B&W Portrait

[SWalton]

Hey took this self portrait in a mirror, first time using raw, got some mad options to tweak in Ps (really , I really like my expression and the glare on my glasses but then I'm biased .
Critique Please.

[clockdoc]

What did RAW do for you that a straight jpg color-to-monochrome conversion couldn't do? I am not that familiar with RAW processing as yet.

[SWalton]

The data is 12 bit instead of 8 bit so you have a lot more control over the image, like tweaking white balance, shadows, exposure, fix fringing and vigenneting. I suppose you could also do most of these in Ps with a Jpeg aswell but it's easier and looks nicer in raw.

What I done was sharpened it, boosted the contrast and used vigenneting to give it darker corners.

[clockdoc]

Thanks for the explanation. Last night I read of a technique for sharpening that I had never heard of before. They suggested converting the color image to "Lab color" (which changed it to a monochrome image), sharpening to your taste, then resharpen using the same " unsharp filter" settings but adjusting the opacity level of the second sharpening before recovering it as the RGB original color. I tried it and it did seem to provide a better quality of sharpening but I honestly have no idea of why it turned out the way it did. I have much to learn about such things coming from a background where these types of controls were done in the camera, developing the film and in the printing process--- all long before Photoshop and RAW files. 8-)

[drrlam]

Its very . . . . . interesting!

Looks like a promo for "The Blair Witch Project" or a remake of "The Shining".

Just for my interest - how did you take the photo? I've never thought about taking a self portait in a mirror before. . . . Its late here and I can't get a visualisation of the setup . . . .

It does look good in B+W though.

[SWalton]

I sat on a chair oppisite the mirror with my camera in my lap pointing upwards, had to check the lcd to make sure i had the right comp before blairwitching-up, then just snapped it.