I keep wondering if this was dodged and burned or if you just got some great shadows. My suspicion is the latter. As one of my biggest fans, you probably know how I feel about vignetting in PP, but this looks like it could be a natural vignette, which means that if you did add it in PP you did a good job. Oh, and it's a lovely, moody portrait.
The background sets off this very thought filled portrait. She is beautiful. You have managed to capture her mood ... very difficult and very well done.
It is truly amazing that this is a candid because it looks like every detail is organized to make the perfect outcome. The background and lighting is spectacular and the red color on her beautiful sad face, on her lips and eyelid, is probably the single most important element in the composition. And the dark mood of the image suits the melancholy so well. Brilliant, Yanko, brillant!
She's lonely, longing for a friend she knew when she was young, another girl that she used to run and play with, carefree, before adulthood, before maturity, responsibility, the need for effort stole the fun from life. She's not seen her friend in years, but with a soft gaze and losing her focus on today, she can see her as clearly as if she was standing next to her. She's longing to be young again, not in the way of today's search for eternal youth through medication, chemicals, and surgery, but just to be a child, without cares beyond which flowers to pick and when dinner will be served.
Delightful. I love the choices you made: composition, lighting, DoF, processing, all of which look so natural and fit her expression so perfectly. The only unfortunate thing, to my eye, is the clear plastic clip in her hair, which to me is out of keeping with the rest of her appearance. Her expression is also ambiguous to me; I reacted without reading the image title, and I might have been inclined to leave this untitled so as to let the viewers make up their own minds (I see a story of patient waiting, rather than longing or melancholy, as well).
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Came back and fav'd this; I just keep looking at it. I almost expect to see her look up and smile at the unexpected arrival of a friend. Great.
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