Hear her play...

Any comments would be welcome, many thanks.

This is a wonderful capture Bridget. Its quite energetic and has lovely details throughout. I like how you caught the musician with her hair falling in her face and with the light falling on the face as it is. I'm not sure where you're getting your T-Max processed but stick with that lab because it comes out quite nice. Where I have a small criticism is in the burning in around the accordionist. Its a bit too strong for my tastes but again that's a matter of preference. That, however, is no big impediment to my enjoyment of the image, which I certainly do.

 

Well, thats it for me...over and out. Vacation here I come... :)

I process them myself, so if you need any processed whilst in London........Tee Hee.

I agree with you on the burning it is not quite right, I nearly didn't post it up but was persuaded to !

 

Best wishes

 

Bridget

AND IT'S A GOOD THING YOU DID!!!! CAUSE I LIKE IT JUST THE WAY IT IS =0)!! another incredible picture!

IT'S GREAT!

I wouldn't change anything. I can hear her play!

Hi Bridget.

This is a great shot, but I feel the printing/scanning could be better.

I think it would help if you coverted this to greyscale as the hue is not very pleasing. I also feel it needs more contrast and could be a little sharper. Also burning in the background till it's black if possible would be good.

Sorry for so much citicism, but this shot has the potential to be a stunner.

 

It is constructive critism which is what was needed and I thank you ! Everything you said is right, I have a few images of this girl and will work on them all. I am not very good in PS but am learning and as they say practise makes perfect !!! Thanks again :-)

Bridget,

Click on Image on the photoshop menu, mode, then greyscale. Then try Image, Adjust, then levels and play around with the 3 sliding arrows. The one on the left does the shadows, the middle one the mid tones and the one on the right the highlights. Just play around with then till you get the effect you want. Then try filter,sharpen, unsharp mask. Set the thresold to around 2, the radius around 1-2 and slide amount up and down till you get a nice sharp image. As for burning in the background, this can be done too in photoshop but I usually print the old way in the darkroom. I'm guessing that the best way to do this with photoshop is to make a selection of the musician and then just darken what remains. It may be tricky to do this without making it obvious but it can be done. Others may be able to help you better than I with this one.

Your picture violin 2 is superb by the way (just needs sharpened), really fantastic to be honest.

Look forward to seeing more of your work!

I hear her playing... the suggestion of Gareth, when you look at the contrast, is ok but i prefere the your softer toning of the original. Good is the diagonal arrangement of the accordeon.

As usual you have captured the essence of the subject, I love the movement and intensity. I agree with many of the previous posts. I like the tones as they are. The softness is appropriate for the subjet, to add more contrast would, for my taste, make the picture too hard.

I too would like to see the background darker, but from the burning you have already added I would guess the background must have been very pale to begin with. The chances are you could spend a large amount of time working on that and still end up with lots of processing artifacts.

 

 

 

Another great musician shot. I love your shots of them. You've captured this one very good, and this tone is a little bit better, then plain black/white. With burning the background it's easily visible. It could be much better (as gareth suggested) if you selected the background (try using laso or magic wand) and darkened it this way.

Hello Briget:

 

Nice shot with lots of energy. As noted above, the contrast could be better.

 

Here's an alternate approach to contrast control in PS which, in theory at least, should produce a richer B&W image -- especially if you end up making prints on an inkjet printer rather than a darkroom.

 

Start by scanning your negs in RGB mode. Then go to Image>Adjustment>Curves. At the bottom of the Curves box are a row of eye dropper samplers. Use the first one to set the "black point" of your image by sampling from a pure black and use the second eye dropper to set the "white point" by sampling from the lightest area that you can find which has a tone to it (in other words, not a spectral highlight).

 

As with all things Photoshop, you'll have to experiment. The advantage of this approach is that it allows you to increase or decrease contrast while, in effect, maintaining the full tonal range of your image.

 

Have fun!

 

 

good on so many levels ... background...her face(or lack there of)... the movement ... love it...7-7

I think it's a really nice shot, juicy subject matter, good tone and contrast.. But one tiny thing- it seems to end a bit abruptly at the bottom cropping? Like maybe it'd be different if the border wasn't so close to the accordion? Still like it though.. Keep it up!

IMO, the halo left from the dodging does not add value to the picture. I don't get much information from this shot, I think it is because of 2 factors: first, I have no info from the background, second, as I cannot see the girls face I cannot understand her mood from her expression. Therefore, this shot does not say much for me. Again just my opinion...

Very interesting subject and shot, and i just love how the grain and tones turned out

Excellent! your folder is excellent..yes, really.

I agree with those who say the dodging halo is distracting, but then again, distracting dodging/burning artifacts are a pet peeve of mine. :-)

 

But I DO like the photo! I like the way the top of the accordion forms an extension of her right arm, and I like the way the folds of the accordion mirror the waves in her hair. There's more than a bit of sexiness in it, in fact. I'd like to know what her face looks like, but in this view it might grab too much attention. Perhaps a diptych with a more frontal shot would work?