Yet another one!

[Chris3jam]

I would appreciate critique. I'm not sure I have it smooth enough. This was a background to a song, so I left space on the side for the words. This was the one with which I was having a hard time. . . . I wasn't sure if it was too "busy" for a song, and I had a very hard time taking off the background from the hands. The fawn I had to blow up and take off the background almost pixel by pixel!

[tedanderson]

What are you talking about?

[jksbc]

You have to look at the MXC to see his latest post. I thought the same thing.

[[Admin] osborn4]

I really like the concept and the execution.

If you are looking to refine your skills, I would soften the edge around the hands and the fawn.

Here's how I do this in Photoshop Elements:
1) Select the content of the layer by Cntl-clicking the thumbnail.
2) Select->Modify->Contract by 1 pixel
3) Invert the selection (I use Cntl-i) so you should have 1 pixel around the edge of the layer content selected
4) Filter->Blur->Guassian blur with 1 pixel as the parameter.
And that should soften the edges of the contents of that layer.

The other thing I noticed (and we are getting into nit-picky territory here) is that the lighting of the fawn is opposite that the lighting of the hands. The brighter areas of the fawn are where it would be shadowed by the hands. I'm not sure exactly what I'd do about it, perhaps flip the fawn.

Like I said, I really like the piece. I just know that the only reason I got better is that CMN folks pushed me like this to refine my skills.

But it looks like you have a good eye and a good start.

[Chris3jam]

Thank you! And, oops! I thought I'd included the link to the pic! Glad you found it! And thank you so much... . . I didn't even notice the lighting issue! Off to try and refine it. . . . . .

[Sysmom]

Shading is the nit picky comment I'd add. Where the fawn nestles into the hands would be casting shadows.

Also If you added the light rays, you might toy with where the arm starts in the center right of the canvas, I'd toy with making it come OUT of the rays. Mask it in slowly to the focus of the foreground. If the rays are part of the photo ... that could be very difficult.

deb

[Chris3jam]

http://www.churchmedia.net/MXC/showp...8&ppuser=41991

Ok, I changed it a bit. I think (I could be wrong) I fixed the lighting issues.

[jksbc]

I think I like it better before you changed it. I would probably experiment with blurring the edges and shadowing as Joel and Deb mentioned. There's just something about the hands coming up out of the ground that doesn't look right to me.

Joe
RLC

[Smob]

Actually I like the hands coming out of the foreground better. Maybe you could extend them to come out of the frame rather then the ground.
How about some shading around the fawn on the hands as deb suggests?

[Chris3jam]

Well, this is what I ended up with. I ran out of time, so I used this for the song. I figure I can work on it some more when I want to, and spiff it up. Thanks, every one!