I went back this weekend and reshoot these. I think that my exposure is much better on these. I did not crop this hoping from advise from you pros. If you see this Ron, I had my flash but the batteries were dead, just my luck. But what do you think of the retakes?

hmmm, i never saw this one before, the color version looks painted, i like it :)......though the board should get erased.

great lighting and WB, gives a vintage feel

Shame you didn't get the desk all in. For me this is a definate B&W with Sepia toning style photo.

Some lines written on the chalk board or some text would be better than the squiggles that are there. The foreground on the desk is a little out of focus and I would prefer it if it was sharper.

Roger

A great reshoot, it's much much better than the original. For me I like how the colour turned out in the colour version. Nice tones and a nice shot. Still a bit soft though Greg. Might be the compression.

Thanks guys. I removed some writing from the board. What was on the board just didn't fit the picture. And the desk was all in the picture but lost some of it when I cropped it to straighten the picture.If anyone knows how to straighten a picture without cropping please enlighten me...

Post the original and I'll take a look tonight to see if there is anything else that can be done.

Roger

I went back this weekend and reshoot these. I think that my exposure is much better on these. I did not crop this hoping from advise from you pros. If you see this Ron, I had my flash but the batteries were dead, just my luck. But what do you think of the retakes?

To bad about the flash, but you did get the detail and therefore much more of the vintage feel, than was present in the original. With this type of available light shot with digital, you need to watch the highlights very carefully, underexpose, and then bring up the detail in the dark areas using Photoshop or PaintShop Pro. I often shoot at 1 stop under when I shoot digital. Assuming that you see the same colours as I do, I would reduce the green of the wall to a more neutral off-white using Photoshop and perhaps warm up the colours of the overall shot to give it that period/Norman Rockwell look.

Ron

Thanks Ron I will give the color adjustments a try. Light levels for this shot were pretty low. I think I shot around 1/30th @ f/8. I couldn't get a tripod, but I held the camera against the glass for support. My wife agrees with you on the green...
Greg