new b&w...experimenting

urbanaries

every year or so I experiment with new b&w processing...here's my newest, seeing what you guys think before I commit to several in this set i'm working on! kinda reminds me of a toned T-Max:lust

hope everyone's having a pleasantly busy summer :ivar

variation 1


variation 2

mmmatt

As a disclaimer Lynne I am on my laptop which is a 17" calibrated 1920x1280 screen, but it is different than my home screen that I am now more used to. That being said I LOVE the shots, and I can see that your exposures are fine but I'm not seeing as much of the detail in the highlights as I would like to see. Not bad but that is my nit. I may feel differently when I see it at home...

Matt

heatherfeather

Actually, Mmatt, I was going to say the same thing. In fact, I am not sure where her sleves end and her arms begin, or if she even has sleves.
I love what it is doing to your backgrounds though... Definately worth tweaking.

mmmatt

I just checked and the detail is all there (as I'm sure Lynne knows ) good luck with that one Lynne! super close to awesomeness. You may want to set things up a few ways and print some samples to see how they print to make the final call. Just no bayphoto color correcting because those guys do too good a job!

matt

Qarik

I think it is a very particular look. Personally I like it but I am not sure if your every day client will like as much.

Darren Troy C

And clients...may not/probably won't...get so detailed as some of the responses that you will receive here. Seems that way to often creativity takes a back seat to technical perfection. Screw it...these are super nice and a version that I will definitely be trying. Nice work!

urbanaries

thanks guys! mmatt & heather, good point on the hotness, I will try a few versions in print and see what works best!

Darren, good points, creativity vs. "correct-ness" is always a struggle, especially when you're working for paying clients!

here's the SOOC shot in case anyone's curious...I started with a layer of the TRA SX-70 action to get that first element of softness.

mmmatt

yum! The 50 1.4? Delicious bokeh!!

You know... she is mighty pale and her dress doesn't have a lot of detail so I would say save that recipie for times where that isn't the case and it probably would be money. That is probably a lot of it. Like Heather said it really worked wonderfully on the background.

*edit* You know, sometimes when a b&w conversion doesn't do it for me, I like to go back to my raw file and mess with the white balance. Drop your saturation slider down to -0- and play with the white balance until you can squeak out a bit more detail. Then export to jpg as a desaturated color image and run your conversions again. Some b&w actions, if you are actioning, won't work on an image that is already grayscale, so leaving it in color but desaturated gives you a good preview. You may find that the white balance difference can help you out!

Matt

urbanaries

mmmatt wrote: »

yum! The 50 1.4? Delicious bokeh!!

You know... she is mighty pale and her dress doesn't have a lot of detail so I would say save that recipie for times where that isn't the case and it probably would be money. That is probably a lot of it. Like Heather said it really worked wonderfully on the background.

Matt

Great point about the lack of dress detail / skin contrast to begin with. oh and the shot was w/ the 135 2.0, at f2.2.

Darren Troy C

urbanaries wrote: »

Darren, good points, creativity vs. "correct-ness" is always a struggle, especially when you're working for paying clients!

Agreed. I'm just saying I doubt they would nit-pick ANY of these images from a technical perspective. They're pleasing to the eye and evoke feeling.