For the Soul

	For the Soul Finalist This was taken on a living history weekend at Fort Atkinson, Nebraska. Resubmitted January 27, 2013 Category: People © Nikki McDonald Sony Alpha A350 Di...

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6/25/2011 7:05:28 AM

Fabulous portrait, Nikki - and as a big bluegrass fan, I do love a banjo!

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6/25/2011 8:20:54 AM

I love this portrait; and I bet he will, too!

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6/25/2011 8:45:45 AM

WOW!! Wonderful portrait work and I LOVE the treatment/title is perfect Nikki :)

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6/25/2011 10:52:20 AM

beautiful shot

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6/25/2011 12:29:30 PM

Excellent and beautiful portrait!

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6/25/2011 10:30:31 PM

Superb candid portraiture, Nikki. Love the lighting and muted color.

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6/26/2011 3:53:38 AM

Fabulous portrait, Nikki. I'm sure he loved this one!

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6/26/2011 4:33:08 AM

Right in close, so we can listen to the banjo. The framing is dynamic and makes it all feel even more immediate.

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6/26/2011 8:30:11 AM

Very nicely done! I like the editing choices you made, for color & edging.

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6/26/2011 2:26:35 PM

That is awesome..how did you edit that? Really like it.

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6/26/2011 8:01:05 PM

I like your crop on this, Nikki. You got some great shots from this reenactment. Excellent all around!

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6/28/2011 4:03:13 AM

Fabulous angle and composition. The texture is amazing!

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6/28/2011 6:28:54 PM

Nikki - I love what you have done to this picture. Mind me asking what filter you used? Martin

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6/29/2011 5:34:48 AM

Thank you, everyone, for liking both the image and the effects. I edited last fall and I don't take notes, so it's hard to remember. I did take the image on the angle like this so there's no cropping involved. The lighting was natural. I don't still have the RAW file but I do have two previous tiffs and the first one should be right after the conversion from RAW -- I do very little there. I am sure I ran it through a couple of filters in Topaz Adjust. My favorites (and what I probably used here) are Exposure correction and Photo Pop. I might have tuned back the Pop on his face -- I often do that as I don't like too strong a look there. The other possibility is Clarity instead of Pop but if I used that, I would for sure have removed most of the effect from the face. Or maybe I combined Pop and Clarity, using Pop on his face and Clarity on the rest. At any rate, I always just experiment to find the right balance for different parts of the image. To "erase" I always apply each effect on a separate layer so I can reduce the opacity of that layer and/or apply a layer mask and take the effect off partially or completely that way. It looks as if I also reduced the saturation a bit -- probably about 25 percent. And I applied a texture, again lightly and reducing it a lot on the face and arms but leaving it most in the corners and around the edges. Can't say what texture but it definitely warmed up the image. Hope this helps -- thanks for liking it well enough to ask specifically, Martin and Kathy.

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6/29/2011 7:17:16 AM

I like the nostalgic feel you created here, Nikki!
Steve

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7/2/2011 11:11:08 PM

This is terrific, Nikki! Love the diagonal and tones. The information on the processing is so helpful - thanks!

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1/28/2013 3:56:01 PM

great tilted capture Nikki... congratulations!!!

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2/25/2013 2:13:41 AM

Love the texture, nice portrait! Congrats on your finalist!

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2/25/2013 8:47:42 AM

Wonderful work Nikki! Congrats on all your marvelous finalists!

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2/25/2013 9:39:43 AM

Terrific month of great Finalists; congratulations once more, Nikki!

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2/25/2013 10:23:15 AM

I loved this the first time I saw it, Nikki. Still do :) Congratulations.

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2/25/2013 11:01:12 AM

Congratulations on another well deserved finalist Nikki!

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2/25/2013 4:15:51 PM

Fabulous portrait, Nikki. I can almost hear that banjo. Congratulations on another finalist.
Lucy

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2/25/2013 8:08:37 PM

Another terrific finalist! Congratulations!

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2/25/2013 9:52:21 PM

Congrats on a terrific finalist, Nikki.

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2/26/2013 4:22:06 AM

Wonderful portrait...Congratulations on a well deserved finalist.

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2/26/2013 9:48:16 AM

Congratulations Nikki, love the yellows and greens on this finalist!

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2/26/2013 11:11:34 AM

Incredible, Nikki! CONGRATS & good luck on ALL your finalists, my friend!

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2/26/2013 2:52:28 PM

Wowwww....Absolutely beautiful! Congratulations on you awesome finalist Nikk8i! YOU ARE ON A ROLL GIRL!

jo ann c.

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2/26/2013 3:29:57 PM

You take great protraits.

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2/26/2013 7:39:18 PM

This is a very cool portrait, Nikki. So well captured. Another huge congrats. You're on a roll. Keep it up.

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2/27/2013 2:41:07 PM

Nikki, Beautiful finalist. Very well done. Good luck.

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2/27/2013 3:19:15 PM

Nikki, excellent treatment, POV, light. Congratulations!

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2/27/2013 9:40:12 PM

I absolutely love this image, Nikki, congratulations on your well-deserved finalist.

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2/28/2013 7:34:23 AM

Great image, Nikki. Congratulations on its selection as Finalist.

Shooting it at a diagonal worked out great - I was thinking you'd cropped it that way until I read your outline above.

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2/28/2013 12:08:29 PM

Great angle Nikki. Congrats once again on your finalist award.

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2/28/2013 12:44:25 PM

What a great way to start a new year! Your award winning photographs go from Editor’s Pick to Finalist and hopefully to Gold.
CONGRATULATIONS for the month of January, 2013!

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3/22/2013 12:43:24 PM