The Tango Dancer**

'The Tango Dancer' was originally a color photo but begged (to me at

least) to be desaturated, here by Channel Mixer through checking

(ticking) the 'monochrome' button and adjusting the color sliders,

as this appears 'meant' to be a monochrome capture. Do you agree?

Your ratings and critiques are invited and most welcome. If you

rate harshly or very critically, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; Please share your superior photographic

knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks! John!

At this writing, ratings rate from 3/3 to 5s and 6s, which indicate that raters have visceral feelings about this photo, and/or it cannot be easily rated according to the Photo.net paradigm -- something that makes me feel good about posting it.

I've been to Paris Photo Exposition, and one thing I can say with some certainty is very few photos at all on Photo.net would withstand being posted at such an exhibition.

This might be such an exception.

Much of which might score 2/2 or 3/3 on this service might well be a showstopper at a 'fine art' exhibition such as Paris Photo or may well be worth a stop by collectors and curators (see my upcoming photo in months 'The Curator'), but one thing is certain, the bent of 'fine art' here on Photo.net and what is commercially viable in print market is drastically different.

John (Crosley)

)Never saw the color version, but super impact value in b&w. Might personally be more pleased without the pair of shoes at the top...but then there's also a piece of me that enjoys their appearance as they give perspective. Nope, back to my original shot. Would rather not see them so as to give the illusion that you have taken this shot from the ground just in front of her and that the tiles behind are actually a wall. (just me? oh well)

Anyway, great conversion (especially obvious in her shirt and the white shawl (?) ) Excellent work.

As to the ratings... maybe they're from golfers (ie: lower the score = better the work?)

First -- about the shoes. I placed them there (actually chose to keep them there, as a simple rotation would have meant they would have to be removed if the frame were 'straightened' for the sake not only of 'perspective' but also for compositional 'balance'.

This is one of those 'surprise' photos one takes.

This is a 'street' tango dancer on a tile street area on Calle ('Cazhe' -- 'Castizhan' Spanish, not Castillian as one would expect) Florida in Buenos Aires, and I was photographing her.

As her routine came to an end, I caught her in her street finale and caught the shoes, top right and liked them for balance.

Except for the coloration of her face, slightly red with the flesh tones because of exertion, this was primarily a B&W capture, so desaturating it was a no-brainer (it took 'no brains' for those who are not native English speakers/writers).

So, my first instinct was to 'rotate' to square it up, but that meant getting rid of the shoes, upper right, because they would have had to be cropped out, and I didn't like that at all -- it gave the photo more of a sterile look and divorced it from context -- I'm trying to get more contextual in my 'street' photos these days, and notice from looking at earlier, successful street photographers they often didn't square things up -- Robert Doisneau didn't know up from sideways often and shot at all sorts of cockeyed angles, which I haven't usually, and I'm allowing myself more leeway.

The desaturation was easy -- just check (tick) the monochrome box and move the color sliders in Channel Mixer to taste (didn't take much as the exposure was 'dead on' and there it was. I adjusted brightness and contrast a little separately, and that was it.

Hardly any magic -- just 'to taste'. No fancy curves, selections, shadow/highlight filter (which I often use instead of 'levels' -- a very good tip by the way), and 'curves' are impossible to replicate so I eschew them entirely -- just won't use them unless it's a tour de force masterwork (and I have yet to produce one, so that being said, I just no longer use 'curves' ;-)) )

Thanks for the accolade.

As for the ratings: I'm at Paris Photo, just ended today, and frankly none of the work on Photo.net aside maybe from Ben Goosens, or a few others, would get so much as a sideways glance (or maybe work like this and some others I've posted, which is a bit more edgy), so, what the hey for ratings. I long ago chose to refer to them for Photo.net popularity among the 'saturation' and 'perfection' crowd, but for 'originality' in my captures, I just take 'em, post 'em and hardly give a good god-da*n about ratings -- I get millions of viewers anyway because I think my stuff is interesting and no two photos are alike.

Which is how I want it to be.

Nothing boring.

Everything on the spur of the moment too -- just walk around with a camera and take photos, generally, never knowing what will crop up (excuse the expression) next.

Best wishes,

John (Crosley)

P.S. Oh, and Jeff, if I took out the shoes, what about the darkness from the shoe shadows? How to fix or explain that?

JSC

Here's the original color capture reduced in size for in-line posting.

You can see why it begged for treatment as a B&W photo.

I seldom shoot 'straight' B&W in the camera, though it's an option in my D2X, D2Xs (Nikon added it in firmware to the D2X with a recent change) as well as the D200 because Channel Mixer by checking the monochrome box gives so much more creative control, whereas if one uses Nikon's software in sRGB, one is stuck with what they give you (I think) and one cannot fiddle around with the color channels later for a better result.

John (Crosley)