All American Boy
by smellyfish1002

Comment by Skip:
what a great expression! you sure have captured a personality here. i bet he's going to grow up to be quite a man. i'm sure this image has brought about many, many smiles. hope you're getting some good comments, and that you're not getting overlooked in this monster challenge. good luck!

All American Boy
by smellyfish1002

Comment by samtrundle:
Very cute kid - I think I'd prefer it if you hadn't left the colour in the eyes - its not a natural eye colour the way you've done it (or at least it doesn't appear to be - I'd imagine you did this with the colour channels rather than the history brush) so that makes the image look slightly tacky. Other than that, the lighting is great, the facial expression is equally great and the image has little else to fault.

All American Boy
by smellyfish1002

Comment by nsbca7:
Selective desaturation in this case has failed. The over saturated eyes in contrast to the gray face seem doll or alien like. Do you wish to draw more attention to the flag then the child? By draining the skin tones the way you have and leaveing such vivid color in the flag this is exactly what you have done. If you had faded the flag to some extent and left the child with at least a little of his life blood the image would have, in my oppinion, scored much higher. Otherwise the picture has strong composition

Pray for the Troops
by smellyfish1002

Comment by nsbca7:
How does this break new ground? Good close up portrait, but I will not score this high.

Pray for the Troops
by smellyfish1002

Comment by jayrod:
Not innovative.

All American Boy
by smellyfish1002

Comment by agrimace:
great use of desat. Love his expression. Well cropped. In my humble opinion a frame might have finished it well. Maybe a small dark blue one.

Pray for the Troops
by smellyfish1002

Comment by snackwells:
Technically an excellent shot, but I am not seeing readily apparent 'groundbreaking' technique here. I might be mistaken but this, therefore, does not meet the challenge. Would score very well in a different challenge, but it doesn't work here.

Pray for the Troops
by smellyfish1002

Comment by londondavid:
technique?

All American Boy
by smellyfish1002

Comment by Node:
Returning for comment
The desat has made the eyes look unreal IMHO. The American theme has little appeal to me as I'm Australian. Nice photo though

Pray for the Troops
by smellyfish1002

Comment by aerogurl:
nicely done. 10.