Nick- I'll limit myself to processing considerations, which I admit are subjective:
There's an awful lot of noise in #3 for some reason- perhaps not easily dealt with.
1. I'd prefer more contrast in all of these images.
2. Also some additional sharpening and edge sharpening.
Charlie
I'm not sure I'm really qualified to comment, but I'll take a shot...
I don't do a lot of people shots. But on my B&W shots (usually IR), I try to get more contrast. I like the high contrast potential of B&W. IMO, every B&W shot should have a little pure black. You can see this by looking at the histogram in "Levels" Move the black slider over until it just touches the edge of the curve. If the photo is too dark or light, move the grey middle slider to adjust this. You can also play with the right slider, but I find that not all photos need to have pure white.
I shoot a lot of IR, which may require different processing that other shots. But this is usually where I start, just to see what's in the image and if there is any potential...
I like the shy downward look in #1 -- it is expressive. Bringing the eyes up to the camera would have made it even better. The window framing is a great idea, but if you were to show more of the window frame on the left side then the composition would feel more balanced. The sunglasses give it a good candid feel, but it would look better without them.
The best advice I could give you is go look at NIK Sliver Efix for B&W. It works in CS or LR. It does an awesome job and is not very expensive. To learn how to use it get Black and White from snap shots to great shots. Plus they have lots of tutorials on NIK. Good luck, keep shooting.
sauerball wrote:
The best advice I could give you is go look at NIK Sliver Efix for B&W. It works in CS or LR. It does an awesome job and is not very expensive. To learn how to use it get Black and White from snap shots to great shots. Plus they have lots of tutorials on NIK. Good luck, keep shooting.
+1 You simply have to have it. Check out my site everything was done with silver efex.
I like your images. I do a lot of BW. When posting on internet forums, half the people will always cry out for more contrast. I truly believe most of them do not know how to properly critique an image. The contrast in your images is just fine. Hold your ground!
Really appreciate the feedback. This isn't the first (or even eighth) time I've been told to look into Silver Efex -- seems like I've got some experimentin' to do.
