Another conversion for critique

Please tell me anything I can do to enhance this image. Thanks!

Lou

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Love the black and white! Image, however seems a little too soft (perhaps out of focus.) Difficult to tell on images compressed for the web. If OOF is the case, I would personally try to sharpen it a bit.

Cute kid, and a great shot!

Same here.But if you allow image editing, I'm sure there would be a handleful of people could have there way with it.

I can't help you with the enhancement part since I have trouble in PP myself, but just wanted to say that this is a great picture. Love her expression.

Art

Is that something I have to select in my profile?

Yup I dont remember where it is.
If you look in the avatar you'll see

.

Ok, I did it. You may now edit away!

Thanks,

Lou

Heres my go at it.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Mot much different but there a little. Look at the tree

nice expression, i like the way the dress is in contrast to the seat.. but there are 2 points i would like to make... the white vertical line at the top of the pic coming from behind the seat... lose it, it is very distracting, my eye keeps going to it and really my eye should be on the subject... also the plant pot isnt doing anything for the pic(that is a personal opinion many may disagree), perhaps ps it out or next time you take a pic just move round to eliminate it from the frame..... always be aware of what is round about your subject when looking in the viewfinder, too often people just look to frame the main subject and forget what is round about. Also when focusing be sure to focus on the eyes.

i am never sure on this forum whether i should be honest and say what i think, a lot of people are easily offended particularly when it comes to their own images and can get quite defensive,,, i hope you take these observations as they are meant.. to show you a different way to look at the pic.

either way the shot is a good one bearing in mind the points mentioned above

steve

O.K. Here is my go at it. It is a beautiful image by the way. First I sharpened it some. I added a soft glow effect by duplicating the layer. Apply gaussian blur of 25 to the duplicate layer. Change the blending mode to soft light for the duplicated layer. App;y layer mask to the top layer and paint in black on the mask to erase the effect from the eyes, nose and mouth (I wanted these to be sharp}. Merged layers. Painted in with black to cover the background. With such a small image it was hard to zoom in and do the fine detail with the black around the hair but I am sure with full size image you will not have any problem.

queenbee

nice attempt... i was wondering, do you think this shot would be a lot better erasing the background as you have done but by using the colour which is on the walls in the pic... i think this would be better than black... only my opinion of course

i am on my unix comp at the mo and dont has ps for it ort i would have a go myself, maybe later when i get on my other comp

steve

The original is a lovely portrait. I agree that a bit of usm might help. Char's edit is very nice too.

Thanks everybody. Char, I think your edit is really nice. I think that has the best portrait look. I will see if I can duplicate that on the full sized image.

Lou

Here's my go. I've never really tried B&W, but...

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.