B&W Child Profile

[MCB]

This isn't the shot I was trying to get, but I think it worked out okay. He wasn't being very cooperative with the photo shoot and wouldn't stand by his grandparents. I decided to take a few shots anyway while he was wandering around doing everything but posing.

Do you guys think the B&W conversion is okay? Leaving the natural eye color seems nice, and I like it, but what do you think? Too gimmicky?

Thanks for looking. :)

[Athena]

I like the shot a lot, but not the selective coloring. It's a little bit scary. ;)

[MCB]

Scary? Hmm... okay, so how about if it's not B&W, but a warmer brown? I grabbed this color from his eye, filled a color layer, then reduced the opacity a bit. I masked out the eyes on the color layer so it's still the original color. Any better?

Thanks for the comment. :)

[Athena]

yes, definitely. Very nice. :)

I think the scary bit for me was that this brown (on my monitor at least) hints red. Red eyes = scary. ;)

[MCB]

I didn't really notice it, but I guess you're right. Poking around with the color picker reveals that the red value is 2-3 times higher than the green, with blue being very low. One area has RGB 63-2-0. Kinda red, okay. :) I'll be sure not to make him angry. :)

[AlfaDaz]

Has to be the brown one, the first one is almost evil...lol

Daz

[Athena]

I'll be sure not to make him angry. :)

LOL! :)

[KYBOB]

I agree with Athena, the second one is definately better.

[misskitty5077]

Second one is great.

[MCB]

Thanks for the comments. The more I look at it, the more I agree that I like the brown one better. Somehow the cold B&W with the warm brown eyes seemed nice... but I can see the spooky undertones. :)

[hwyhobo]

I think that in both of them the skin of the child has strange marbling, perhaps artifacts of B&W conversion. It looks more like a skin of an adult than a child, if you know what I mean. Perhaps softer focus on the cheeks and more selective sharpening around the eyes would work even better for me.

[photog_87]

The marbling is more than likely an aberation from the B/W conversion...

MCB - i am assuming you used channel mixer to do this?

[BillsBayou]

the shot made me jump.

Sorry.

[MCB]

The marbling is more than likely an aberation from the B/W conversion...

MCB - i am assuming you used channel mixer to do this?

Right, the channel mixer. I did sharpen very, very slightly with smart sharpen after resizing to 700 px wide (maybe 80-90% with a radius of about 0.6).

He has light skin and a few prominent blood vessels that are probably what you're considering marbling. It's not an artifact of anything, it's his skin.

I could airbrush them out, but wasn't really going for a toddler glamour shot with perfect, fake skin. Maybe toning down the blue in the channel mixer would help make them slightly less prominent.

Here's a version with a blurred layer on top, with a mask over the eyes (and lips... mask the hair too? yeah, probably better if i did). Less frightening?

It is getting better with each step, so thanks for the comments. :)

EDIT: is the crop too tight? Is that frightening? I really wanted to focus on the eyes, and copped this quite a bit to make them large enough to see some detail.

[Athena]

I noticed the little capilaries too. Lots of children have this if you look closely. He also has baby fuzz - and that adds to the texture. Like you said, easily removed with a bit of blur or cloning.

Can we see the uncropped version? I wonder if a bit more space under his chin would be nice?

[photog_87]

looks much better... i would like to see the original myself too

[MCB]

Here's the original. No extra space under the chin, unfortunately.

[photog_87]

If that is the original i am totally in agreement with the latest crop.

And instead of bluring out the "marbling" i woudl re-channel mixer with less blue.

[hwyhobo]

I definitely prefer the latest crop (although I am not enthralled by the sepia aspect). The last, smoothed take may not be perfectly faithful, but it allows me to focus on the eyes, which I understand was your objective.

See, I don't really care about the absolute truth, just the truth you want to show me.

[MCB]

I definitely prefer the latest crop (although I am not enthralled by the sepia aspect). The last, smoothed take may not be perfectly faithful, but it allows me to focus on the eyes, which I understand was your objective.

See, I don't really care about the absolute truth, just the truth you want to show me.

It sounds more like you are interested in the truth that you want to see, not the absolute truth or the truth I want to show. :p But thanks for the comments anyway.

[hwyhobo]

It sounds more like you are interested in the truth that you want to see, not the absolute truth or the truth I want to show. :p But thanks for the comments anyway. Well, you mentioned that the eyes were the focus point.

No need for the sour note. I certainly didn't mean anything malicious by my comments.