Brit 2583

Doug, you desaturated this for reasons unknown to viewers, which prompts the question: was the original color unrecoverable? I think Brit's light complexion and blond hair makes full b/w difficult, even the slight desaturation shown here removes her skin tone sufficiently to appear odd (to me) in contrast with her hair.

 

Her pose and expression suits her apparent personality.

How's the desaturation feel to you? I wanted it to be somewhere not real,

but not too unreal. Are the train tracks too strong? I was going for

tension between the here (Brit) and the there (the vanishing point). Is the

format (1:1.25) ok? there's a good bit more space on the left, only a little

bit more on the right.

Mike, I'll post a full color comparison.

 

Well, there it is there, too (above). I felt the color was too rich and sought to subdue it a little, for variety, if nothing else. I don't want everything we shot to look like it was all shot in one session.

ok, I've posted a full scale version, too, but I can't put it in the critique forum because I've used too many.

How about a full B/W, Doug? Made from your full color version, using the red layer to darken the green - no blue layer used, then some contrast tweak.

I did one of those too,but felt it was too chalky, or too stark, or that something was off. Maybe I'm out of practice with B&W?

oh! you posted one too. It didn't load when I read your comment and then too quickly responded. I think the desat version, to be really honest, is my all to anxious desire to compromise. I didn't feel comfortable with either the color or the black and white and so sought some middle ground.

Yes, I can see how the original color version looks nice, but a little ordinary. Here's another B/W slightly bumped with Curves.

Ha! We've been talking at the same time. :-) Okay, let me study what you did. Your B/W looks great. I think the background can be much darker and with a bit more contrast. Hard to tell after a while, isn't it? Need some time to digest this.

yeah, it gets tough to distinguish, and value the nuance of difference, you're right. I'm remembering what you wrote about context, and I'm wondering if the additional information in the picture (the tracks, woods, sky) are enough. There doesn't seem to be a real hook in the picture, other than Brit herself, to satisfy me. I like the vanishing tracks, but it would be nice if there were something else to round out the context. I'm wondering now about a more drastic crop (above) .

ha, no. that's no good.

Yeah, I think the more isolated crop looks better. The tracks doesn't really add to her expression or pose; it might have been quite different had she been playfully skipping along or even a more animated facial expression. A sad look might have worked well too, taking advantage of the normal association with abandoned tracks.

 

Here, Brit is in a model's pose and look. It's beautiful, but could take place anywhere, some places more suited than others; I guess that's the contextual part of it.

oh, you like this last one I posted, where the tracks were cropped out?

Yes, the "no more tracks" crop. It looks far better to me.