Would you choose color or black&white version here?

[Famateur]

It's amazing what tiny things suddenly jump out when you print large! I printed a 13x19 portrait of my daughter, and one little wispy stray hair across her eye and a few tiny bits of lint on her clothes bugged me enough that I removed them and re-printed. I'm much more particular about looking for little distracting things now. My philosophy is, if it's not necessary to tell the story, get rid of it (either in composition or in post).

Off topic, but something I've thought about editing portraits is that by the time I'm done working on one I know that person's face better than probably anyone else in the world, including them. When you zoom in and really study a face, you quickly come to the conclusion that perfect skin does not exist in the world -- even (or sometimes especially) among professional models.

Never sure how I feel about that. Sometimes I'm a little creeped out, other times I appreciate just how beautiful most human beings are if you really look at them.

Anyone else ever get a similar feeling, or am I just a weirdo?

If it makes you a weirdo, I guess that makes two of us.

 

[Joe M]

For these two versions of the model, I prefer the colour version over the B&W for two reasons. In the colour version, I see her eyes. In the B&W version, I see her freckles. There is nothing at all wrong with freckles but I think the highlight of her face ought to be the eyes first.
That all said, like some others, I'd go for a completely different B&W conversion too.

 

[Ozarker]

Color. But one thing really stands out to me... her contact lenses. I think they should be removed for close up portraits. They are very visible in this photo.

 

[niels123]

Thanx a lot for all your input and sorry for the late reply. No, I don't mind criticism. It makes me better, and that is a good thing!

I just started in the Oz to Kansas book and indeed, it is a eye opener!

Niels

 

[tron]

Color, it's more natural and the eyes show best.

 

[martti]

I would do the BW conversion either with channel mixer in PS of fool around in Alien Skin until I found a nice solution from their toolbox. Your BW conversion has reds too low. That's why it is so pessimistic.
I do not want to be rude but how about some make up and reflectors?