week-5.jpg
by LanndonKane

Comment:
I find myself ducking as I'm looking at this. Like other commenters, I think the vignetting is a little extreme. I do, however, really like the tone and texture of the wood.

Week 05
by hajeka

Comment:
I think the DOF helps a lot with this photo. The actress is the only part of the photo totally in focus (except for the beer). The guy's dark jacket in the background helps her to stand out even more.

1.52 Smoke break
by Melethia

Comment:
Nicely composed photo, and good candid moment. He really does look like he's enjoying some free time. Your re-edit does bring out more detail in his face.

5 - My Favorite Daughter
by Bud

Comment:
Very nice black and white portrait. I like the warm tones, and the lack of sharp highlights. Great job dad!

#2 Passing Time
by Sonifo

Comment:
I'm amazed at how good the exposure is of you with the blinds so close in the background. You say that you darkened them, but I still see some detail there, so they couldn't have been completely blown out. Very nice photo.

Broken Docks
by Hipychik

Comment:
Very pretty! The composition is really appealing, and the photo seems to almost have a glow to it. Just about everything in the photo is an important element. AND, yes, it looks cool there...I was complaining today (only a little), because it only got into the mid 60's;-)

Spire
by Alicia

Comment:
Wow, love your processing in this! I especially like the surreal sky, but the steeple is nice, too.

Wk-4_B&W-Side-Challenge.jpg
by twmax

Comment:

Originally posted by hajeka: The sky is indeed marvelous. Did you do any special editing?

I did a grayscale conversion in Lightroom, Levels in PS2, and ran it through Neat Image...nothing special. The sky was incredibly clear and blue, and the clouds were the big puffy type. It was a perfect sky. I have to say that the skies in New Mexico are wonderful. It has to be a pretty special day in San Diego where I live for the sky to even approach the type of skies you see in New Mexico most every day.

Lightroom detail:

Select GRAYSCALE

That brings up a set of 7 sliders for RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, AQUA, BLUE, PURPLE & MAGENTA
The sliders cover a range of from -100 to +100 with zero being neutral.
To achieve the dark rich sky, I slid the BLUE slider in the negative direction. In this photo the BLUE value is -75
For ANY of the seven colors in your photo, a -100 will turn it black, and a +100 will turn it white. Of course any other color will be a mixture of these, so may require playing with the sliders to achieve the desired look.

In PS2, I added a Levels adustment layer to whiten up the clouds just a tad.

I hope this helps.

Tom

Blind sailor
by Bear_Music

Comment:
Ha! It took me a minute to figure out what you did here. Mouths for eyes...I was wondering how someone would grow soul patches under his eyes. Very interesting!

Buffalo Herd
by annig

Comment:
This one is beautiful. I love the late afternoon light (or early morning?). Now what was it that Roger Miller sang?......