Toying with a "darkness" technique

cheers to that canned...

Below her left eye. There the skin texture disappears in one spot.

that is a compression artifact...

To my eyes the whole image is just too dark and gloomy and I don't like either of them that much. I agree with the poster above who noted that if the eyes were brighter they may help lift the first image. They would create more of a focal point.

We all like different things though and if it works for you then great.

Don't mean to be rude just a different opinion.

Best regards
Jim

Hey, i LIKE hearing that people dont like it, that means that we are all being honest. Infact, i wish more people would pipe up when they didn't like something... too many of us here have a false positive impression of our work.

I think what happens is that when you look at a post and if you're not particularly inspired (or maybe don't like) work submitted for C&C you generally don't post any particular opinions. Some people just generally stay away from posting as they feel they are not qualified to give opinion and some give enthusiastic feedback about most work they see. THere are also a lot who give an opinion good or bad and I'm in that bunch. Never anything personal and it's good when people take the critique the way it's meant.

We all see a lot of images here and some I like and some I don't like and I generally give an honest (but obviously only a personal) opinion of how I see things. As I noted we all like different things.

I've had my images ripped to shreds a few times and I'm always nervous about posting but I do gain great info and ideas from the site and like to get involved.

By the way it would be interesting to see your original images as the poses look great.

I like them both. I don't like the shadow of the nose on the face in the first shot, but otherwise I like the presentation you've achieved here

JD - I hear ya man.

I have always had a bug up my butt about people who are afraid to share what they think is laking in an image/event/paitning/s​culpture, whatever. My policy is to always share what works, and what doesn't.

Rich - Thanks, good to hear from someone whoes own work i respect so much. (stroke that ego baby, make it nice and hard!)

Amen to that! There is another board (not pbase) that has a rather active critique forum that suffers from a chronic "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything" syndrome. Unfortunately what you end up with when a photo is critiqued is an entire thread of rear-end-kissing yes-man comments.

It is highly unfornatute that many people don't understand that often it is the critical, even negative critiques that help us grow/improve the most. Often people see things we overlooked, but if not told about them, cannot improve them. Anybody can be a "yes man" but a true critiquing friend will tell you what is wrong.

i love that look and i think you did you a great job applying it - especially in the first image. and thanks for posting your process...i'll definately give it a go.

And Amen to that too

I'm not sure though if the above images are "wrong" though.... more perhaps just not my taste.

I would never argue that the process is to everyones taste, i just find it really interesting.. and i am really loving the results it gives

why don't add some screenshots?

i am afraid that the working file is LONG gone, but the 8th post covers the process pretty thoroughly i think.

take care

The first one I think the bottom of the pic should have just a bit less of the bluured out grey. But I love the look and technique, great job.