When are we done editing? This little girl, with her hand on and nose very close to the glass of the bus shelter, never stopped asking questions, what my grandfather used to call...

daldds Loc: NYC

This little girl, with her hand on and nose very close to the glass of the bus shelter, never stopped asking questions, what my grandfather used to call diarrhea of the mouth.
The first image is SOOC, the second just minimal editing, and the third my effort to be artistic. I used NIK and smart object to blur some areas more.
Two questions: should I spend more time on the image? (Is it actually worth more time?) And, if so, how would you handle it? And, don't worry about my feelings.

(Download)

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

Frankly, the SOOC image is excellent just the way it is, IMO. When I first scrolled down the page and saw that adorable face, my heart went to mush - I just wanted to hug her! The image invited my mind to entertain several story lines for what was happening to capture the attention of that lovely child. I’d love to spend time answering her endless questions.

I do admit, I do like the B&W rendering of the image.

Stan

jjanovy Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

Agree with Stan.

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

Excellent images of beautiful young girl. I prefer #2, but all are worthy results. I think the processing and editing possibilities are endless only because of the subject and her pose and expression. The choice is yours.

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

I like #2

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The work is finished when the computer crashes.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

daldds wrote:

This little girl, with her hand on and nose very close to the glass of the bus shelter, never stopped asking questions, what my grandfather used to call diarrhea of the mouth.
The first image is SOOC, the second just minimal editing, and the third my effort to be artistic. I used NIK and smart object to blur some areas more.
Two questions: should I spend more time on the image? (Is it actually worth more time?) And, if so, how would you handle it? And, don't worry about my feelings.

Keep the SOOC file. It needs no processing. It already looks as though the JPEG was either too small or over-compressed, probably due to the camera settings. The processed versions just exaggerated the artifacts. I do like the cropping in #3.

I like kids with that quality of asking incessant questions. I never discourage that, other than to redirect the timing of when they ask. My favorite bumper sticker of all time said, "Question Authority." The greatest breakthroughs of all time happen when we do that.

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

I do agree that the SOOC is very good. I also like the black-and-white, but I would definitely tone down the highlights on her face. Of course that is just me.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

If you are still growing in your knowledge almost all of your past work looks less than perfect.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

CHG_CANON wrote:

The work is finished when the computer crashes.

Or when we stop.....

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

The dark line through her hair would bother me, but it would only take a few seconds with a clone tool to fix.

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daldds wrote:

This little girl, with her hand on and nose very close to the glass of the bus shelter, never stopped asking questions, what my grandfather used to call diarrhea of the mouth.
The first image is SOOC, the second just minimal editing, and the third my effort to be artistic. I used NIK and smart object to blur some areas more.
Two questions: should I spend more time on the image? (Is it actually worth more time?) And, if so, how would you handle it? And, don't worry about my feelings.

#2 still invites a bit more editing. You could add further life energy. IOW you can easily push further without risk of ruining it. Thaz cuz your SOOC really is an excellent foundation.

OTOH #3 is like a student experiment, "lets try some of this and more of that and even more of this" and see what happens. Student experiments are a success if you learn something, even when they result in a complete failure imagewise. Failures are worth studying, not to be hurriedly deleted nor to be hidden from others eyes.

There was no need to go all the way to BW. The shot had a limited palette to begin with but it may be further limited as shown below. OTOH going to fully mono created a whole new statement.

Original color
Original color...

Reduced color
Reduced color...

(Download)

BebuLamar

The first image looks fine. I can't see no improvement in the other two. I don't think the tighter crop is needed. So in fact I think your image needs no editing.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

daldds wrote:

This little girl, with her hand on and nose very close to the glass of the bus shelter, never stopped asking questions, what my grandfather used to call diarrhea of the mouth.
The first image is SOOC, the second just minimal editing, and the third my effort to be artistic. I used NIK and smart object to blur some areas more.
Two questions: should I spend more time on the image? (Is it actually worth more time?) And, if so, how would you handle it? And, don't worry about my feelings.

I like #1. I like the extra space around her. It gives her someplace to be. I would mask and tone down, just a little, the car in the upper right hand corner. A bit distracting.
...Cam

R.G. Loc: Scotland

The graininess, particularly on her face, isn't in keeping with the mood of the photo. Whether it's noise or as suggested, jpeg artefacts, you should try to get rid of it (without smoothing the wanted detail).

Once you get into selecting problem areas to give them their own edits you soon realise that you could go on forever, tweaking this and adjusting that, nudging the image ever closer to perfection. Much of the time it's a case of how long you can continue until your patience or time runs out. I find the best approach is to accept that perfection will probably evade you so you should keep going until there's nothing jumping out at you that looks wrong. Most people won't look at your edits as critically as you do yourself, just as most people don't look at photos as critically as photographers do.