New Nephew in monochrome (portrait)

[RichardHealy]

UPDATE:

I've removed this photo from my Flickr.


Thanks for all the comments and support, pleased consider this thread closed.

[ajax_andy]

I really like the B&W version. I can't offer much more than that i'm afraid as the type of feedback you are asking for would need to come from someone with a better photoshop background than me.

You could maybe boost the contrast a fair bit, but as the dark parts are very dark i'm not sure if that would actually work all that well? Might be worth a try though.

[RichardHealy]

This morning I've been playing around with dodge/burn to bring out the light blonde colour of Jo's hair - and that's been fairly effective in raising the brightness in the areas where I think the photo needs it as in B&W it is fairly dark.

But I'm trying to avoid looking like she's a time lord regenerating or just plain old blowing out the highlights. (especially along where the baby's head transitions into blanket)

I am going to create a layered mask of Jo using Topaz remask (for all the fine hairs) so I can selectively edit her, Bradley from the background.

But you are correct, I need some help from people who know their way around photoshop's monochrome tool set.

Thanks for the kind comments.

[RichardHealy]

A Day spent post-processing in Photoshop and I think I've got a version I am happy with.

5 layers.

coloured background

Duplicate >monochrome > portrait / gaussian blur / some contrast, brightness settings.

Mask of Jo and Bradley using Topaz Remask* > monochrome vivid landscape > contrast and brightness > sharpened > denoised

Softlight layer > 50% gray > 5 -10% b/w brush applied for dodge/burn.

Vignette layer > large oval > full feather and smooth 95% black, 35% opacity

Exposure	0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture	f/1.8
Focal Length	50 mm
ISO Speed	100
Exposure Bias	0EV

*this is where the majority of my day was spent, persuading topaz to detect all the fine strands of Jo's hair. Tough but it was worth it!

[shawnhopkins]

From what I've learned about monochrome is that colors still play a part in lighting levels. Reds, yellows, etc. I found a few books by Ansel Adams that helped me understand a bit more about black and white, than I did prior to reading those books. Even though Ansel used film and film processing methods, (and we digital) you still get a good understanding the role colors play in black and white.

[RichardHealy]

Makes sense. So what did you learn?

[Bruce A]

Good work Richard - the re-processing in #3 has really made it happen.

[RichardHealy]

Thanks Bruce.

Anything I could improve on do you think?