Bare back and tattoo

[Olivier H]

Under my skin



Tattoo designed by myself.
Lit with LED stick-lamps, curved edited to balance tones.
I was wondering if I shall convert this one to black and white, or leave the blueish tint and the very little hint of skin color.

Thanks for viewing, and for comments and critiques.

[peeperita]

nice design with the tattoo.....and i like the negative space along the framing.....as far as the black and white conversion goes, it's one of those "lets see" times.....i'd love to see the repost.....

peeper

[wulf]

Genuine tattoo or photoshopped on? I'd be inclined to stick with the colours as they are - very subtle but, without them, I think the impact of the tattoo might be lost.

Wulf

[Robin Sarac]

I'm not sure I like the bluish tint from the lights...and the color of the tattoo could be a little darker for the picture. I think the lighting makes it look light. I wonder what a polarizer would do in this case? Would it deepen the tattoo?

[Olivier H]

Originally Posted by wulf

Genuine tattoo or photoshopped on?

Genuine tatoo

I see diverging opinions here about color .
I had tried a B/W conversion before uploading and was not so satisfied. Did not have the time yet to upload it so you can see it.

The tattoo itself could indeed be a bit darker. I would use a mask to do so, as I'm not sure a polarizing filter would have much effect on it.
Actually, does skins polarizes light?

Thank you for your comments, nevertheless

[Olivier H]

Hello
Here is the test black and white version of the photo. I'm not so satisfied, still, comparing to the "color" version.
Maybe it lacks a little sepia-like tint (even very subtle)?

[wulf]

Going monochrome makes it look much more like it was painted on. In the first picture I thought it was either a real tat' or a very good digital darkroom job; in this variant, it looks like a less skilled "photoshop" job (although, the image is a bit small to judge fairly).

Wulf

[Olivier H]

I've just noticed I've mistaken the big version URL.
Corrected in the post.
Or just go here.

[wulf]

I still think the monochrome version looks fake, even viewed larger. I think it is partly that the lines of the tattoo are very clean - as you recall, I had to ask even about the original colour version.

Wulf

[Olivier H]

Originally Posted by wulf

I still think the monochrome version looks fake,

You're absolutely right!
As for me, I still find the monochrome version generally dull...