christie

I'm curious to hear from b&w aficionados. I'm struggling to get good

b&w's using digital. I recently switched from film to digital. This

is probably my favorite b&w portrait I've done so far. I cranked up

the saturation before b&w conversion and I liked the results. Is

there anything that you typically do to a digital photo to get that

classic b&w film look?

 

thanks for any advice, I'd appreciate your opinion and suggestions you

might have.

In addition to my previous post. Are there better options for b&w conversion then captureNX for Nikon users?

interestiing... i really love bw, and normally i find that in digital is not so "warm", if i arrive in explaning, my english is so poor. with digital you have the probelm of the high lights, when with the films the problem are the shadows.

normally i use, for converting, the russel brown system, easy and very good. i prefer PS, NX is not so friendly. the most difficult thing is not to use toomuch contrast, or levels... noise is not nice as grain.

here you have, my opinion, shadows tomuch closed (hair, shirt), and you loosed some deails in the whites.

in PS i use the "shadows/highlights", that gives the losed details everywhere, but is simething to be used with prudence, just a few.

also interesting is "selective colours", here for istance you could select the eyes, and give a real white to them

bye

Thanks Andrea

 

I thought about lightening up the picture to show more detail in her hat and hair, but I decided against it. I like the really blackness of it, I also thought it framed her face and expression really well. I see what you are saying about whitening the eyes. I wonder if that wouldn't look weird or unnatural though?

 

I wish I had a less distracting background but you can't always control that.

 

thanks again for your comments

 

 

b&w shots like this you can upload every day as far as I'm concerned. It's not perfect from a tech point of view but has a lot of atmosphere.It has a "fiftie's" flim noir feel.You're right, I like those blacks too. I myself pay a lot of attention in every portrait to the eyes. In this case i wouldn"t change a thing.

not a good tonal range, many of the highlights are blown, no detail in the blacks, focus is soft, and the composition is askew, not a good effort in my opinion but some will like it. Do you like it? What's important to you?

Tim, well I liked it until I read your opinion of it.....just kiddin :)

 

Yea I know it's not aesthetically perfect. I just like look and feel of the picture. Sometimes "perfect" is cliche. I actually thought less detail in the blacks worked pretty well in this. I'm going to go smash my camera now. thanks

 

 

Actually I do appreciate your opinion and I wish more people would give their 2 cents on this site no matter how you feel about a picture.

Looks so classic... really nice. Personally, I like to convert my pictures to B&W on the Channel Mixer of Photoshop. You tick monochrome and then, by changing the amount of Red, Green and Blue, you can achieve different results.

The total amount of the three colors must be around 100. Red has more grain. Once you get used, you will ply with it.

Regards.

Chad, I like your attitude! Most posters say they want honest critiques but really don't. The look in her eyes makes this a good photo, even with the technical flaws. This image reminds of a photo of Patty Hearst after she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army way back when.

Tim, I can assure you have no affiliation w/ the SLA. "Kidnapping" it has such a negative connotation. I like to refer to it as "domestication" I'm fine with an honest opinion when it comes to art. Anything else (like politics religion, or my self) I'm much less tolerant. BTW If that was you who gave me a 4/4...shove it up your @#$. ;)

 

 

Lucky for me none of you realize that look is actually saying " I'm going to shove that @#$^@#! camera up your @#$ if you take my picture one more time.

 

Tim, nice pictures of Milwaukee. I especially like those shots of that storm. Very cool.

PS the above comments were meant to make my self laugh.

 

 

This portrait has an interesting vintage feel...I like what you've done here...great use of available light and the high contrast ratio really enhances the feel.