More children at play

The older brother makes the greatest expressions when he concentrates. And look at the grip on that squirt gun

--- he's serious! This day the sky was covered by high clouds and that seems to have helped to evenly and softly light the boys. The bottom image is actually a composite --- the younger boy was added from another image when I thought about using it for the children at play assignment but decided it wasn't dynamic enough. The two shots were taken very close in succession and I had not moved my position or changed my focal length so it was not difficult to combine them...would you have known if I hadn't confessed?

Camera info: Nikon D200, 24- 70 mm lens at f2.8 adn 1/640th (top) 1/500th (bottom)

Post processing: Top image: duplicated background layer in softlight mode at 50% opacity, Touch of Light action on face, Bring out the eyes action from Pioneer Woman eyes, highpass filter in softlight mode for sharpening. Bottom image: Selected younger boy and layered his image onto the older brother's image, merged them and masked areas where they joined until it looked seamless, duplicated that layer in softlight mode at 75% opacity, levels layer for global brightness, levels for brighter faces, Boost action from Pioneer Woman but masked off of faces, Bring out the eyes for brighter eyes, Touch of Light on faces, highpass filter in softlight mode for sharpening.