SPN caps are so damn dark that it always amazes me how well makers light them! It's good that you pushed yourself by using them. *claps*

Yeah, I'm all for pushing myself and I thought I could handle it alright knowing that I'm mostly a scifi iconer anyway and those shows are just as dark (and often with lower quality caps too), but the difference between SPN and say Farscape is that while the latter is dark, there are still colors hiding in there that I can draw out. In SPN there just aren't (probably because the main characters are ordinary-looking guys that wear dark/neutral-colored clothes etc), soooo that's why I need to go for monochrome or to use a secondary character if I want some vibrancy :p I feel like I already used all my ideas for this set so I have no idea what it would look like if I decided to go for another SPN set at some point! I wish I was into celeb iconing too, there would be so many already well lit and visually interesting photos to work with.

Ok, I'll try to use closecrops cause you're a genius so if you say that they work then you're probably right :D but I still have this feeling that close cropped icons usually look the same (unless you're a lighting expert like reebeecaa, or really creative at cropping like oviedo, or there are still some interesting colors like vibrant hair in the frame. None of these usually apply to my closeups so I just feel like they're sort of... nice, but forgettable? idk if this makes sense. But then again if the subject is gorgeous like Sayid I totally get why it's a good idea to show his face really close :D

I'm struggling with this damn battle I have to do, so I guess we're in the same boat. Let's hope we don't drown, right? :P

Oh yes, let's try not to drown! Really, good luck with the set. I'm sure it'll be fantastic and I can't wait too see the results :D

omg why am I rambling about icons when I have an exam in 4 hours, I should go study :p