Very Tight Shots in Black and White

Eia

I was asked by a friend to take a few photos of another friend's children. The request was for a very tight shot and converted to black and white. I like the tight crop for what it will be used for - - but - - is the b & w conversion suitable? And boy....were they wiggle worms - quite difficult!

woytek

Eia wrote:

I was asked by a friend to take a few photos of another friend's children. The request was for a very tight shot and converted to black and white. I like the tight crop for what it will be used for - - but - - is the b & w conversion suitable? And boy....were they wiggle worms - quite difficult!

I'm a relative newbie on these forums, and I used to shoot and print a lot of B&W film, so take these comments as you see fit.

I like several of these, but I have minor issues with a couple. Specifically, 1, 2, and 4 all seem to work pretty well. The conversion worked well, the contrast is good, lighting is pretty good (looks like maybe a speedlight on the camera--please correct me if I guessed incorrectly). #2 may have been improved somewhat with a different lighting position. You might want to check the crop on that one, too, as the hard shadow on the arm/leg/whatever in the bottom left area is a little distracting to me. I like the concept of #2, though.

I think that #3 is a little too flat and grey. If I was printing this from film, I might toss in a somewhat higher polycontrast filter and decrease my exposure time a little bit. Maybe a contrast bump and a bit of tonal modification might improve this.

I'm not a fan of the lighting or tone in #5. The up-lighting effect doesn't do much for me here, tone is unbalanced and could possibly use some more contrast, and I don't like the hard shadows.

Getting good shots in that kind of situation and with the intention of a close crop can be tough. I like the looks and detail that you were able to capture here.

jonathan

Eia

woytek wrote:

I'm a relative newbie on these forums, and I used to shoot and print a lot of B&W film, so take these comments as you see fit.

I like several of these, but I have minor issues with a couple. Specifically, 1, 2, and 4 all seem to work pretty well. The conversion worked well, the contrast is good, lighting is pretty good (looks like maybe a speedlight on the camera--please correct me if I guessed incorrectly). #2 may have been improved somewhat with a different lighting position. You might want to check the crop on that one, too, as the hard shadow on the arm/leg/whatever in the bottom left area is a little distracting to me. I like the concept of #2, though.

I think that #3 is a little too flat and grey. If I was printing this from film, I might toss in a somewhat higher polycontrast filter and decrease my exposure time a little bit. Maybe a contrast bump and a bit of tonal modification might improve this.

I'm not a fan of the lighting or tone in #5. The up-lighting effect doesn't do much for me here, tone is unbalanced and could possibly use some more contrast, and I don't like the hard shadows.

Getting good shots in that kind of situation and with the intention of a close crop can be tough. I like the looks and detail that you were able to capture here.

jonathan

Thank you very, very much for your detailed suggestions. I did go thru each one as you suggested and made some changes. I cloned out the arm in #2, (yikes -did not see that) and bumped up the contrast in #3. I tried to omit some shadows in the last and bump up contrast which helped some. Thanks again for your suggestion! And yea, I used a speedlight and available light but i really did have to chase them while doing this! Ha ha...it was very tiring but fun and we laughed!

adbsgicom

Eia, nice work. My only nit is that 3rd one (please put numbers in so it is easier to count them). The eyes are at about mid-frame and it makes his forehead really pronounced. If you can, move his eyes up to 2/3 or crop square.

anwmn1

I really like #1 and #4

ivar

The b/w conversion seems nice. Some could use a bit more exposure I think, but cute series