participants): 6.3669 Avg (non-participants): 6.7093 Views since voting: 2311 Views during voting: 544 Votes: 311 Comments: 31 Favorites: 10 (view)
Thank you all for the comments, I said it before, and I'll say it again, this kind of feedback counts alot more than ribbons. This especially goes to Lynn (thebugsmommy), atleast for once I know why i got a 1 :D
This was definately one of the best, the arm of course probably kept from a ribbon. NOt sure what you could have done with it, but in other respects the shot is fantastic. I felt it really stood out with unique style, great technique, and beautiful subject.
I just wanted to say... I thought this was the best b&w portrait... and was disappointed it didn't win a ribbon when I came in to check the results today... and then I saw that my vote was a 1, and think this must have been a mistake!!!... b/c I thought I gave it a 10! I am so sorry.. I thought this was awesome, and meant to score it a 10.
Incredible shot! A winner IMHO!!!!
love the dof of this shot... great light and skin tones ... i just wish her eyes were looking at he camera for a better connection. I really like this shot regardless... good luck
STUNNING IMAGE! Just the RIGHT amount of soft focus for this subject ... I only think you should crop that dead useless (distracting and busy) space to JUST outside her elbow on the left for a 10! ... 9 because you did not.
this is my absolute favorite so far. if i had the time to vote on the 20%, you'd get a ten from me for shure. im affraid you'll have to settle for a fav tho :)
great depth of field and pose.
It would have been nice to not have the "couch" or whatever it is that she's laying on, but you can't always get what you want!!!!
This has to my favorite of the challenge. It is so different than the rest, full of emotion. I like the dark hair against all the lightness in the back ground. Great DOF and BW editing. In my favorites it goes along with a 10 :)
I really love this photo, however I hate that arm in the foreground. I looks like it is the same size as her head. I understand that this is not a formal portait, but it just sceams at me so much that I have a hard time seeing the rest of the really amazing photo. I think maybe if you darken it slightly so the eye does not go staight to the arm it will help. Maybe even crop tighter so you have a long thin photo. Anyhow, great job 8
I really love this...beautiful face and lovely light and depth of field...the arm at the front makes it look obviuous that perhaps you were holding the camera, and it's quite distracting...but lovely pose 7
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