Thanks for the suggestions.
Originally posted by smf It's an interesting photo — partially because of the lighting overall and also because of the angle of the tree trunk.
It was a technically difficult shot. I used the bright spot to imprint more of the walking girl on the image. Where she walked in shade, you can see the trail is more washed out. I also used two stacked linear polarizers to drop the exposure to 3 seconds. Varying the angle between them gets different degrees of "neutral density".
Can you please detail the trunk part?
Originally posted by smf I must be particularly dense, but I don't see the "third person." Is that the bright swirl slightly to the right of the person seated in the far background? I find that bright swirl to be mildly distracting, not as mysterious as it might be if you chose to somehow enhance it through greater sepia toning or in some other manner.
The third person is the one other than the boy and the ghost/memory/lover/whatever. The reading woman in the background.
Originally posted by smf I'd be tempted to clone out the white object on the path — near the center of the lower part of the image.
Those are leaves, lol