Improvements?

[polopaul69]

I am putting together some pictures for my friends birthday, and i took these two photo's of her daughters, and was planning to get them mounted in a frame for her, and was wondering if you could think of any improvements i could make.

I converted them to B&W and used Photoshop to put a soft omni lighting effect on them as it produced a nicer effect than just in B&W (so i thought).

Any improvements would be welcome.

[Overbeyond]

I am no expert on portraits etc but I think you made great efforts here. The lighting looks a bit uneven especially between the two girls. A little overuse of photoshop I think but I like the softness. I think Mum will like these.
It's nice to see nice shots like this of birthdays instead of the usual .. ah I won't say it.
Tom

[dbutler]

I like both pics. Keeping mind that I like things on the overdone side, I think the first might (huge might) look better with a little more contrast? As for the second, I think its precious but for me the color around the halo just isnt quite the thing. But thats just me.

Overall, I love the old-timey feel to them. Its soft and sweet. Yeah, Toms right. Moms gonna love em

[polopaul69]

Thankyou for the comment. I am in London taking photo's at the moment for Rememberance day but as soon as i am back will try moving the lights more to the left to give it more balance.

will repost once back and done...

[bubblesxx19]

They are nice portraits. Perhaps try getting rid of the lighting effects, I personally don't think it works, and try doing the black & white and add just a little bit of contrast to give it a little oomph. Or, you could try sepia toning...

[polopaul69]

These were the original photo's taken (apart from they were converted to B&W before saving, and i currently cannot find the colour one's) of the girls.

You can see what i have done. What would you do with them?