the veteran - v2.0

better? i started over and did it completely differently. the stick is still a bit of a problem, but this looks better. thoughts?

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Can you post a link to the original color image? (or just post it here)
I'd like to take a shot at it... it's such a great image.
I'm sure other would like to also...

I'm not as fond of this conversion... and there is something "off" going on in the left eye.

My suggestion crossed in the mail... I'd just afixed this to your last post... I'm not as fond of the green/sepia wash you've used this time. It somehow weakens the guy. I still find the details in your image overpowering...

Again, thanks for sharing. Your eye for the decisive moment is impressive....

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Fabulous subject Will. And well captured. I missed this the first go round (have been sick), but I'll see if I can find it...

What PP did you do on this image? Like Glen, I'd love to see the original. I also agree with his remark about the left eye - it's dark over there. Having a catchlight in the right eye and none in the left eye is a bit odd.

sweet! i was hoping you'd show up, athena! sorry to hear you are illin', but surely a nice bowl of spicy lahksa will fix that, right?

the original is just called "the veteran", and it appears i've swapped the stick problem for an eye problem. this is my first real burn/dodge project, and i'm still not getting it right. ted, it looks like you did some things that really made the eyes look great! can you explain?

and, here's the original. i just have one request, gang...please put your efforts here and give us a detailed explanation of what you did. here's mine:

used channel mixer to convert. used about a 300 pixel brush at 2-5% flow to alternatively burn shadows and dodge highlights on the face. did hat, shirt, and neck separately. as i went, i gradually refined my painting to smaller areas and smaller brushes. the last steps were working on individual wrinkles and diminishing the background junk. the reason this image has a greenish wash is because i used the variants tool, and that one just looked cool to me at the time. i had sharpened the image once, but when i reduced it to 800 wide, i used usm again, set at about 100, .4, and 3. the only difference in the original image, other than specific dodge/burn placement, was that i converted using a trick i found accidentally: 100% desaturation in velvia vision! sometimes it works great, sometimes not so great.

have fun, and let's all use this as a learning experience!

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LOL - this was beyond even a good laksa. Doc gave me a course of antibiotics, but I'm saving them for after New Years Eve.

Do you have a space on the net to host your original file (full size) Will? Otherwise, you know my email...