Moody Female B&W portrait C&C

Hello, I'm hoping for some C&C on this B&W conversion shot in natural light. Does it work for you? Why, or why not?

Thanks in advance!

The arm being cut off makes the hand on her face look odd in my opinion.

Overall, I'm quite fond of it. I don't like the hand on her face, however. I think I'd rather see it resting on her shoulder.

GregoryC wrote in post #16647007
The arm being cut off makes the hand on her face look odd in my opinion.

I agree. It's like someone's else hand on her face.

Not working for me. Not a flattering pose. She is very pretty and the wrinkles on her forehead makes her look old. (Not that being old is a bad thing lol)

I don't agree with above - I think it is a very dramatic shot...I like the character and mystery....I am amazed nobody mentioned the distracting highlight on the right.
I might want to increase the moodiness/mystery by bring out the eyes and neutralizing the highlight on the right....helps to crop the right side also.
I would do this:

The more I look at it, it looks like someone is pushing her head down.

She's gorgeous--no doubt.

The wrinkles on her forehead combined with the hand makes the image feel stressed and tense and hard, not soft and romantic. Having her relax would have helped. The hand placement also has the feel of it being placed there arbitrarily as if just putting a hand on a face makes it a glamour / fashion photo. It just isn't that easy.

Thank you everyone for the comments and feedback. I do agree the wrinkles give her age and are not flattering, and the hand is a little awkward. However, although the shot was not intended to go the dark and mysterious route, it was my end goal via post-processing after reviewing the shoot. I specifically picked this shot for more creative processing which led me to this result.

I like what you did with the photo. I can't agree more that the highlight was distracting after it was brought to my attention. Thank you!

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #16647350
She's gorgeous--no doubt.

The wrinkles on her forehead combined with the hand makes the image feel stressed and tense and hard, not soft and romantic. Having her relax would have helped. The hand placement also has the feel of it being placed there arbitrarily as if just putting a hand on a face makes it a glamour / fashion photo. It just isn't that easy.

Thank you for the compliment to my GF
In regards to the rest of your feedback:
1.) Stressed, tense, and hard was more of what I was aiming for.
2.) I never said anything about soft and romantic, do all portraits have to be soft and romantic?
3.) This isn't the glamour/fashion forum, it's the C&C forum. Every portrait posted doesn't automatically put it in the glamour/fashion/soft/r​omantic category - which is why I specifically put "moody" in the title. I guess I should have been more specific and put moody, dark, mysterious, stressed, harsh, contrasty in the title to avoid people thinking all portraits of women are suppose to be soft and romantic.

Thanks again.

While I think it has great potential, I think the perspective and angle don't work well. Especially the way the left shoulder is up and not relaxed. And obviously as stated the wrinkles, while normally not a deal or picture breaker, are just too front and center here to make the picture attractive or flattering to the model.

All that aside, it is an excellent effort and good bw conversion.

MDJAK wrote in post #16647427
While I think it has great potential, I think the perspective and angle don't work well. Especially the way the left shoulder is up and not relaxed. And obviously as stated the wrinkles, while normally not a deal or picture breaker, are just too front and center here to make the picture attractive or flattering to the model.

All that aside, it is an excellent effort and good bw conversion.

Thank you! I think I will setup a similar shot and try some things different this time.

First off, I love that this isn't a glamour/fashion shot. I'm sure I don't speak for a large majority of the forum participants ( ) but I get tired of seeing nearly naked women at every turn, and not just on this forum since I rarely ever venture into the "glamour/nude" forum. But they're EVERYWHERE in society. Anyway, I love your B&W conversion..I think it looks great! My only "criticism" would be #1. My first thought was that most women don't really like for their foreheads to look wrinkly. And #2. Which I haven't yet seen mentioned, and isn't actually criticism of anything that you did, it's just that I find her outfit distracting. I'm confused as I look at it trying to figure out what exactly I'm looking at. It appears that she's wearing a dark bra and it's showing thru on the left side; but when I look at the right side it appears that her bra cup is exposed and it's actually a white bra. I'm so confused, is it white? Is it black? Does it have one cup that's white and one that's black? Is my monitor completely screwy and I'm not seeing the picture correctly? I know, this probably seems minor, but that portion of her body makes up almost half of the picture so I couldn't help but notice this puzzling phenomenon.

LOL! I am sorry I have you so confused, haha. To be honest I have no idea what she was wearing.. this shot was from over a year ago! But I can find out for you when she gets home I always show her the shots we produce, and she never fails to give me direct and most of the time, harsh, criticism. But suprisingly enough she never mentioned the wrinkles. She did however mention how her shoulder looks like she was from something out of the Exorcist

I agree with you on the glamour shots and how they're everywhere, thank you for the encouragement!

Fitness Freak wrote in post #16647540
First off, I love that this isn't a glamour/fashion shot. I'm sure I don't speak for a large majority of the forum participants ( ) but I get tired of seeing nearly naked women at every turn, and not just on this forum since I rarely ever venture into the "glamour/nude" forum. But they're EVERYWHERE in society. Anyway, I love your B&W conversion..I think it looks great! My only "criticism" would be #1. My first thought was that most women don't really like for their foreheads to look wrinkly. And #2. Which I haven't yet seen mentioned, and isn't actually criticism of anything that you did, it's just that I find her outfit distracting. I'm confused as I look at it trying to figure out what exactly I'm looking at. It appears that she's wearing a dark bra and it's showing thru on the left side; but when I look at the right side it appears that her bra cup is exposed and it's actually a white bra. I'm so confused, is it white? Is it black? Does it have one cup that's white and one that's black? Is my monitor completely screwy and I'm not seeing the picture correctly? I know, this probably seems minor, but that portion of her body makes up almost half of the picture so I couldn't help but notice this puzzling phenomenon.

Loxley wrote in post #16647958
LOL! I am sorry I have you so confused, haha. To be honest I have no idea what she was wearing.. this shot was from over a year ago! But I can find out for you when she gets home

Phew! Thank you, I'd appreciate that; I'll be able to sleep tonight once I have this puzzle figured out.

Fitness Freak wrote in post #16647540
...And #2. Which I haven't yet seen mentioned, and isn't actually criticism of anything that you did, it's just that I find her outfit distracting. I'm confused as I look at it trying to figure out what exactly I'm looking at. It appears that she's wearing a dark bra and it's showing thru on the left side; but when I look at the right side it appears that her bra cup is exposed and it's actually a white bra.

Man I've got mixed feelings on this. First, referencing what FitnessFreak said, and "a rose by any other name"... This is a downblouse shot, plain and simple. And that adds a whole nother (probably not wanted by you) angle to the ever present View's Question: "Why am I looking at this photograph?" - well, in this case, if I just look long enough, I might see tata.

Also, the wrinkles and the hand. As far as the wrinkles go, it come with the territory when you shoot at a sharply oblique angle and the subject is looking at the camera. Not flattering but not a deal breaker either.

The hand does not seem to me to be as disembodied as some people have mentioned, but it also does not seem to convey to me the emotional content you hoped for (tension). At first I thought that because she is upside down, the gesture and the emotion signals got seperated. I flipped the shot, and I still don't see tension. More like toothache.

Finally, and this IS because she is upside down - the eyes don't connect. When I flipped it, the eyes were clearly the strongest attractor in the shot.

All that being said, I love the mono conversion and subsequent processing.

I would suggest you consider either a 180 degree flip which keeps the image quirky, but takes away most of the disorientation. Or, about a 90 degree rotation - putting her horizontal - this is quite a bit more "traditional", but I think very flattering.

Herb Brooks once told his players - "Weave, but don’t just weave for the sake of weaving." In other words, let the pose and orientation serve the subject, dont just have her head upside down for the sake of being uncommon.

Rad