Do you think that these effects help or hurt this picture? BTW, the colors are just as taken.... this little girl has just the most stunning eyes....

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg298/KatzPhotography/StormyEyesOtherRS.jpg

I see a lot of this photo retouching technique in local portrait studios and have never been a big fan of it. That's just me! However, in some cases, it might work when the composition requires a focal point. But in this case, your B&W photo is great and the eyes are definitely the focal point of the composition. In my opinion, the added colorizing detracts from the eyes. Beautiful photograph - without the spot color.
Robert

So, maybe just leaving the eyes blue? Or leaving the whole picture b/w?

So, maybe just leaving the eyes blue? Or leaving the whole picture b/w?

May be just leaving the eyes blue.

I agree with freedom, I also think it would look better all B&W but, then again I think everything look better in B&W :o All joking aside, I think you are on the right track but could use some little tweaks. One thing that I notice is that the colors are nice and vivid while the B&W is kind of flat middle gray. This is causing the color to over power the rest of the shot. On that same note, the yellow clothing and hair piece are overpowering the blue of the eyes, so the first thing I notice is the clothing. Couple little tweaks I might do would be to desaturate the yellow a little, just enough so that it's not so overpowering yet, not enough to completely get rid of the color. The blue is at a nice level so I wouldn't touch that part of the eyes but, if you did some dodging to the whites of her eyes to make them more white instead of the grey they are now, the eyes would really pop. Last I would do a little selective dodging and burning to the B&W section to give it a bit more depth.

Thanks! I will play with it tonight and see what I can come up with!!

I think I would prefer a color edit. The B&W looks flat.

I agree with freedom, I also think it would look better all B&W but, then again I think everything look better in B&W :o All joking aside, I think you are on the right track but could use some little tweaks. One thing that I notice is that the colors are nice and vivid while the B&W is kind of flat middle gray. This is causing the color to over power the rest of the shot. On that same note, the yellow clothing and hair piece are overpowering the blue of the eyes, so the first thing I notice is the clothing. Couple little tweaks I might do would be to desaturate the yellow a little, just enough so that it's not so overpowering yet, not enough to completely get rid of the color. The blue is at a nice level so I wouldn't touch that part of the eyes but, if you did some dodging to the whites of her eyes to make them more white instead of the grey they are now, the eyes would really pop. Last I would do a little selective dodging and burning to the B&W section to give it a bit more depth.

But I think you have the right idea-the eyes are the essence of the image, not the dress and hair band.

Everything looks real good here other than the selective coloring. Either all b&w or just leave the eyes,, or, straight color.