Big Smile from Brynn

Little by little I think I've getting a touch better at the "on the fly" portraits and a little better at PS but still not the quality that I repeatedly see here. Can you tell me what I might have done to make this better?
http://photography.dun​nnet.com …displayimage.ph​p?pos=-280
I hit it lightly with curves and brightened the smile and t-shirt a bit with levels and cloned out a couple of small blemishes. Flash was used to fill in but I think it might have been better if I had bounced it off the ceiling. Please give me your C&C. Thanks in advance.

At 1/250, f/6.3, ISO 200, the flash was more than "fill in". It was the main light source. I agree that ceiling bounce probably would have produced better lighting.

Is her skin really that red? If not, you might want to adjust the color temp a bit.

She did give you a nice expression!

Thanks so much for the feedback, Curtis.
here is a remake of that same photo with the skin tones just the way they came out of the camera. Only brightened her teeth and tshirt and removed a couple small blemishes. Please let me know if you think his is any better or worse. I think it's a bit better myself but I'm still learning. Thanks again.
http://Photography.Dun​nNet.com …displayimage.ph​p?pos=-281
Edit: Below is my try at the B&W
http://Photography.Dun​nNet.com …displayimage.ph​p?pos=-283

I am posting my version ... in black and white. The contrast & color balance were such as to make it tough to work in color. So here is my B&W version.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

Herb,
I think the second link you posted looks better, at least on my monitor. If the first one doesn't look "too red" to you, it may be time to calibrate your monitor.

Great expression, I like it better in b&w though.

D. Craig Flory wrote in post #2200216
I am posting my version ... in black and white. The contrast & color balance were such as to make it tough to work in color. So here is my B&W version.

Thanks D. I got to admit it does look pretty good in B&W. Did you just desaturate it or were other steps taken. If other steps, could you explain how. Every time I try converting a shot to B&W I'm not really happy with the results.
Thanks again.

Curtis N wrote in post #2200325
Herb,
I think the second link you posted looks better, at least on my monitor. If the first one doesn't look "too red" to you, it may be time to calibrate your monitor.

It does look a bit over red (my first post). I was trying to get some "POP" in it and guess I over did it. Some day I might get the quality I keep seeing posted here but for now I'll just keep dreaming and learning from those of you that know better than I. Thanks again.

Hi Yosemite;

I just used my black and white action I wrote. It is a two part action that uses channels and then adds a bit of contrast. I then did my creative crop and made it into a step-mount for impact. (in order to crop it like that I made a new canvas in a long skinny size. I dragged it onto the image and used Edit > Rotate till it was at an angle I liked. I then duped it and turned off the eyeball for one of them. I clicked Select > Load Selection. Next I clicked on the image layer and clicked delete on the keyboard. I then deleted the skinny layer I added ... and saw a transparent area where it sat. I then used the eraser tool to erase any area outside of where I deleted. Now I turned back on the eyeball for the other skinny layer and moved it to the other corner and repeated the steps. I hope I remembered my steps and wrote them so you can understand. Hope this helps everyone.

YosemiteJunkie wrote in post #2204088
Thanks D. I got to admit it does look pretty good in B&W. Did you just desaturate it or were other steps taken. If other steps, could you explain how. Every time I try converting a shot to B&W I'm not really happy with the results.
Thanks again.