Shapeshifting (She turns into smoke)
by Alex_Petrini

Comment:
Congrats Alessandro, your entry was my highest vote. Great idea, and very well done with the bones shapes! Your hard work definitely shows.

Fiery
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by jagar: I thought superheroes had hair on their chests ;-) a gargantuan task perfectly executed as usual, well done.

Haha, I didn't clone it out, promise! Thanks John :)

Point of View
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by Beni Rodriguez: Would love to see a tutorial on how you achieved the effect for the tree looking like "you?"

Thanks.
For the tree, it's just basic layer masking stuff: I put all the layers relative to the tree in a group, then created a mask for that group. For that mask, I used a photo of my face, modified so that the face was fully white over a black background (i.e. a mask). The effect was almost done. To complete the effect, I removed some leaves here and there (to create an irregular border), and added some shadows (to suggest a human face even more).

Point of View
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by mlianopr: Originally posted by hahn23: It's a beautiful image, but it's not photographic in nature. By that, I mean one would never see this with one's eyes. It's a joy to view, but it's pure fantasy. Since this is an expert edit challenge, I will mark this 10, but I don't accept it as a photograph. Really enjoy your ability to draw and paint. No offense intended. Was thinking almost the same!!

I'm not sure to understand your reasoning. You're of course free to think what you want, but with all respect due, many photos (even achieved with no or minimal editing) are nothing that could be seen with one's eyes directly (lens baby, B&W, wide angle, fisheye, long exposure, etc.). Consequently, I don't believe that if a scene can't be seen as such with one's eyes, then it automatically isn't photography. I also don't believe photography can only depict hard cold reality, many other uses are possible. IMHO, of course.

Bring the Rain
by adigitalromance

Comment:
Great concept, and very nice execution: congratulations on your well deserved ribbon. The concept is very clever and interesting. If I may also add a small criticism, the shadow of the main cloud looks a bit odd to me, like if it was purely 2D and cast on a flat picture: that's the main thing I would rework in your picture. But I'm nitpicking, good job!

Storm at Hogwarts
by Paul

Comment:
Great one Paul, congratulations on your ribbon. It was my favorite of the challenge, very nicely done: very hard to tell it's a model at all.

winnowing
by jmritz

Comment:
Very interesting, John. There is so much to see in here!

The Old Apothecary
by Paul

Comment:
Congratulations Paul! This Old Apothecary was a very clever choice for the set of your photo, it works just beautifully. There is also something reassuring yet nostalgic in how the ghost looks, fantastic mood. Keep up the good work.

Til Death Do Us Part
by Mark-A

Comment:
Congratulations Mark! It's a great creation, I really love it. The atmosphere you created is just perfect. Very inspirational. Can't wait to see your next one! :-)

Adieu
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by paulbtlw: Do you get to sleep at all nowadays?

Thanks a lot Paul. Frankly, it's hard! There was much time involved on this one, and I really need some rest so my next entries will be probably less ambitious. Just so that my wife actually remembers I can also talk, not just shoot and edit ;-)