this is amazing. truly.

Guido and Mike, thanks for your comments. I added a new one with some selective saturation:
www.vazaar.com/user:sfkp/photos/id:33047/

About the eyes, I like right one covered, she looks a bit dark and mysterieus this way. I like this pic in general becouse it's just the way my little sister is. Or, like wrote in the description of this topic: "really bring out the unique character of the subject".

I have stayed away from this discussion, not sure why, but here goes:

Having met your sister, how be it briefly, I find this to be a very nice portrait of her. She has that same look on her face that I remember. I am not particularly bothered by the guy in the red shirt or her hair over her eye. If anything I would take this version and just do a graduated lowering of the saturation and value towards the upper left.

The other version is not pleasing to me. The selective saturation is, imo, not the answer. And your other treatment did something weird to her cheeks??

Hope this makes sense and helps, anyway, cheers!! And say hi to you sis and mom for me!!

I agree with the eye issue. Its patially covered and at first glance looks like the subject is winking.

no feeling in her face!

Thank you all for your comments. For this one, I didn't ask the model for sitting nice and still and smile, but I waited for the right moment: she was reading a restaurant's menu and I waited for the moment she would rise her head. It worked really well and exept for that red shirt and lights on the left I'm proud on the result.

@ kombizz: kind a funny you say about no feeling... I've said before this picture shows my sister's real caracter, and she hardly shows her feelings at any time, like I said: she is a mystery. However, imo she actually does show some expression only you can interpret it into many ways.

@ Apurva: I don't know what you mean, do you agree it's a shame her right eye is covered, or do you think it adds something special?

Awesome thanks for the critiques. I will have to play with some cropping and then I will repost my results.
She had the best costume of the night, freaked a lot of people out.

great costume!

I agree with cropping the top

Definitely love the ring pop around that jager!

Nice halloween pic. I would crop it at the top though and maybe the lighting could have been a little different. I love the ring pop though! awesome!

very funny

I did some cropping and PP and this is what I came up with this

Thanks for the comments and critiques

This is some excellent B/W processing!

A very good picture, excellent sharpness and contrast, great BW processing. IMHO the foreground is a little weak in this picture.

Excellent tonal qualities and composition.

Image taken with Nikon Coolpix 950 converted to infrared.

Great! Looks like a night shot!

looks very very delicate
and the plants almost look like jewels.
and the birds in the back add a very interesting effect to the picture.
great shot!

Nice work. Seems all things are as they should be.

Love this shot.

I guess I disagree with most of the others except for cvsuave. The DOF immediately draws your attention to the ring followed by a second attraction to the heart shadow. I think it awesome just like it is.

I like the palm in there, but might rotate a bit to the left, so your hand is flat?

Otherwise it's pretty dang cool.

i think it's a nice use of selective coloring. i agree with the comments about the palm, though.

I love the detail of the fingerprints and how the ring is in colour and the heart shadow. But i agree with above about the palm being a bit of a distraction. But overall i really like it.

I recognize this photo! I recently read an article in one of my many Photography magazines - showing how to do this image. Well done! I would crop out some of the foreground though to give the ring more prominence in the photo.

I like the idea, but for my taste the foreground is too dark.

@ Bastian: Well, it was almost dark. Of course, I can do some HDR-like pp but then it won't be straight-from-cam, isn't it? :)

It almost makes me feel like the left fork of the river is evil and the right fork is good, based off of the lighting. I don't see any problems with this picture, as the darkness gives it a nice realistic feel to it.

the composition is good, and i like the scene itself, although the horizon is a bit skewed. although since it's a straight from cam photo, i think it's a pretty good shot. thanks for sharing.

Nice shot Tamara. Typical Dutch! And indeed "straight from cam". Try to "HDR" it a bit and submit it again to the "HDR" pool ;)

Good work!

When I first saw this picture as a thumbnail, I was drawn to it because of the beautiful colors. I was also almost positive that it was an HDR of some sorts, but I love how the darkness on the left where the photographer is draws you towards the light, where the photographer's picture would be. I absolutely love it!

Excellent one ! Especially for the sky...

nice sky, and nice contrasts, but i think that the other photographer is a bit disturbing...

Great shot. Lovely sky and the you did well with lighting up the foreground. I think the photographer is nice. I like inclusion of people. He could've been a little bigger though.

Nice repetition here!

I too agree that the person adds to the shot, rather than taking away. It places the shot in the real world, and give it perspective. Otherwise, it could have been a model...

A real Escher capture in the real world !
Incredible !

¡¡¡Enhorabuena!!!!, he visto esta foto en la portada que Canon tiene para enviar sus noticias ("You connect").

Hey, I got this advertisement from Canon today. And they used your shot! I thought I had recently critiqued it here. Congrats!!