The Reader

[Jim A]

Something minimalist that I saw that appealed with a bit of a story. Settings were f13; 1/500sec; 17 mms; ISO 400.

[Jim A]

.....or .....................?

[mugge]

The second image is the strongest to my mind. I think this image would be better in monochrome as the colours are a distraction.

That is only my opinion.
Cheers Ole

[Round Tuit]

+1 to Ole's comment.

[Manfred M]

The great photojournalist, Robert Capa, once said: "If your image isn't good enough, you're not close enough".

I feel that this applies to both versions of the image.

[DanK]

Very nice capture.

I agree with Ole and Andre abput monochrome. I don't agree with Manfred; this is a photo (I think) about the setting more than the person, so I wouldn't crop even closer. I woud do a crop in between your two. Here is a very quick conversion with a quick crop. It would need more editing to get the tones right, and I might crop a little more, particularly on the top. However, this might be enough to help think about the options.

[billtils]

I like the mono conversion and Dan's crop is by far the best to me. Perhaps do something to minimise the white area between the tress?

[royent]

I still prefer the second one in colour
Roy

[DanK]

If you do decide to go with something like the second, I would get rid of the rotation and level it again. It looks off this way, IMHO.

[Jim A]

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions, everyone! Here are a couple of attempts that I did a couple of days ago. Did this before your last suggestion, Dan, so have not thought that through yet.