C&C please.

he highlights on the right side of her face are blown. (If you use the color sampler tool, for example, you'll find places were the RGB values are 255, 255, 255. There are a few spots on her nose that are similarly over exposed and no detail can be found. That's generally unfortunate in a portrait or head shot. There's also a somewhat bright patch near the outer corner of her lower left eye lid. I bit of clone stamp will easily fix it.

I thought blowing out the pic would possibly even out the skin, here they are without so much exposure. Are they better? Also, sepia or color? Thanks

Skin looks even enough to me. Color.

For me the skin smoothing is way overdone. It's got to the plastic stage.

Whats the original like?

here is the original.

The pose on the original with the head slightly to the right and the serious
look, eyes dead on at the camera detracts from the portrait.

Will leave comp and exposure questions to others more qualified than I, but as to color vs BW/Sepia, the first one w/blown highlights makes her look dead, but I like the less exposed one better. Still prefer the color versions though, more lifelike.

Jo