Timothy II - Portrait B&W

[ajbalazic]

One more photo from my first try at casual portraiture. This one converted to B&W: created one adjustment layer for color, one B & W layer with zero saturation, and adjusted the hue of the color layer to get the look I wanted.
As mentioned in "Timothy I - Portrait Color", this 'session' lasted only about 15 minutes. It was side lit from natural light on an overcast day with white reflector about 3 feet away from face.

Let me know if you prefer the orignal or the tighter crop and/or any other comments. Thanks!
Exif: 1/160, f/3.2, ISO200, 50mm prime

[Raj]

Alan,
both color & BW portraits you posted are quite good.
They just look little soft ..

[ajbalazic]

Thanks Raj. I agree with the softness. In fact, upon closer inspection, the focus is at his shoulders. I think he moved forward slightly at the last second. Although it's not bad, I'll try another session.

[Huckaback Photo]

Hi
just had a look at your colour pctures and these Black & White ?
actual image is vary nice, great expression on the boys face, sort of cheeky smile that is lovely.
composition also works OK in my opinion.
yes its a bit soft but could be improved, focus could also be better.
however I feel main problem is its not black and white. ie: look to find a true black and a true white

this shot has reproduced as mainly light to dark grey in tone values (I need to be critical here to help you with future B & W work) and therefore lacks both contrast and indeed the effective sharpness that the contrast can help with.

your colour shots have the range of different colours to help make the image come alive (so to speak).

firstly try a different way of converting to B & W in photoshop.
there is a great action called.... Digi Daan B & W 2. and of course many other ways to convert.

its pos to improve you existing shot with Photoshop adjustments, mainly with ...adjust...Levels...../ Brightness / contrast then some selective dodging / burning
finish by using the unsharp mask and even selective sharpening to to add extra sharpness to certain areas..eyes.. hair etc.

The whole purpose is to make the picture come alive with a bit more impact.
Now I've done the obvious here in order for you to see.
hope this helps.

Find your self a print of the best Black & White you have, in a magazine / book or of course your own. keep this and use for comparison near your computor.
after many years darkroom work I always found it useful to have a print with a full tone range in my darkroom as a reference when working with a safe light on.
hope this makes sence to you .

because of file sizes the quallity will not be to good on here but check this out

Best wishes
Martin (Huckaback Photo)

My Gallery....
http://www.pbase.com/huckaback_photo

[ajbalazic]

Martin, your comments are very much appreciated. As you can see, I am just learning and this is the kind of help that I value. I can see what you mean from your example. I've always thought my "B & W" shots were missing something. I will try your suggestions and post again in the near future. Let me know what you think when I do my changes.

[Huckaback Photo]

Forgot to mention i added some grain (film grain in PS)
and altered the fill ratio from one side of face to the other using careful dodging / burning.
also I guess your now thinking there was no problem with the focus being sharp at the shoulder & not sharp on the face, my main aim is to make you get actual B & W
study a book on B & W printing it will teach many things that can relate to digital printing.

Cheers
Martin

[Dante King]

I think Martin, hit the nail right on the head. Great capture, The BW martin produced is exactly what I love to see in tonal values in a BW.

Very handsome lad!

[ajbalazic]

Okay, here we go.
I started by converting to B & W via New Layer: Channel Mixer: Red +70, Green: +15, Blue: +15. Then I increased both the Contrast and Brightness to my liking. It's my first attempt at making an image with more defined tonal values (truer whites and blacks). This evening has rocketed by... 4 hours working with the different channels (filters), contrast and brightness. I guess it takes a while to figure out what values work best for certain applications and then you can apply them quickly in the future.

Thanks to Martin for starting me down the right track (I think). I noticed that the next Practical Photography Magazine (due in Canada in a month's time) is devoted to Black & White photography. Hopefully it has some tips like Martin gave.

Let me know if you think this is an improvement.

Cheers

[ajbalazic]

I think Martin, hit the nail right on the head. Great capture, The BW martin produced is exactly what I love to see in tonal values in a BW.

Very handsome lad!

Thanks Dante. It's a pleasure to read all your comments for everyone and see the stuff you're putting out. You sound like a real good 'family guy' who enjoys life. Cheers to you!

[Huckaback Photo]

Alan what a difference.
And yes it is hard work to get there but once pointed in the right direction,you are usually able
to teach yourself and really get to know what looks good within the frame.

firstly with this same image .
do a rough sellection of head and shoulders / ie : if you sellect all of the lad and then inverse sellection it will give all the back ground which we now need to work with..
now go...filter...blur..gausian blur and make adjustments to suit.. idea being to soften the background to create are famous BOKEH that all talk about do not over do it, leave enough info in background ( settee paterns/material etc ).

make sure the sellection is done with soft edge tool not hard edges.

next stop..leave this image well alone & move on
set up a new shot but most important make absolutly sure within the frame are..
a black card
a white card
and if you have one a kodak grey card (18 % grey)

when in PS hit the adjust levels. use the white/black or even midtone colour pickers, as you now have control panels if you like.
aim of this is to make sure full range (tone wise) is in the shot in the first place.
if the picture you take is all grey , you will strugle to get good results,
get it right and of course easier to print etc.

Cheers
Martin

[lisa1969]

looks to me like you need a better conversion tool and to bump the brightness and contrast a bit. Adobe has a great B&W conversion on their website called D-MAX.
Sounds like you already got some great advice tho!