B&W Portrait Attempt

Would appreciate your brutal feedback on this shot, as I'm trying to learn to do B&W conversions.

looks great.. a little more effects and it would almost look like a old pencil drawing
Very nice!!

I like it,but the hue looks more sepia than B&W? I would like to see it in true B&W..bet it would look fabulous.

Thanks for commenting loscocco and Flo.

Oops ... yes, that was the Sepia version. I have another that is not Sepia-toned, but you can see that I have to go back and redo the background correction on the right side of her hair and shoulder. Also - the eyes and teeth are probably a bit overdone.

The B&W Works well for me. Great eyes

Last one really nice expression. Eyes are a bit too white and skin is too processed to my taste: you lost all the details.

First one looks like she's afraid or something

Thank you NY Irish.

nuborn - I agree with you on all counts - heading back to rework the noise reduction. About being afraid of something - *smile* - she was about an hour away from getting married, and was going through a whole range of feelings at the time. These are candids as she was in the last stages of getting ready.

Last is adorable..did you smooth the skin in this one, looks pretty soft?

Thanks, Flo. The smoothing is from the noise reduction due to low light / high ISO. Noise reduction in Lightroom 3 is world's better than in LR2, but easy for me to go too far - that's why I didn't post this one first, even though the expression is better.

I have to say, I think your original photos were too flat.