I composited these two photos. The model (Heather) was shot in studio, and I shot the sunset just outside of Boulder, CO last summer.

CC always welcome and appreciated.

Wow! Awesome! How am I supposed to CC that?!

Huh... what can I say about this? Oh yeah. Hot Mama!!!

okay now you are just showing off. These are amazing. i love the toning

Very cool!

I like the look of her skin.... and love the image...

Ok so majority rules here... the pic is AWESOME. Ok, so to play the devil's advocate here... the only thing is that even though I love texture and it works with the feel of this photo... the lines (cris-cross) through the clouds are a bit distracting to me. Maybe a different texture would please me more.!! Believe me, I love how seamless you've made these two composites. Great job. I love your model's look and expression.. and I love your sunset. Great job.

Thank you so much for the CC, Christine - I had versions with and without the texture. I just kinda felt like this treatment made it look a little more "fresco" or "old world" - I'll see if I can dig up the version without it.

Thanks again.

I love the idea of the texture, making it look old world and so on... just maybe a different texture. Can you try that?

I love it too -- the feel of this is wonderful. The only thing I would possibly critique is that I found myself looking for her left arm...

Here's one with a different texture - And one wihtout any texture - It's "300" - she lost it in battle. LOL - I thought the same thing when I first started playing with it, but I love her expression and body language so much in this image that I stuck with it. Thanks for the comments.

BTW, after the inital composite and cleanup - I did all the postwork with my design|house™ tools. The feel comes from the design|house™ dhDR action and method - and the textures are design|house™ handmade textures.

Very cool, and I can see the Flatirons in the back...right near my house.

Yep, we popped into that little scenic view stop right off the highway. It was such an odd day - gray ALL day, and then right before sunset - those clouds broke up and rolled in. You can actually see a storm happening in the mountains back there.

The background image is really 3 separate landscape images joined together. I shot the panorama on a tripod and just went left to right capturing the whole horizon.

Love the two new ones! You should have this one a huge canvas and up on the wall of your den!! Very cool.

Thank you, Christine - This one is definitely going to WPPI 16x20 Competition this year.

one tiny little nitpick thing since you are taking this to competiton. The hot spot right on her shoulder is the brightest part of the image, so I might take it down just a touch. I don't know about WPPI but for some PPA judges that might cause them to knock it a point or two.

Just my little nitpick.

Thank you thank you - that's the kind of thing I need to know. I was very lucky with my entry last year and placed third overall in the Premier category of 16x20 - but it was the first contest I've ever entered, so... any little thing like this will help me out.

Thanks!

This was my entry that placed third last year.

Title: "Don't Tell Me"

Wow... you clearly have a talent at this kind of thing.

Thank you - my background is in art and design. Almost four years ago, I bought a Sony F717 for Christmas and I instantly fell in love with photography. 4 months later or so, I bought my first 10D and I poured my heart and soul into learning as much as I possibly could about lighting and working my camera manually... I just couldn't get enough.

It's interesting, as an artist you are limited by the talent of your hands. You can only show people what's in your mind by what you can get down on paper. When drawing and painting, I never quite could show people exactly what was in my brain. With photography and post work, I can show people exactly what I had in mind, and, well, that's rewarding as hell.

Thanks again everyone who took the time to look, and the time to comment. I truly do appreciate.