My first portrait session

[pepzman]

These are pictures from my first portrait session. It was for her 3rd birthday. I turned them both to B&W and then colored the flowers back in. Please let me know what you think, I am open to all C&C... I believe it is the only true way to improve. Thanks

[aebrown]

The first one is cute, however I am not sure how I feel about the conversion. My eye is, for the most part, drawn to the girl, but the flowers also stand out quite a bit. but the second the girl has red eyes...

[Tim Park]

she is such a cute little girl with a great smile.......but she is overshadowed by the other elements. i know that selective coloring is personal preference, but in this case, the flowers unnecessarily become the focal point. i really like the lighting and the b&w conversion of the first one. i just wish she wasn't hidden behind the tree.

tim

[Bob_A]

I hope this helps :)

Maybe try a bit tighter crop for the first one and desaturate the colorized flowers a fair bit.

The second one lacks contrast for my taste and I think the colorized eyes look weird. I also think the depth of field is too thin for what you wanted to capture since it looks like only her eyes and parts of her jacket are in focus.

[pepzman]

The first one is cute, however I am not sure how I feel about the conversion. My eye is, for the most part, drawn to the girl, but the flowers also stand out quite a bit. but the second the girl has red eyes...

Thank you! I completely didn't notice the eyes until now. I will fix that before showing them.

[pepzman]

she is such a cute little girl with a great smile.......but she is overshadowed by the other elements. i know that selective coloring is personal preference, but in this case, the flowers unnecessarily become the focal point. i really like the lighting and the b&w conversion of the first one. i just wish she wasn't hidden behind the tree.

tim

Thanks... I agree to a point with hidden behind the tree, but this was actually taken at the direction of the client. It happens to be the mothers favorite (The color one that is), so needless to say it happens to be one of mine also. And yes, the selective coloring is also at the request of the customer. It will be interesting to see what they think of it.

I hope this helps :)

Maybe try a bit tighter crop for the first one and desaturate the colorized flowers a fair bit.

The second one lacks contrast for my taste and I think the colorized eyes look weird. I also think the depth of field is too thin for what you wanted to capture since it looks like only her eyes and parts of her jacket are in focus.

Thanks... I see your point on the DOF and ofcourse the eyes. Luckily I can fix the eyes. As for desaturating the flowers this is what the client is asking for, so we'll see how they like it. So far they have loved the full color version of both. (This is also my first try at desaturating a picture and coloring in an object)

I appreciate the comments! Any more?