Face sculpture / Optical Illusion/ Fake DOF

This is a sculpture in the Guelph sculpture park that always has interesting shadow effects. I took this as black and white, I have a number of colour versions but the bright green grass didn't look right with the black metal sculpture.

Also let me know what you think of the fake DOF. I 'masked' a blur effect so that it blurred the image proportionately to distance. I do know that the top and side edges look alittle off and I think I know how to fix it, maybe next time.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vfilby/15406166​1/

Good shot of an interesting sculpture. Nice shadow.

There's something weird on the top left side, not sure what it is though (a fence?)

The fake DOF looks fine to me on the top right.

Black and white was a good choice.

I agree in part with The Photo Tuell its a good shot

As for the fake DOF I don't think it matters all the much as its the sculpture that holds the interest of the viewer.

Cheers
David

Interesting how you captured "a face in a face".
I agree with Meerkat but nevertheless at the top of the sculpture one can see that it is "tricked".

I LOVE it. Nice work.

Jewel

The fake DOF redone, and no fake DOF

Thanks Guys,

Tuell: Don't worry about that it is just my crazy notions about watermarking. I am trying to put smoething there but not have it interfere with the image.

LightHunter: How can you see that it has been faked? I would like to make this as good as possible, so I would appreciate your feedback in trying to make the fake DOF look as good as real.

Jewel: Thanks!

Here are two more versions. In the first the DOF is much better, I cleaned up the selection and eliminated the halo's around the edge of the sculpture. I have also included one that only had a levels adjustment made.

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

I will explain as good as I can and the original you posted makes it easier to explain. In the original the lighter part of the edge of the sculptures hair kind of merges with the background. By applying a filter on a selection, here everything except the sculpture, this "merge disappears and you get a very hard edge instead (make the subject appear to be placed afterwards in certain cases). This was also very visible in a previous posting "dancing on dublins streets".
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=34237
So what I tend to do is to blur slightly the edge manually where necessary. In your picture you might want to include the lighter part of the top of the head in the area to blur.

I will explain as good as I can and the original you posted makes it easier to explain. In the original the lighter part of the edge of the sculptures hair kind of merges with the background. By applying a filter on a selection, here everything except the sculpture, this "merge disappears and you get a very hard edge instead (make the subject appear to be placed afterwards in certain cases). This was also very visible in a previous posting "dancing on dublins streets".
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=34237
So what I tend to do is to blur slightly the edge manually where necessary. In your picture you might want to include the lighter part of the top of the head in the area to blur.

Is this what is referred to as bad bokeh?

I wonder if I could avoid this problem by feathering the selection a bit before I blur the layer. I will try it later today and see if I can get a better result.

Thanks LightHunter,
Vince