Queen of the Playground

[ionian]

I also have it in colour but I prefer the texture and light in the mono version. I take many cute pictures of her but I think this has something else about it that I like.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Simon,

I was going to suggest you do something with her left eye; from a distance, it looks smudgy (the technical term), but when I looked close, it seems you already have, with a fairly hard edged brush.

Compositionally it works well.

Although I like the mono (in preference to the colour I haven't seen, but can well imagine!), I think I'd try a bit less contrast, I thinks she's just beginning to look grubby (no offence intended).

HTH, Dave

PS
FWIW I think I did the same with my latest colour shots of Chloe

[ionian]

Thanks Dave. Yes, there's a bit too much shadow under her left eye still maybe, just needs some gentle treatment.

I agree that it's contrasty and starting to look harsh on her face; I actually quite liked this approach in this shot as it is a bit noisy and a bit gritty for my standard kid's portrait. The contrast is mainly a result of the clarity slider which I have bumped up, the opposite of my usual workflow.

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[bnnrcn]

What a beautiful lady I can see some dark and bright parts on her face and they don't look very natural.

[IzzieK]

I will be gentle with the clarity slider if I were you... I always admire your work and like your purpose of keeping memories of your daughter but this one is a little bit too much on the pp side.