A dancer performing the Pilipino folk dance, \"Pangalay\" which uses long, pointed metal pieces to accentuate finger movements. This was taken at a local fair in San Francisco. I wasn\'t sure if I should have blurred the background out completely... All comments and opinions welcome!
Thanks GP, for all of the comments! They're all really helpful. I've thought about playing a bit more with this one and my other shots. I'll probably start reposting images that I've altered in different ways. Thanks again. )
This is an intriquing shot with excellent capture of the main subject, conveying a beautiful dance and serene expression. As you are a fellow PS experimenter (;-)), this is one that I would definitely play with. I am not sure about just a major blurring of the background. though you could start with that and see where it goes. Perhaps some motion blur, perhaps some major darkening down... The trick with this one will be masking her out well from the background. Will be a bit tricky, but definitely do-able. Don't know what technique you prefer, but sometimes it is good to go to channels and select the one with best contrast for masking. Or create a levels adjustment layer, tweak it way up for maximum contrast, do your selecting, save the selection, then delete that levels layer to get back to the original. Don't forget to feather the outline a bit so it doesn't look too hard edged or "cut and pasted." Hope this spurs you on to play with this image, cuz it really has terrific artistic potential. I just find the background too distracting... Mahalo, GP.
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