My two favourite girls

[Bachs]

Tried experimenting in Photoshop on this one...

Slowish exposure (to capture more ambient lighting) with flash fill, copied layer and gaussian blurred to aprox 22px, selected 'multiply' blend mode and reduced opacity of blurred layer to aprox 60%.
Selective USM sharpening on eyes and dogs' nose and erased dogs face through to original layer.

I thought it was a pleasing effect.

 

[CT]

That's nice! :thumb: You should pursue this idea. Try to get the two heads close together - perhaps if she sat upright and held the dog close to her face? Lose the white T shirt - a darker colour would enable you to tone down the surroundings and together with the blurring - concentrate attention on the heads.

Skin tones are waaay too red though.

 

[Bachs]

Thanks CT.

The possibilities are endless and I'll definitely be revisiting this one.
It was just an opportunist shot at the spare of the moment and a bit of an exercise in creating that 'glow' look using blur and blending modes.
The red I think was actualy introduced when blending the layers but I should have toned it down, having said that I think it gives her cheeks a glow and it has a slight 'painting' feel to it which is exactly what I was after.

I'll take your suggestions on board for the next attempt...thank you :thumb:

 

[CT]

Actually mate, the skin tones in the hand look OK and it's really only rosey cheeks otherwise. It does give the shot a warm look so just ignore me.