Denee in Black and White

Thoughts?

Square crop to remove the shoulder would work better for me, I find the bright shoulder a bit too distracting. Her nose and forehead are blown in places too. That's the technicalities, I do like the portrait, however, she appears to be squinting slightly due to the bright lighting, perhaps a dodge on her eyes to pop them a bit? Maybe some form of shade may have helped with the high dynamic range, or perhaps it's your workflow?

 

Sorry if this all sounds negative, I wanted to give an honest critique on what is aesthetically a pleasing portrait with a few minor technical hitches.

foto molto ben costruita mi piace molto bravo!!!!!!!

I think you have a really nice portrait to work with, but I don't particularly like the B&W tones here, they look a little too blue or something to me. That's been a large problem for me with switching to digital, finding a good black and white process. I played with your photo a little bit, but it might just be more to my personal taste, cheers.

The tones really depend on your monitor.

Naturally they do, and I have my monitor calibrated fairly well, but to each their own, just offering my thoughts.

 

It's your photograph, you have every right to disagree with my critique, I just got the wrong impression from your first reply, I apologize.

Maybe this image is better. Adjusted Image

 

I thank you for your critiques. I am not disagreeing with them. Just trying to elaborate on them.

Hi Timothy, what do you think about this version:

Nice work .. ice

Timothy, the adjusted image is an improvement in that there are no blowouts, but I think with some selective dodge and burn you could make it really pop, perhaps try a merged layer mask of the 2 versions 'rubbing' through on the mask to give a good tonal range. It really is a nice photo.

A great study. Interesting lessons.

A great study indeed. I don't want to remove all the contrast to get the shot, and I don't want it dark. I was striving for a lighter mood. Maybe having a couple of hot spots is not all that bad.

 

I work on the set and I watch them try to remove hot spots all the time. However, I just got back from X-men 3 and I saw plenty of blow outs. Must be the mood of the DP.

Try the layer combine Tim, perhaps using different colour channels for hair and face, that way you might get the right dynamic range across the shot without any blow outs.