First Black and White

[travisgrendler]

I have never really edited a photo in black and white untill this one. this is my first. Does anyone think the color is too much? What would you have done differently? Thank you for your opinions. I included the original as well.
Shot with a Kodak Easyshare Z760
f/4
1/90 sec
ISO 100
16mm

[3bayjunkie]

im not a big fan on the selective color. It always makes the photo look like its trying too hard. probably would look good in just plain b&w

[Tito87]

Originally Posted by 3bayjunkie

It probably would look good in just plain b&w

+1........

[MrJones]

not a fan of selective coloring either.. specially when were talking about the eyes. just gives me a spooky feeling.
other than that I don't like the chopped off left hand. you've got so much space on the left side of the photo which makes no sense to chopping anything out and just gives a feeling like you're trying to push her out of the frame.
btw, B&W photo is black and white, this is selective coloring.

[Ridgetop]

Ok, a good comment. Good job on capturing the sharpness of her eyes. This is missed so often and it really makes the picture. Selective coloring on this is a little to much I think. I'm not against it but I like it when it really is "selective". She should be a little more to the left to stay entirely in the frame and then the negative space wouldn't seem so "negative." I love her expression and the pen adds to it IMO. You're really on the right path on this one.

[Doug Sundseth]

If you take a look at hand-colored prints from 100 years ago, one of the places all of them* have color is in the skin. Gray skin in a B&W photo can work brilliantly. Gray skin with selective coloring makes me immediately think, "Zombie".

The choice of so much negative space in the composition is interesting. I don't think it quite works for me, but I suspect that for the right audience it will be quite effective. (IOW, if you like that composition, you probably shouldn't try to change it.)

OTOH, I think the clipping of the subject at the right edge of the frame doesn't work at all. If you had clipped more, you could have gotten a sort of "peeking around the corner" effect. If you hadn't clipped at all, I think you'd have been fine. But here, it just looks like a mistake.

I like the connection you had with your subject; the expression is very engaging.

Hope those comments help.

* "All" is probably an exaggeration.