This is a reshoot of my first challenge entry "We Do". I wanted to improve the lighting and the limited depth of field of the first shot which were its main problems. I went with a similar composition which I really like and this time used a cream coloured Champagne wire cap rather than a silver which gave undesirable reflections and blow outs. Hopefully this will do better. I went for the Golden Anniversary them as the photo looks quite old and the original photo had a wedding theme.
Curves, cloned out minor blemishes, selective colour adjustment layer, duplicate layer with Nik b&w filter, variations, layer mask, reduce noise, add border, save for web.
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Place: 93 out of 161 Avg (all users): 5.7099 Avg (commenters): 6.6667 Avg (participants): 5.2969 Avg (non-participants): 5.9796 Views since voting: 975 Views during voting: 223 Votes: 162 Comments: 7 Favorites: 0
Camera Work/Technical: You captured a tremendous amount of detail, but the soft effect is a bit too much. I understand the effect that you were after, but I think a little less of it would have made this image even better. I do like the tones and colors you created, I'd just like to see a little more crisp.
Lighting: The lighting you chose for this type of image is near flawless. Every elements in the image is nicely lit, and no detail was lost in any harsh shadow or blow highlight.
Composition/Content: Your composition is much, much stronger for this image. You chose much better angles for your element positioning, thus creating a much more inviting flow to the photograph.
My Opinion: It is much better than the original, but could be even better with just slight adjustments. Tone down the softness just a bit and this one would have done much better for you.
This shot would work better if you made the rings stand out some more. You can use masks in advanced editing, so yo could have boosted the saturation of only the rings. Apart from that still a nice shot.
Very nice, I like this composition. Very good tones and PP. Well done!
Edit to add...just came across your first attempt of this photo quite by surprise. So I thought I would just come back and let you know this is a very nice improvement. The lighting of the first was very harsh, the softness here is very nice and is fitting for the subject matter.
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