How is this black and white conversion?

[poker]

The cropping is nicely done, but I'm not quite sure if I'm happy with the tonality of the b & w. JMHO.
John

I'll work on the tones. I was questioning it myself. I'll also get rid of the rim of the guys glass on the right.

Thanks John.

[Loupey]

Good choice going B&W. The color version isn't as powerful because of how distracting that red blouse is.

Good crop on the B&W as well. Other than the subject, the rest of the image appears too dark to me. If you opened up your lens and blurred the foreground people a bit more, it would keep me more locked on the woman.

Interesting how everyone is looking in different directions. Imagine if the woman was the only one looking straight at you. Still, this was a fleeting image and you did a great job capturing the moment.

[poker]

Other than the subject, the rest of the image appears too dark to me. If you opened up your lens and blurred the foreground people a bit more, it would keep me more locked on the woman.

I'll rework the bw tones soon. I'll also try the blur tool in PS. I just need to be careful with the tool since at times it is obviously a postproduction blur.

Interesting how everyone is looking in different directions. Imagine if the woman was the only one looking straight at you. Still, this was a fleeting image and you did a great job capturing the moment.

I was thinking of how the photo would've been with her looking towards me. The only other version I have of this is her drinking something.

Thanks for your opinion and suggestion!

[yogestee]

Interesting image manacsa..The jury is still out on this one..It looks like one of those papparazi type photos we see in womens' magazines...At first glanze it looks like a low key image (dark tones) until I'm drawn to the girl in the background..I'd like to see a cropped version in B/W with the girl more prominant..

Jurgen
Australia

[poker]

I cropped it more to bring her out.

I blurred, dodged, and burned a little here an there in PS.

I'm giving a 800 pixel width image so you can really see the subject.

Is it better?