little train lover.... some help please...

[ambrya_nell]

My son went through a train phase ... took some pics on the tracks in between watching the trains go by.... The first one not sure if i should leave the overalls blue or not? is it too distracting? and the second; the sky is so whited out above is head it bothers me.. have tried several things in photoshop but nothing looks right.. any ideas?
As i said before i'm interested in portraits... i've always done landscape/nature photos.... so any critique would be helpful... thanks

[CheaperKings]

They look good to me. As far as the coloring, I would've went for, maybe, a B&W look. But, that's just me. Great shots, though!

[FallinWoman]

I love the first shot. I am not a fan of the coloring, though. I feel like it puts the accent on the jeans, not on his face. I wish he were sitting on the opposite rail, so the second rail would be in front of him instead of behind.
I don't know how to make the second one look right. The hair already looks like it has been photoshopped around it. Ideally you could reshoot at a different angle putting green behind him or when the sky has more color in it.

[GeorgiaPeach]

I agree that the first photo would look better in all black and white. Cute kid. It's hard to go wrong with little boys and train tracks!

[djase1]

I really love the second one. The composition looks great. I agree with the thoughts on the first one. Great ideas though. I might have to try something like this. Thanks for the inspiration.

[irishmuth]

I usually agree that selective color tends to pull away from the subject but for some reason I feel like it kinda works with the blue jeans. But it might be too much...I would try partially desaturating the blue jeans - leaving them blue but not so strong. In fact, I think a partial desaturation of the whole picture might be a good effect - maybe try two layers of the original color shot - both at 50% opacity - do one layer in sepia as you've done and the other in color but desaturated. I used this effect for our Christmas card and really like the result. If you want to share the original color photo, I'd be happy to take a crack at it. I've attached what I mean about just desaturating the jeans...would be happy to remove if you prefer.

Adorable boy and pic by the way!

Edit: removed the picture because the DPS image uploader seems even more screwed up than normal today. I'll try again later.

[PointNShoot]

Cute subject.

Right outfit.

Right footwear.

Love the train motif

[CaptainNH]

A very cute shot, but I agree with others about the distracting blue denim. A partial-desat would help here.

Am I the only one who sees two white horizontal lines top of shot?

[ambrya_nell]

thanks for all the ideas/comments... i think the blue's too much too.... gonna try desaturating it and see if it's better (thanks irishmuth.. def try that one) ..... i did have one in black and white but it just seemed sort of boring to me.... but i tend to lean toward the sepia look anyway.....
Again.. thanks for taking time to comment

[irishmuth]

Originally Posted by ambrya_nell

thanks for all the ideas/comments... i think the blue's too much too.... gonna try desaturating it and see if it's better (thanks irishmuth.. def try that one) ..... i did have one in black and white but it just seemed sort of boring to me.... but i tend to lean toward the sepia look anyway.....
Again.. thanks for taking time to comment

Here is the image I was trying to upload yesterday - the uploader seems to be working properly again now. If you decide to do a color one with the whole image partially desaturated I'd love to see the results! Here is the style I was referring to that was a combination of desaturation and sepia that I thought would work well together for this shot.

Edit: So much for the uploader working properly. Oh well, you get the idea from the top half of the pic.