This is beautiful, Erin. Not only does it touch me because of the spiritual undertones, but also because of the soft technique that pervades it. I personally would have made the light softer- but that's just a stylistic choice. Wonderful job, and a really good idea to start with.

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“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time"

Here, have some win. This is excellent on so many levels: the exposure is flawless on both images, giving just enough contrast; the off-frame composition has great movement and is wonderfully suggestive of things going on outside; and the biggest thing for me is how different a subject this is for you. It's a fair jump from portraiture and architecture, and I really dig what you've come up with.

One thing I am wondering about: did you merge the images with Photoshop, or was it done in the darkroom? Because you get mondo points if it was darkroom.

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Unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it.

These words are of such high praise, I am hardly worthy of them. Thank you so much for the critique and praise.
As of now, these were merged in Photoshop via overlay, channel masks, and a very very sharp gradient on said channel mask. However, being B/W film, and being that I am taking a B/W photo class, I assure you that I will be merging the two in the darkroom within a matter of weeks. When said merge has been done, I will most likely update this image (as the photoshop merger created some verrrry slight digital noise that had to be brushed out on the soft, faint third wing between the two: look on the leftmost edge, just over halfway up the photo, and you'll see a little bit that I wasn't able to brush away)

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:] w00t, yo.

Yojne.
~Random Sleeping Kid

<3 thanks so much, hun. I'm really glad that you liked the photo and that it spoke to you. In the original shot, the lighting and contrast were actually much softer, but I increased the contrast rather much because, at the loss of some of the soft, ethereal glow that the photo had originally, it gave the viewer so much more detail to work with; what makes this *so* beautiful and divine to me is not that they're the outline of wings, but that there are even feathers textured into the sand. Without this contrast, you lost a lot of the feathers, and were left with just the wings. Though, I may go back and look at it in a softer contrast. I agree wholeheartedly with you; if it's not too much of a loss, I should probably lower the contrast and put some more of the ethereal glow back into it. Thanks for the praise and critique!

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:] w00t, yo.

Yojne.
~Random Sleeping Kid

Ditto what he said. In addition to that, I can't wait to see the update you are looking to do in order to get rid of the noise. If it wasn't for that, this would be *perfect*.



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You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
-Eleanor Roosevelt-

this beautiful deviation was featured here [link]
if you don't want it to be there, please let me know

You are featured [link]



--
Courage does not always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow".

Wow this is beautiful! I can't believe those are natural shapes, I've never seen anything like it. Great capture and thanks for sharing!

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Very Beautiful