Going for sadness and despair

I'm an accounting major in school but I'm taking photography to fulfill my arts requirement. This assignment required that we go to PS and use the "Unsharp Mask" filter and use an ISO of 1600 or higher............

Please critique, my skin is soft but I'll try to manage

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#1 I think you captured the mood you were going for quite well and the high ISO added nicely. I'm not quite sure what you were trying for in #2. Is she trying to get run over by a train?

if so, I like sticking with #1 and dropping #2 as it's sort of depressing. In #1 you see the emotion but not really drawing any conclusions from it.

Yes, I couldn't figure out how to make it look that way without getting the flash in the frame. That's the best I could do.

I really think 1 fits your intentions. #2 could be seen as triumph or acceptance by the way she is holding her hands out, IMO.

I think you fulfilled your assignment quite well. They both have quite a bit of emotion.

The second shot has great processing and is pretty good overall, but without the context from the first shot, you cannot really tell what is going on. It would have helped if you got more of the tracks and her feet in the frame. The flash works great for the train light, but still needs something to tie everything together.

All things considered, nice job.

yeah, I like these. More of the track so we can tell what she's doing. I like your use of the flash in the second picture.