mono portrait

I was asked to take a few shots of a friend with his Fender today, casually done in his lounge with natural window light. I was really excited to see this one come out, what do you reckon is it as good as I think it is?




50mm 1.4 FA; 1/20s @ f/3.5 100iso
16 bit RAW CS3 levels and sharpening

I didn't know Fender made violins.

It's great. I'd try cropping at the top, even cutting the top of the head to really concentrate our eyes where it counts.

Well done Lilly.

well they do Chris, its an electric one.

Thanks John, I wasn't sure about that, was being influenced by HCB type of portraiture, but still not sure, I think the cropped version changes the mood of the image, anyway as you suggest:

I like it very much Lilly and would be inclined to crop it down a bit further maybe to the top of the forehead.
Love your mono's

Great shot, Lilly.
And the cropping suggestion seems to work nicely (I'm always hesitant to chop at peoples heads but in photography it can have positive effects). Scrolling down a bit I concur that a bit more cropping would work even better.

Prieni

Another wonderful Lilly shot!
I think the cropping works well, and agree an even closer crop would be even better.
I hope your friend is pleased with it - he should be!

Lilly,

A lovely, graceful portrait. Your friend's wavy grey hair is rendered well in mono, but I'm inclined to agree with the others that a tighter crop creates a fine balance between his eyes and the bow. Inspiring!

Keith

Lilly.

What a wonderful shot. I often try to duplicate your mono conversion - but seems to lack the final touch.

Do you have a guide - or "gameplan" when doing the mono conversion?

Mmmm what a good question, TBH I am not that good I get it right all the time!
All I can say is from admiring other mono masterpieces past and present and an awful lot of mistakes I try to achieve the following:

detail in the shadow and highlight areas as much as is possible
softness and quality of light
grab as much tonal range as is humanly possible in channel mixer & or curves
finally the hardest bit I am still struggling with is the sharpening bit, there seems to be too many ways to reach a perfect result with this and the trick I think is in holding back just a bit!

summing it up I think to get a great result you have to be quite emotionally in your image and visualise what you want to see as the end result

hope this helps and thank you for making me try to analyse it!
cheers Lilly

PS- that Fender fiddle was a perfect reflector for his face!

Thanks Lilly. A bit abstract answer but never the less probably the most correct one. What I was hoping for was some kind a PS - step by step - if you have a way you use the most.

About this phrase:
Is this something you do in PP or before you take the shot?

Do you alter the light in PS?

Thanks again for your time.

Lilly, I think its fine without the crop, or maybe at least take some of the "blank canvas" off the top, I'm not a portrait peron but I think its one of the nicest shots weve seen on this forum for a long time.

Now i'm going to be really nitpicky and complain about that shadow over the guys left shoulder. I also think the guys face wants burning in a little.

I'm afraid I cant give it a 10 so how about a 9.9

PS; "I" knew Fender made fiddles

Every image is different and requires a different approach each time, so I do not have a painting by numbers guide, I am afraid, I just learnt by a lot of trial and error.
Quality of light is the main consideration even before I consider releasing the shutter, light is the foremost factor always for me especially with mono, but I do make adjustments with curves and levels to bring out the tonal range, only if required, which in this case was very very minimal.

Thanks everyone for your comments, I don't mind nit picking at all, IMHO this is the no 1 place for improving and improving some more.

I just remembered this link which was of great help to me way back a year ago and got me on the road to mono conversion, hope it helps you as much as it did me.
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3838&highlight=joshua