What do you think?

Sorry but i dont normally take pics of anything else than cars and bikes but was asked to do a favour by a friend the other day and take some pics of her daughter and other school friends before there prom.Problem is have i gone to far with the post processing on this image and do you think it works better in Colour or Mono?
Image was taken on a 1DMKII N with the 70-200 2.8 then cropped etc,have lost some of the quality reducing the file down but the original RAWs look great.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Gadget, I think you've gone too far. The colors and skin tones don't look anywhere near natural in the color version and the blurring of the skin doesn't look natural in either shot. Can you post the original up for us to take a look at?

The first is a bit over the top of color. I do like the second one.

Both are too far for me, although the second doesn't seem as bad.

Here is the original thanks so far for the input.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

gadget, mind if I have a go at processing this one?

Feel free

thanks. I cropped, added a levels layer at inputs of 15/2.13/255, and then a slight convex curves layer to brighten it up a bit. Reduced the saturations in the reds just a little also. Then got a little carried away on the BW conversion

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

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

Mind if I give it a try? I'm learning and love to practice!

It does not look real, but it does look surreal. (first pic, colors)

The first image is over saturated although you have drawn attention to her eyes (lacking this in the original image). Personally, I think you just need to tone it down a bit overall.
With the work you've done, the mono looks much better to me. I would love to see them in both formats if, again, they were toned down somewhat.

Hope you don't mind my attempt - I thought I'd give it a try with a bit of LAB processing, then thought you might find this to be useful.

What I did :

converted to LAB

Curves :
Lightness : 80,82 / 42,51 / 14,20
A : 62,68 / 3,3
B : 62,64 / 0,0

Sharpened Lightness Layer :
Unsharp Mask : 150% at 0.3px, threshold 0

Converted back to RGB

Slight dodge/burn to eye (dodge highlights, burn shadows at 6%) to bring contrast up a bit

Curves : 185,196 / 83,90 / 22,25 / 125,133
Levels : 8,1.07,255

For black and white conversion, Monochrome Channel mixer with 50%/60%/0%

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

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

Here's my silly attempt:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'text/html'

I like codex0's fixes. This was actually highlighted in the recent issue of American Photo (I think... I get so many mags I get confused). Using other color spaces for sharpening and retouching is really helpful and preserves the images original information. Another thing to try would be to use CYMK and sharpen on the black channel as the AP article suggests... I like the effect of the sharpening on the light channel though...

First shot looks too fake, i think tone it down liek others have done BUT more contrast needs to be added to the other attempts - after seeing that first one the contrast was too over the top but these ones are dull...