Just wondering what you guys think of this shot, and which version of it you like better, if either.

* I have only done the base color edits; I have not started working on skin or the details yet, so bear with me.



Personally, I think I'm going for the color, but not sure yet.
Also I admit I wish I had used a reflector board or something to bounce some light around her eyes.

By the way;
I'm totally down for critique and honest thoughts, but if you're going to say something negative, try backing it up with a positive as well so it stays constructive? Would appreciate it.

Irrespective of whether it's B&W or colour, I think it struggles as an attractive image.

And yes, you perhaps needed to get more detail in those shadows. Do you have any margin for recovering some of them in raw?

As they stand I prefer the color image. The eyes are getting lost, more so in the b&w. Though if you played with the lighting & contrast a bit more the b&w could win me over...

B&W and forget the eyes. Go for a stronger contrast and make that shadow full, even if you need to burn the eyes off.

I like that a little bit better. I would probably lighten the shadows, darken the whites a tad, then go in and burn the details that I wanted dark. Instead of darkening the whole image which is going to darken the eye area as well...

I prefer the comparative delicacy of the colour version.

For this photo, black and white is considerably better.  No reason for this to be in color.

Alicia I agree with some of the comments. I think the composition of the photo is solely focused in on the eye region. Also looks like when it was shot there wasn't any diffuser in place to help the hard ambient light. With that said the main area of focus is a bit too dark for the picture to warrant any merit. Shooting in raw gives you  a little of leverage in pulling detail out of shadow areas. However shooting in JPG is brutal.