BW high contrast portrait.

[Tzetsin]

Hello guys / girls I wanted to make this picture into a black and white and give it a bit of an old time grit look.

I posted it in the other people section and havn'g gotten any response back at all, so perhaps there is something wrong with it. Please let me know what I'm missing so that I may learn from it, and be able to take better pictures in the future.



XIF
F/7.1
1/100 sec
ISO -100
focal length 40
metering mode pattern
Flash did fire.

Thanks for looking ;D

[Ambrosia76]

I like the B&W. As for making it look aged or older- It would probably work for the guy,but the modern looking building and the coffee cup kind of blow away any old time feel. also the building seems to be a strange angle.

Maybe crop it so the coffee cup is gone and lose most of the building and add a little grain to it.

[Tzetsin]

I see what your saying. But I dont think removing the content and half the focus of the shot is going to improve it. Perhaps the old time grit feel is better left to some other shot with better elements to support it.

[JFSanders]

My biggest issue with it is that the subject is walking out of the frame and as such leads the eye out of the frame. I don't think you can change that. I like the idea of going retro. It needs less contrast and more grain if you can manage it in post without blowing it up to badly. I Like the concept. Jim

[graciousness]

Does the building actually lean like that or is that lens distortion? It's quite prominent and it's the first thing I noticed on the photo.

Personally, too, I feel it's just a tad bit tight crop on the top - I think it just needs just a little bit more so that you can sense more of the space. But only a little, not a lot.

I wouldn't crop out the coffee - it's part of the man. Although that take-away coffee cup has just blown the retro-feel concept of the image. If you look at the image and imagine the coffee cup not being there, there would be this mystery to the photo that one would wonder when it was taken (thanks to your post-processing ideas). However, that coffee cup takes away that wonder now and you've time-stamped the photo to the present. Does that make sense?

If this is a posed image, I would have preferred if his velvet coat was brushed out as you can see little tiny white specks on it (quite natural to velvet coats as it just attracts lint so easily). But that's just me being picky now (I ALWAYS scan for people's clothes in photos hehe).

It's a great photo, otherwise

Cheers,

Grace

[Tzetsin]

Originally Posted by graciousness

Does the building actually lean like that or is that lens distortion? It's quite prominent and it's the first thing I noticed on the photo.

Personally, too, I feel it's just a tad bit tight crop on the top - I think it just needs just a little bit more so that you can sense more of the space. But only a little, not a lot.



If this is a posed image, I would have preferred if his velvet coat was brushed out as you can see little tiny white specks on it (quite natural to velvet coats as it just attracts lint so easily). But that's just me being picky now (I ALWAYS scan for people's clothes in photos hehe).

It's a great photo, otherwise

Cheers,

Grace

This shot is actually just me trying to capture some weird architecture. The man is a friend of mine, I asked him to jump in the scene as it looked pretty plain without a focus. So while this shot wasnt "really" staged, I did ask him to look this way or that while I set up the flash and composition.

The building is all angles and strange lines, but the off axis doorway is mostly lens distortion and sudo dutch angles

I'm not "really" trying for "old" or "retro" with the photo, more an older classic look. The coffee cup really does take a bit away from it, but honestly unless you really look, your eye is so not drawn down to that corner anyway.

Thanks for the help guys and girls

[Niresangwa]

Originally Posted by JFSanders

My biggest issue with it is that the subject is walking out of the frame and as such leads the eye out of the frame.

I actually like this part of it.

I like the conversion, don't think it needs the grain at all. Doesnt add anything to me.

I would crop off the attache case though. Thats the only distraction to me.

[Tzetsin]

I actually wanted to get rid of the attache case too, but its in such a spot that i'd have to forgo the coffee cup as well. Though i cant say that i like the "newness" of the cup, i think that he's holding "something" adds to the shot.