By: Stephen Terlizzi
Click to enlarge photos

Using online sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr to post your photos and get constructive criticism is the defacto standard to improve your photography.  Open honest review can provide insights into what you did wrong and how you can improve.  It is especially useful when pushing the edge of your envelope.

Recently, I posted a hi-key photograph that I created onto the Photographing Children group on Facebook (see above).  My intention was to use the hi-key to emphasize her eyes by de-emphasizing other details in the face and framing it with her dark hair.   I do love the way her eyes pop in the picture; though I was a little concerned about loss of detail in the skin. Some of the constructive criticism was that the skin was a little too overexposed and lack some contour.   So I modified the photo and made this triptych.
 

The left is straight out of the camera with only RAW processing. The middle was processed to reset Black and White points and, with onOne Phototools software filters, to smooth the skin, pop the eyes and uses a B&W hi-key conversion filter. I also cloned out some of the dark area on the left. The right has the color photo with the reset B&W points on a top layer converted to a luminosity blending mode to bring back some texture and contrast.

When looking at the triptych, I have gotten feedback that Version 2 is better.  The question is "Is that true?".  Is Version 2 better as a Hi-Key photograph or as a B&W photograph?  Did I lose my original intention of emphasizing the eyes by bringing back some of the detail?

Sometimes when evaluating your photo it isn't "all in the eye", but sometimes it is "all in the mind."  Sometimes incorporating the feedback of others moves your photo too far away from your original vision.  What do you think?