Portrait of My Daughter

I'm going to be taking her senior pictures throughout the year at different locations so I'm just experimenting right now. This was shot with a 85 1.8 in the back yard. I converted it to black & white and used some Gaussian Blur and Diffuse Glow on the second one. Comments are welcome.

hi!

I like the first version more, but I would maybe put some light into the right side of her face.. its a tad dark for me.. either lift her face up slightly off her arms, or use a reflector maybe?

I think I know what you are trying to do with the 2nd one.. try this technique in Photoshop (Im assuming you know how to use layers).
- Duplicate your background layer (the image basically).
You will have two layers of the same thing.
- Convert the top layer to Layer Mode Overlay.
This will automatically increase the contrast and luminosity of the image.
- Apply Gaussian Blur to the top layer... not too much please!
- Now, if you want to decrease the contrast effect you can reduce the opacity of the layer (top right of the layers palette).
If you still want it B&W you can either flatten it and then make it B&W however you do it, or use a Hue & Saturation layer adjustment (reduce Saturation all the way).

I hope that is clear enough.. ? Just thought it might help.

Its a very nice shot tho!