More for C&C please, and question about B&W conversion

[pony]

OK, so the props (the fake fur rug) and pose were chosen by my 4 year old.
Any tips or comments much appreciated

And my second B&W conversion.
Baby has blue eyes. When I converted it they got really dark. I tried to fix them by selecting her eyes and lightening, but not sure they look OK.
Here are before and after. Any advice on doing B&W better?
Thanks

Before lightening eyes

And after lightening

And the original SOOC, if it helps you to tell me where I went wrong in the conversion process

 

[tirediron]

C&C per req:

1. Very nice; just a touch hot on the whites, but that's minor. I think the lighting on her face is perfect. Some may say it's flat (lacking contrast/shadow) but in this setting, I think it works perfectly.

2 - 4. A nice capture, but needed mroe DoF I think. I prefer the monochrome with the adjusted eyes, but it looks to me like you either used an on-camera flash, or had the strobe/speedlight too close to your shooting axis and too low; the catchlights are almost in the centre of the eyes. Try and move the light up and right slightly.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

 

[pony]

C&C per req:

1. Very nice; just a touch hot on the whites, but that's minor. I think the lighting on her face is perfect. Some may say it's flat (lacking contrast/shadow) but in this setting, I think it works perfectly.

2 - 4. A nice capture, but needed mroe DoF I think. I prefer the monochrome with the adjusted eyes, but it looks to me like you either used an on-camera flash, or had the strobe/speedlight too close to your shooting axis and too low; the catchlights are almost in the centre of the eyes. Try and move the light up and right slightly.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

Thanks for the input.

Good to know about the first. I thought maybe it needed contrast, but when I played with it I did a really lousy job and it just didn't look right.
I like the way this one looks, but I am new enough at this that I don't trust what I am seeing...

No flash in the second pic. I had just a window behind me. We have 2" horizontal wood blinds on them so I raised them to avoid making her look like a zebra :/
I keep meaning to buy a sheer curtain to soften the light. But will try and reposition her as well and reshoot it.

Is the B&W ok looking overall? They always look so flat and grey when first converted, I worry that I am going overboard with the adjustments

 

[AgentDrex]

If using photoshop and you desire to be as lazy as I am, go to "Image", "Adjustments", "Channel Mixer"....check the box next to "Monochrome" and select "Okay"...

As simple as that to turn this:

into this:

 

[pony]

I just did "image" "adjustments" "black & white"
Any benefit to doing your way?
thanks

 

[AgentDrex]

Yeah, not sure...I'll try...

 

[AgentDrex]

Same photo using the technique you described:

for reference (channel mixer monochrome):

 

[AgentDrex]

And yes, that is MY eye

 

[K8-90]

Pony, if you convert to B&W your way, Photoshop gives you a series of sliders. One of them is for the colour blue, and you can adjust it so that any blue in the photo is lighter (or darker, depending which way you drag the slider)

 

[AgentDrex]

Black and White seems to darken the photo more than channel mixer monochrome...

 

[AgentDrex]

Yeah, your way sounds more in-depth, mine is again as I stated, lazy

 

[K8-90]

I did an edit for you. Takes a few more steps, but dtill pretty easy

Finished Image:

Image>Adjustments>Black and White

Image>Adjustments>Curves

Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask

 

[pony]

I'll try both ways and see which works better for me.
Thanks for the visual tutorial Kate, that helps a lot! I'm on my laptop now (impossible to view photos correctly!), will check your edit on the desktop later. Could it use some contrast? So hard to say viewing it here.
The eyes look lovely though for sure, that will save me a lot of trouble in the future

 

[o hey tyler]

Does you have a greyhound? If so, so do I.

 

[pony]

Does you have a greyhound? If so, so do I.

2 of them!
Are they not the best? Adopted my first in 1994 and have have been adopting since