Yes, these shirts were real non-joke gifts, and my kids are the genuine lucky recipients! Ah, but we love our Grandma anyway. :) We are pretty sure they were serious gifts, so we didn't laugh until we got home, and then we had a great time.
The actual photo is a minimal effort standard portrait setup at our house. I would have liked a more christmassy background, but all the christmas celebrations were at other people's houses this year, so there wasn't much scenery at our place to make use of.
I don't think this will go well in the voting, because everyone will just assume it was a setup, but I don't really mind. I was just happy to get something to fit the challenge so well.
Editing is a small amount of HDR and HP filter, along with dodge and burn, minor cloning, saturation, resize, crop, USM, blah blah. I also changed the wall from cream to green for a more christmassy colour scheme. The border was a deliberate attempt to make it look like a christmas snapshot, but I don't know if it works. As for my son, people will probably say he's edited too much, and doesn't look natural. I tell my wife the same thing, but apparently it's too late to change him now, and we have to keep him.
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Place: 5 out of 111 Avg (all users): 6.5397 Avg (commenters): 6.9375 Avg (participants): 6.2600 Avg (non-participants): 6.6138 Views since voting: 4389 Views during voting: 589 Votes: 239 Comments: 22 Favorites: 3 (view)
I love this one. The expression on their faces is priceless!
The swag in the backround is what disturbs me a little.
I don't know if it's the cropping or the placement.
This is very much an excellent response to this challenge! You've captured the true spirit of, well, family dynamics, Christmas, odd gifts - you name it! Nicely done, and one of my top picks for this challenge.
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