Hi Mae. I like the action here. I only have two minor suggestions, and I'm not quite sure they'll improve anything. First, I'd think about cropping off the dead space on the left so the back of the leftmost soldier is next to or on the left edge. That would pull the foreground soldiers out of the middle. Try it and see - it may also be that that space provides a sort of border to the whole shot.
Second, and I see you did a bit of this, try darkening the background even more and also brightening the foreground. I use soft light layers for this kind of thing. The idea is to further separate foreground from background.
Thanks for the notes -- that's quite a bit of stuff. I think if you're using a later version of Photoshop you can set it up to keep a log of all the editing steps in a text file, which you can then copy/paste/edit for your notes.
It's interesting that you did most of the editing after converting it to the duotone colors.
I really lake the interplay of light and shadow, and the sense of action introduced by the gunsmoke. The very-sharp foreground and blurry background and the stark lighting almost make it look like a studio shot of a model/diorama -- an effect which works well for this image.
Usually I am not big into re-enactments because usually the history has already been recorded. However, this is a very nice one. I like the catch of gunfire. They way the flag moves across the frame. I even light the individual lying/dying body on the left.
I really like this shot, and think it has great DOF and lighting. However I think in a sepia tone it would have looked more 1862. But a great shot non the less.
Very cool capture. Worth spending more than the typical 2 second view to search throughout the image. The gun blast in the background is a great feature.
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