Little girl lost

[ionian]

colour or b+w? Plus anything else you want to comment on as always. I maybe should have used a slightly wider depth of field to keep the two trees pin sharp, but then the background would be more distracting.







disclaimer - she's my little one, she wasn't lost, and despite the fact that she was in a bad mood because I didn't bring the right snacks with me on our walk she is a cheery and much loved little thing.

[Shadowman]

Color, better emphasizes the tones and textures.

[davidedric]

Colour, certainly. I think your choice to keep the girl sharp but the trees oof is absolutely right.

Dave

[John 2]

Definitely the colour and I like the way the size of the trees emphasises the smallness of the little girl.

[pnodrog]

In this case colour is your friend. It helps to differentiate the girl from the background grass.

I like the composition but it would be a little better if the girl was looking in the other direction rather than out of the photograph.

[Mike Buckley]

Wonderful composition and depth of field!

I just love the pink boots in the color version. Aside from that, I like viewing this image in color or monochrome equally well. However, there is a strong yellow color cast viewed on my calibrated monitor in the color version that is affecting everything, most importantly the girl's skin tones.

I would like to see considerably more mid-tone contrast and sharpening in both versions. As an example, the girl's face is washed out in both versions and the subject is not sharp. Perhaps it's sharp in your full-size file but not in the downsized file we're viewing.

Did you convert to monochrome using a color filter or did you desaturate? The former would be ideal. If you used a color filter, what color?

[Black Pearl]

Colour version for me too. Its a little too bright bright overall, losing detail in the girls face and clothing and personally I'd prefer an even greater separation between her and the background.

[Sergio M.]

I like the color with perhaps some of the adjustments people have already noted.

Sergio

[ionian]

Thanks everyone. I have other shots of the same scene, but not one with her looking left into the image. Maybe face on would be better?

I don't have a calibrated monitor unfortunately but I believe the colour cast is due to adjustments I made to WB and individual colour channels. I wanted to tone the saturation out of the grass but not the trees, but I have left too much yellow in the image globally.

I have made adjustments to the clarity of her face (toned down) and the brightness of the area she is sat in, both of which need re-thinking from the comments! I'm looking forward to having another go at this when I get home this evening.

The B+W conversion was just desaturated - I will have a look at some filter emulators on it as an exercise but don't think I will persist with this conversion as I agree that the colour is more apt.

[Mike Buckley]

The B+W conversion was just desaturated - I will have a look at some filter emulators on it as an exercise but don't think I will persist with this conversion as I agree that the colour is more apt.

When you desaturate an image, you lose two-thirds of the data. There are some very specific situations when that loss of data isn't potentially problematic but they are very few. A typical image such as this one will allow you more control if you convert using a color filter. When the subject is a caucasian as in this image, a green filter usually works best to achieve good skin tones.

When I converted to monochrome, the boots still look perfect for a child. But the pink tones in the color version are just precious!

[bnnrcn]

Certainly the color one, a lovely girl

[Geoff F]

How about a vote for Black & White.

Colour makes a good general scene but I find it is distracting against the child being the centre of attention; particularly considering this title.

B&W tends to merge the background together where it starts to look threatening so that gives a lot more 'sympathy' to the foreground child.

Maybe just a tad more shadow darkness to increase the contrast a little?

[ionian]

I've spent a lot more time than I expected working on this image tonight. In fact I've used a different shot and started from scratch, doing most of the work in PS as opposed to LR - I much prefer the results from PS but I'm still such a novice at the programme, and it takes me ages to do anything!

Ignoring Geoff's vote for the b+w for a sec (sorry Geoff, I appreciate the support, I really do), I've tried to address many of the comments. Now, some of you will prefer her look in the original shot, and that's ok - please tell me. But also please let me know if you think the processing has improved, and what still needs work, as I can recreate the same look with the original image. Just not tonight, I've been pixel peeping all evening!

PS can someone remind me of the best size for tinypic so it doesn't shrink the image?

[Mike Buckley]

This is such a huge improvement, Simon! The skin tones have the nice pink look that so many young children with that complexion have and that's because the yellow cast is gone. The details in her cheeks, her toy doggie and her clothing not present in the other image are so nice in this one. The look on her face is so appealing and is looking toward the camera rather than out of the frame as in the other image. Unlike in the first image, the subject and bench are sharp. Though this image doesn't convey the idea of a lost girl, this one instead actually does a far better job of conveying other ideas that could be effectively captioned in a number of ways.

Very well done!

One more thing that I should have mentioned in my earlier post: consider adding a very slight vignette, one that you would notice only if you remove it or compare it with the same image without the vignette. Doing so will concentrate the viewer's eye on the subject and will add some depth to the scene.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Much much better. I prefer the look on her face in this WAY more than the first shot.

[ionian]

Many thanks - I'm glad all that fiddling about with masks was worth it! I did learn a lot from my travails, especially use of mask feather and the usefulness of the purge command when working on a mid-spec laptop.

Mike - it actually has a vignette, added at the very end in LR, -17. Perhaps I could increase the strength based on your comment?