Old style

[Maik]

Hello,

I would like to know what you think about the sephia conversion and composition of this foto. Is the hairlight okay?

Exif:
Camera: Nikon D40
Focal: 35mm
Exposure: 1/250
Aparture: F3.5
ISO: 200
Flash: Manual

[Kate Howells]

IMHO the conversion does not work. The sepia is not continuous throughout the image, as you have areas of desaturated colour too. The vignetting is too strong.
In terms of composition, I would have placed the mum's arm differently. As it stands, the arm is quite dominant in the image, and it is also over exposed, which draws the eye to it immediately. If you have a look at the thumbnail you will probably see what I mean.
It is not a bad photo, and I am sure the original can be worked into something very special.

[Laurenbiz]

I have to agree with the heavy vignetting. It is too much vignetting for my taste. The sepia does not bother me, though.

I also don't quite like the gaussian blur/soft focus. I think it makes their skin look too soft - almost to the point that the skin does not look natural.

I like the photo! I'd just cut back on the blur and vignette! :-)

[Maik]

Thank you very much for you're comments. I can go with that.
btw.... here's the original:

[petitours]

I agree with the others. While your initial shot is really good, the vignette is a bit cheesy and the tone is inconsistent. Remember that less is more with post-processing!

This is how I would have done it...
-New Layer, fill with brown and set to Overlay, mess with opacity
-Curves or Levels
-New layer, fill with teal then set to Exclusion, mess with opacity
-Hue/Saturation
-Curves or Levels again

Which would leave us with this.