Ed

A photo of my friend Christmas Eve. I decided to go for B&W. Any

comments or advise are always welcome.

Picture does not become BW by taking away the colours. The best BW result comes with BW film or with some PS. I would also reconsider the cropping, picture seems to be a bit unbalanced. DOF is good, short, as in portraits it should be. I hope this helped.

Hello Janne Tervonen, I used Photo shop Gradient. Not sure if that is best way to convert. I will work with the crop, this is a crop from a larger photo. So I do have room to play with the image. Thank you for your input. John

Many things are good about this portrait. His expression, his face, the slight angle of his face, the dof as mentioned, his direct gaze, the light in his eyes and clear look of his glasses. Main problem is flatness of light and tone. There's little visual energy and nuance supplied, some of which could be done with source lighting, some in post processing. The example above is helpful.

Hello Fred, . I used flash bounced off the ceiling. It was a family get together in his living room with a white ceiling. It seemed a good photo to experiment with. I worked some on the contrast, tried blue filter. Heading in the right direction? I appreciate your input. John

I think you've gone too dark. I'd start where you were to begin with and think more about adding or lightening highlights (a bit of level adjustment) than doing any darkening. Notice how light the skin tone can go in the example provided above. Just don't do it globally. Allow some shadows and variety of tone. Look around at other black and white portraits that seem strong to you. There are usually several in the portrait queue. Check out Janne's portfolio, especially his portraits folder and have a look at some of my own. Notice how skin can go from dark to light and feel like it comes alive.

Hello again. I will do as you suggest and peruse some B&W portfolios. I have started with yours and Janne's. There are many nice photos in both. I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and comment. John

Hi Fred, I believe I understand what you meant. I gave it one more try with this photo. I will work on other photos keeping in mind yours and Janne's advise. Thanks again for your help.

Big improvement. Congratulations. I think it's a much more alive and effective portrait. One thing to keep in mind is that the eyes are often a key to a portrait, so anything you can do to bring out the eyes is always a plus. Keep looking and shooting. I think you will do great things. And I appreciate your having visited my portfolio and the comment you left.