Silver Effect?

So I've been doing a lot of revised editing recently, since learning a lot from the course I'm studying. Its pretty evident that I am miles ahead from where I started a couple of years back, and the post processing skills I have, have improved massively.

I've been trying recently to achieve a sort of 'silver' effect in some of the portraits, and I've been having some difficulties. I've got a little bit of where I want the portrait to be, but haven't quite got the method yet.

I have been using the black and white filters, opacity layers and blending modes to create a dulling effect on the images, then played around with the colour toning, and dodging and burning. I just can't quite seem to get the hang of it.

 

This is what I have achieved so far, and I quite like them as they are, but what I'm really looking for is some feedback/suggestions on how I could get a more silver-ish effect out of the images.

Infra Red? Part 2

I told you to stay tuned for more Infra Red and here are the results! These shots have been taken on my recent trip to Devon, in a lovely National Trust house/garden called Killerton.

 Needless to say I'm less than impressed with the results, being a specially gloomy day with not a lot of light seaping through the trees like I imagined but then it's not always as easy as that. The style is interesting, with marks, grain and light spots which come naturally with the 'experimental' fashion in which these were taken - although I do usually work for sharpness and detail, so it really is a new direction for me.

The last set of images I took with an infrared filter were fairly interesting and were set at 30 second exposures at the lowest F stop possible depending on the zoom. For this attempt I had a go at something slightly different, and used the 'bulb' setting. This is the setting after the shutter speed has reached 30 seconds (well on my camera it is) and the exposure depends entirely on how long you want it to be, since once the shutter is pressed - light is let in (in this case only infrared) and only when it is released does the shutter close.

Now obviously I found it extremely useful having a remote trigger which could be set to 'hold' the button rather than standing at my tripod with my finger on the button for 10-15 minutes at a time!

Since the exposures I were setting were around these times, it was very frustrating when people around the park stood infront of the camera for 2-3 minutes at a time, but phew! the long exposures made sure these people didnt show up in the images.

Another issue I came accross was a big white out spot in the middle of the images, on the longer exposures. I'm assuming this is because there was too much light on the same spot on a continuous exposure but I have limited knowledge of this and would apreciate any information on the subject!

A dissapointing result from the shoot, however I did edit the normal versions (since I take a couple to get the original image set) and they looked ok:

I have a preference for these images, however I can understand the appeal of the style in the Infra Red images.

However, I think if ill be attempting this again in the future - I definately need a lower number Infra Red filter because this one seems to be a bit too much for what I'm after!