Do the "eye's" have it???

Ok well i've been on this site looking at everyones amazing pics. i really want to work on getting my subjects eyes to have that "pop" so please critique. i've taken advice from some posts. placing the subject on the edge of shade facing a the bright area. i'm not sure if they look overdone or not. please critique the whole photo. also the second one i tried a b&w conversion usuing cheetapita steps that she posted in an older post. let me know what yo think.

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

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

I like the black and white one a lot, but in the first one the eyes seem just a smidge overdone to me. Not a lot, but a little tiny bit.

Looks great to me!

Hope you dont mind though.. I brightened it up a tad bit!
(saved it to photobucket so not best quality)

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

DoodleBunz wrote in post #6442208
I like the black and white one a lot, but in the first one the eyes seem just a smidge overdone to me. Not a lot, but a little tiny bit.

I aggree. Cute pics.

thanks for your comments and the edit. i'm not sure what to do with the eyes. i'm just fooling around with a bunch of different things in photoshop. learning by trial and error i guess

i like your photos especially in color. LOVE eyes!!!!!

I think you did a great job on the color if you are just starting to do eyes. One thing I have learned is that when I learn something new I tend to over do it the first 10-20 times before I bring it back a little. I think in this situation the eyes are a tad too sharpened and their are too many catch lights going on in the first color one. Maybe if you post the original or a version that you did where the eyes have not yet been touched we could all play around with it for you and give you a small tutorial of what we did. There are alot of talent ladies and gentlemen on this board and surely one of them will be able to help you master the eye "pop"
By the way. That is one cute kiddo you have there

Thanks Kajawit...that's exactly what i will do. So go at it and have fun! this is what came out of the camera.

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

Here are my plays. They were quick plays because it is really late here.
Here is what I did to the eyes.
I lassoed both eyes
Copy merged
Past on a new layer

Added a definite catch light by dodging and burning areas of the Iris.
Used USM and played around with settings until it looked OK
New adjustment layer for saturation> just a smidge for some pop
Flatten layers
Sharpened for web
Saved for web
done.