In Her Corner #2A

I have this image where I think I want it. I've cleaned the scan

digitally, so hopefully this version is more appealing, though I have

little skill in the digital darkroom. I've been experimenting with tone,

contrast and other effects. Constructive comments appreciated.

Tracy,

  Photoshop offers a tool called the histogram, which also is provided in many cameras. I have copied the histogram from this image placed in Photoshop so you can study it. Notice the general appearance of a graph - the histogram is a graph of your tonality range in the picture. Notice that the right end of the graph bunches up and makes a huge peak. That is a sign that you have overexposed the image. Working with a jpeg file, it cannot be corrected. If you saved your original in a larger file structure like Camera RAW, etc. you may have enough data that you can adjust it. However the range of light is so large that your histogram also shows a peak in the shadows (notice that the hair has completely lost texture and become black).
That double end peak graph indicates that the original lighting is too contrasty. Just looking at your image, one can see that the nearby leg is completely white, without skin texture at all. Perhaps studying photographic studio lighting would help you get the results you want.
Jerry

Jerry has made a wonderful description illustration for us here.  Your artistic side has been really shining through.  It would be good to study the scientific side now too.  I've had students ask me in the past... "Which is more important, the art of photography or the science of it?"  My answer has always been "Yes!"

Its a film scan, so I don't have a raw file to work from.  The science side makes my eyes cross, but I'm willing to try and figure it out.  I have a less contrasty version of this in my port that I can work from as well.  I will see what I can do with that.  I can use studio lighting with mixed results, though it usually works OK, but I prefer to use available light or a single, fixed, constant light source for B+W (I have experimented some using this lighting technique for color as well, but so far I'm not happy with the results).  Studio lighting tends to work better for me with color images.  I will go back and work with the original again.  I loved this image, but have never been happy with the overall quality.  Hopefully I can get it to an acceptable level.

Tracy

This is about the best I can do in terms of the histogram with the current scan.  I'm not sure, but I think I prefer the more abstract version above.

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=16646376

 ../photodb/photo?photo_id=16646376

This is such a gritty raw representation of the blatantly explicit. I have to say that I rather like the 'film look' that of course is genuine film. Sometimes, we get a little too carried away with histograms and the perfect exposure. The simplicity is in the composition and how your subject seems to have opened up. That is the success of this picture