Black and White Portraits that WOW!

[blinsky]

I have seen some black and white portrait work that had almost a metallic like finish, with high contrast and a ridiculous sharpness and focus on the eyes...

I am wondering what methods people use to achieve this effect?

[jiminyClickit]

blinsky, Welcome

A sample posted here would bring some response.

[blinsky]

here are some examples I found on flickr by stoneth (http://www.flickr.com/photos/stoneth/)

[jdepould]

Looks like film to me.

[JF Ahlstrom-Cooney]

I'd try the camera in B/W mode, if it's digital, and a blue filter.

Then I'd sharpen my shots in PS using the High Pass method (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/high-pass-sharpening.shtml)

[KagoGrl]

Hey,

I'm a huge b&w fan myself - particularly very high contrast shots. I don't know exactly how those shots were taken but I can tell you that playing with the channel mixer in photoshop after applying the grayscale filter can really make shots pop.

For example:

http://k43.pbase.com/g3/94/618394/3/55195595.Elizabeth001.jpg

Hope that helps. I'm very new to all things photography so I don't have a lot to offer but I do what I can.

[Sime™]

hey blinksy, Tom Stone does shoot some amazing stuff!... I have sent him an email... if I hear back, i'll post here. (and pm you)

He has some stuff over HERE (http://www.tomstonegallery.com/photography/) too...

[Sime™]

So, Tom emailed back and here is what he had to say!

"It's pretty straight up actually. First off, it's the face of course; the subject; and your interaction with them.
Then it's just not screwing up the shot ;)

I shoot with a Nikon D200 with the 50mm 1.8 nikkor. it's all natural light (no flash etc). I get really close and I pay close attention to the lighting orientation.

I convert to bw using channel mixer. and i use some levels and curves and such"

We have no excuses, time to get out there and shoot some of our own?!...

Sime

[Saralonde]

Ah, if it were only as simple as he says it is!

[Sime™]

Yeah... know what you mean, I just have to get passsed the "approaching a total stranger" bit... and then to work on the right transfer from color to b+w.... have you had a look at his flickR? some great stories accompany the images... one day!...

hmmm... I need to do my STRANGER assignment... argh!!... (it was a personal challenge, guess i'd better stump up the courage and do it!)

[psykon99]

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z182/psykon99/Portfolio/Black%20and%20White/JordanPonyPartyBW.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z182/psykon99/Portfolio/Black%20and%20White/JulioPonyPartyBW.jpg

[psykon99]

Ok, I gotta few more...

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z182/psykon99/Portfolio/Black%20and%20White/AnneBW.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z182/psykon99/Portfolio/Black%20and%20White/RhemaBW.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z182/psykon99/Portfolio/Black%20and%20White/GrandpaBW1.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z182/psykon99/Portfolio/Black%20and%20White/DadBW.jpg

I'm still working on my conversion technique. Comments and critique more than welcome!

[jiminyClickit]

psykon99, Welcome

You have a little over/under exposure control problem that can be overcome with experience. Is the first shot cloned on left side? There's a shift in the grass pattern that says either background removal or even cut-and-paste work on the subject. Just curious.

[psykon99]

Jiminy,

There's no cloning in the shot. That's just how the grass was there. These are all older shots (from a few months ago) before I was focusing on exposure control. I'm hoping to take some newer stuff soon and do some conversion on it. That's going to be a whole new learning process - as tweaking B&W is not something I'm familiar with. I sure do enjoy it though!

[mpaulie]

Hi Everyone, here are few I've taken. They were all taken in black and white mode on the camera itself and the only post processing is auto levels in ps. Now that I think about it maybe i should be using unsharpen mask as well.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mpaulie/1115044004/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1274/1115044004_6c4f3202f5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="thinking of..." /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mpaulie/1202209679/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1334/1202209679_5d7bd2bc1b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="The cutter" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mpaulie/1227062120/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1110/1227062120_1b5432bb5b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="silhouette" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mpaulie/1267093857/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1281/1267093857_0c963c19de.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="in between 2" /></a>

[mpaulie]

one more

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mpaulie/1286489274/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1023/1286489274_cc9a7d40a9.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Thinker" /></a>