What an amazing difference between the before and after. I really like the high key treatment. Did you do that with a filter or just by adjusting levels and brightness?
The ninja pose also seems to follow the lines of the background which makes a very pleasing composition.

Hi, yes that is Nik Software High Key Filter which is nice because it has dynamic and standard lever and in playing with those levers details can be brought out. Thank you for your comments, very appreciated.

The little statues are charming. You did a wonderful job of cloning the poles out of the scene.
I personally find the brightly coloured background a bit distracting. Have you tried it in BW?

Hi,

Here are my few thoughts on your image and post processing.

You mention that you wanted to achieve a silhouette against a nice sunset and you succeeded.

The time for silhouettes is morning light or setting sun light. You did a good job of cloning out the shadows that your hood created, however, it gave a vignette type of look which wasn’t all that bad but it wasn’t what you were gunning for.

The clone job nicely done, although you have some still showing through. If you try varying opacity layers as you clone you can further eliminate that without the telltale signs of cloning showing through.

Horizon is now straight. Details in shadows are more easily recovered when an image is underexposed, so when in doubt shoot underexposed rather than over. RAW or not RAW.

I like your image because the silhouette gives emotion or rather mood…you are a romantic at heart. Overall the image is a bit busy, following the KISS principle seems to work better for silhouettes…a strong dark focal point…uncluttered. My two cents worth.

Very nicely done. The pencil sketch is subtle and highlights the veins beautifully. You also brightened the highlights well. The end result has a lot more light than the original.
Not sure what you mean by adding saturation to the pencil sketch?
Adding saturation to a black and white image doesn't make it coloured.

A suggestion for improvement....
Select highlights only and feather the selection by about 30-50 pixels. Copy it and paste on a new layer. Then change the blend mode to soft light. You can then change transparency to suit your taste. That should add another lighting effect to make it look like some sunlight is shining on the cabbage patch. Try it and see what you think.

thank you ...I've bookmarked that link but am wondering if dodge and burn would do the same thing?

Congratulations on scooping the pool. Well done.

Congrats for 1,2 and 3