All-American

Comments appreciated

Superb portrait. I love the reflection in the ice.

 

Tonia

photoshop use is appearent.

I think the original image should be a nice shot....then obviously you added blurr quite agressively so that the hockey player stands out and the viewer could focus on it and the reflections on the ice...it's a choice and a matter of taste...I am not sure it really adds aesthetics to the original because it looks (at least to me) very unnatural, especially at boundaries (player's feet and legs)...if you have time I would be interested to see the original because I think I would like it better...by adding just a tiny fraction of blurr you could of course boost it a bit....but to me you went too far with blurring...I hope it helps, I have respect for the picture anyway....

photoshoping is WAY too evident. if you did this in layers perhaps decrease the level of transparency. Othwise another version with either just the original or the about 75-90% of the blur would be ideal. i think unless you want it to look digital your goal should always be to back off just a bit and to help boost the subject with the added digital blur. it is dreamlike looking on the plus side.

The blur is obviously on purpose. Though I agree that it is a bit overboard it works in this instance - the main reason being the folks that bought the image love it. ;-)

 

However, the reflection really stands out, and to me that justifies the major photoshop job.

 

In the future I will keep your suggestions in mind when doing something similar, thank you for the comments.

...a matter of taste I agree...customer's always right, isn't it...:-)...keep doing what you like, that's what's most important.

i agree, if the customer is happy then it's right on the money.