Black And White Portrait Thread

time to throw my picture into the mix. I don't normally take photos of people as I am trying to get to grips with non living subjects first but my niece was just sitting there looking out the window so i grabbed a fast shot

Pondering Child by Forsyth1987, on Flickr
 
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I came back with 743 photos from my holiday and the best of the bunch wasn't by me but was a portrait of my brother-in-law taken by my ten year old daughter. I am narked to say the least.

Handheld, 1/20th sec, f5, iso3200

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Ian, the lighting in the second one of Amy is near perfect. If I was going to nit pick about it I don't like the strands of hair over her left eye, but given the lighting and the power of her expression most aren't going to notice it.
 
Ian-Highlander said:
Thanks for the amazing comments Christopher, much appreciated. (y)
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Ian, thank you in turn for replying, I've gone back to it since and had a longer look at it as it is a 'powerful' portrait, by which I mean one which if it was enlarged to say 20" x 16" and wall mounted in a normal sized living room it would become the centre of attraction.

I don't know how good your processing skills are but I have also seen a few more minor points, which I think would improve it further. The fact that I didn't notice them on the first viewing also shows how well you have captured her 'look'.

They are :-

Removing the small white area in the right shoulder of her top.
Removing the strand of hair on her cheek below her right ear, the odd strands between her right eye and her ear and the strand of hair which has caught the light at the top of her head roughly above her left eye.



 
Earley Man said:
Ian, thank you in turn for replying, I've gone back to it since and had a longer look at it as it is a 'powerful' portrait, by which I mean one which if it was enlarged to say 20" x 16" and wall mounted in a normal sized living room it would become the centre of attraction.

I don't know how good your processing skills are but I have also seen a few more minor points, which I think would improve it further. The fact that I didn't notice them on the first viewing also shows how well you have captured her 'look'.

They are :-

Removing the small white area in the right shoulder of her top.
Removing the strand of hair on her cheek below her right ear, the odd strands between her right eye and her ear and the strand of hair which has caught the light at the top of her head roughly above her left eye.
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Thanks again for the comments Chris, have already gone through and removed "most" of those since your last post as we're planning on printing and framing it for home now. Hadn't done the lighter part of her top as I hadn't really noticed it, but now you've mentioned it I see it every time I look, so will be cloning that out too :LOL:
 
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I am just starting and find the B&W stunning- unto now through I have been shooting in Colour then converting- is that the 'best way ' ?
 
Graham Hoare said:
I am just starting and find the B&W stunning- unto now through I have been shooting in Colour then converting- is that the 'best way ' ?
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Don't know about best, but it is what I do. Lightroom will automatically convert to B&W and you can then fiddle about with the sliders but I find that a bit hit and miss. 50% of the time a simple preset B&W conversion will do me (the shot above uses a David du Chemin preset for Lightroom for example) but for serious stuff I will go into Silver Efex Pro, a plugin for Lightroom.
 
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