First Communion

C&C Welcome - too much (not sure what to call it)...frost?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

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why does it look like you made her cry?

She wasn't - it was the light reflecting on the skin under her eye, but I appreciate the observation.

I think you handled this very well. First Communion day can be heavy going for young children and perhaps that's why sho looks a little sad, albeit beautifully sad. Mono works perfectly here and it all looks delicate.
Very well done.

Looks a bit dark on my screen. I would like to have seen her other eye in the shot as well.

This is a terrific effect and I'd be interested in knowing what you did to achieve it.

The only constructive suggestion I could make would be to reduce the "crosshatch" effect in the background just near her forehead and nose. It seems a bit distracting. I guess you could airbrush it or selectively blur it. Then it would be spot on.

Paul

I'd like to get rid of the crosshatch as well - it's the window screen that shows up a little too well in parts of the picture. I'll try to selectively blur it, as I agree it is distracting.

The effect was pretty easy. Create a new layer on top of the original photo, fill the new layer with a color (white in this case) using the paintbucket tool. Then use the elliptical selection tool to select a circle on the new, white layer, feather the selection (I used around 200 pixels here), and clear the selection. It creates a feathered window through the filled layer to the original photo.

I've found it useful to uncheck the new, filled layer after selecting but before clearing, as it allows you to superimpose your selection directly on the actual picture, and you can then reposition the selection if necessary. Make sure to recheck and work on the new filled layer before clearing the selection, otherwise you will clear your actual picture.

Hope this helps.

Hmmm. Thanks for that. I've tried this in the past, differently, and not achieved as good an effect. (See below) Will try your method and see how it turns out. Thanks again and repost your image after you alter the crosshatch..I'd be interested to see how that turns out.

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wow, I think its a beautiful picture, and moment! Thanks so much for sharing your processing too!

kathy