Photoshoot with my girlfriend Hedia, not Heida (very similar) for this challenge. This is the best photo that came out of the shoot. Hope it Heida style enough for the DPC voters.
RAW, white balance and contrasts. Open in CS4.
New layer, burned the entire photo with shadow and highlights. Layer mask, brush tool, black color over model.
New layer: Lasso around face, high pass filter, invert, gaussian blur, layer mask, smooth edges and brush over eyes and mouth. Blending mode: Overlay.
New layer, selective color:
Neautral: yellow a bit down, black a bit up (background).
Red: Yellow and Magenta a bit down (skin colors)
Resized and crop.
New layer, Noise, layer mask, brush tool, black color over model to remove all noise from her.
Desaturated image
Unsharp Mask
Levels and curves.
I THINK that was all my editing. Maybe I applied a layer mask and did a few rounds with the brush tool on the background on the final steps; USM, levels and curves.
Postchallenge
I can't believe my monitor... When I looked at this photo during voting on my GF's pc I saw SEVERAL flaws in the editing, all of which was invisible on my monitor. Darned it....
Happy with the results though. A personal best =)
Post postchallenge
I almost cry everytime I see this photo... I can't believe the lameasred editing on this... Perfect model, terrible donkey behind the viewfinder... I COULD'VE entered the list of highest rated photo with my 105mm.... THAT WOULD'VE BEEN SO COOOL!!! I HATE MY MONITOR!!!!
postpostpost challenge
Thank you for the kind aftermath comments! They do help, but still... I did overlook (well, I didn't see them... still can't on my old monitor, so I didn't overlook them...) some drastic editing faults. But still, thank you! And yes, I am proud of my GF! Whenever she models for me the flashes flash brighter and the aperture must be stopped waaay down cause of the light she spreads (have to work a bit on that...). Once again, thanks!
Statistics
Place: 27 out of 129 Avg (all users): 6.2146 Avg (commenters): 7.6000 Avg (participants): 6.1200 Avg (non-participants): 6.2452 Views since voting: 2714 Views during voting: 395 Votes: 205 Comments: 8 Favorites: 1 (view)
I think you are too hard on yourself - I actually very much like your edit of this. Have you re-edited it more to your liking since the challenge ended? You should post that here to show what you wanted to do.
I have to agree....you're too hard on yourself. This is a great shot. One that makes you stop and look. You should be proud....not only of this shot and the work you put into it; but of your beautiful g/f as well. And I'm sure you are ;-)
I think you are too hard on yourself - I actually very much like your edit of this. Have you re-edited it more to your liking since the challenge ended? You should post that here to show what you wanted to do.
Wow - expecting this in the top 5. Perfect rule of thirds, fantastic desat and a gorgeous model with dramatic hair. Great use of grain for the background.
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