Nude & Two Stumps (color version)

I thought that the hair coloring was a little strange so I also made a black

and white version. You might look at both and make comments on them.

I have them in the same folder so you can press the arrow to get to the

black and white version.

Nice composition Jerry. I like the  bl & wt version too. I never cease to be fascinated by the identification with a world of black and white in which we do not live. 

What I find a little strange though from a master in levels control such as yourself, is the relative lack of contrast on the body and the slightly blown out hair in the monochrome version (not present in the one above). I am certain that you could cope with this, though I  certainly couldn't do better myself. Or maybe it's just my monitor that I have sworn to change before the decade is out. 

I think the reason that black and white is so popular has to do with history; it came first and was all that was available for so long. Couple that with the impossibility of using the famous zone system with color film (the characteristic curves of each color layer were not parallel to each other and any manipulation lead to color balance problems) and there was a long period of time where many photographers worked exclusively in monochrome.  I am old enough to remember when the local newspaper first printed a single picture in color in their paper.  Newspapers, largely tied to black and white imaging, made strong influences upon those interested in photo imaging.

I had the opportunity, for a number of years, to teach high school students film and darkroom photography.  At the beginning of the year, they acted very disappointed that we would not be working with color.  When, in May, I gave a single lecture on color photography and invited my class to try color slide film, their response was "No, black and white is complicated enough - let us try to perfect our skills in that."  In eight years I had a single student who exposed two rolls of color slide film: one Kodachrome and the other Ektachrome and went on to print some wallet size images on Cibachrome paper.

Perhaps, even in digital days, some feel that the challenge of black & white is basic and needs to be dealt with first.

You might be interested in how I derived the effect you see in black and white from this color image.  The model was a little bit of a challenge for me: she wore facial piercings, a very bold tattoo on her upper chest and had dyed and bleached her hair in a peculiar pattern (as you can see on the color image)  What I did was to place her facing away to eliminate the piercings and tattoo and then, in Adobe Raw, I removed all of the orange color and made it into black and white.  The huge contrast between her hair and body in terms of tone was what I then posted as the black and white version because I felt that it did not exactly look like anything I had done before.  She really looks like a platinum blond. I posted both color and the monochrome so people could compare.   

Jerry

Thank you for the time taken with this detailed reply Jerry.

This picture is fantastic in all the ways for me.

And I have enjoyed very much your response to John. Thanks.