My father

[rutt]

I've tried to take a good picture of him for a long time, perhaps all my life. This weekend I got this one which I'm sure he would hate, but which I think captures a lot about him.

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/4725359-M.jpg (http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/4725359-O.jpg)

[Steve Lear]

I've tried to take a good picture of him for a long time, perhaps all my life. This weekend I got this one which I'm sure he would hate, but which I think captures a lot about him.

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/4725359-M.jpg (http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/4725359-O.jpg)
Good DOF Rutt, what do you think about B&W for this one? Good shot.

[rutt]

Good DOF Rutt, what do you think about B&W for this one? Good shot.
I'm not a huge fan of B&W conversion except in very special cases. What makes this a good candidate?

[damonff]

Wow, Rutt. I think the emotion in his face, for lack of a better expression, speaks 1,000 words. Well done. Did you take any more of him that day?

[Steve Lear]

I'm not a huge fan of B&W conversion except in very special cases. What makes this a good candidate?
I love a B&W portrait, I think this shot has character and texture that lends itself to B&W, and the skin tones would be better. But I'm no expert, Andy's the man with black and white.

Steve.

[rutt]

Wow, Rutt. I think the emotion in his face, for lack of a better expression, speaks 1,000 words. Well done. Did you take any more of him that day?
He rarely looks this happy anymore. He was watching 5 grandchildren in the swiming pool. The other pictures I took of him weren't nearly as good.

[AltPro]

I'm not a huge fan of B&W conversion except in very special cases. What makes this a good candidate?
RuTT:
I really liked this image of your Dad, and the black & white comment had me wondering... So, working with the 72dpi photo-- here's my "conversion."


First I cropped it a bit to really pull the viewer in closer to his facial expresion.


Then I adjusted the levels,


converted to Grayscale,


then TriTone- selecting warm grays and black,


adjusted levels,


tweeked contrast, and saved for the web.
Let me know what you think.
ginette

http://ThroughTheLensLtd.smugmug.com/photos/4768237-L.jpg

http://ThroughTheLensLtd.smugmug.com/photos/4768112-L.jpg

[rutt]

RuTT:
I really liked this image of your Dad, and the black & white comment had me wondering... So, working with the 72dpi photo-- here's my "conversion."




I like the crop, that is a good idea. I like the color better than the B+W. I'm just not a huge B+W fan for modern photographs unless there is a special reason. In this case, I don't understand it.

[AltPro]

I like the crop, that is a good idea. I like the color better than the B+W. I'm just not a huge B+W fan for modern photographs unless there is a special reason. In this case, I don't understand it.
Glad you liked the Crop... I thought that his face was interesting, and wanted to get "in to" his expression. The B&W... Well that really is a personal choice. Some things I photograph with Black and White solely in mind.
For example, both of these were taken to be Alt Process Prints-- full sized negative contact prints. The "Leaf" a Brown Toned, and the "Dream" a Tri Colored Gum Print. Just a different feel than they would be in color?
ginette

Leaf
http://throughthelensltd.smugmug.com/photos/3698428-L.jpg


http://throughthelensltd.smugmug.com/photos/3204375-L.jpg

[rutt]

both of these were taken to be Alt Process Prints-- full sized negative contact prints. The "Leaf" a Brown Toned, and the "Dream" a Tri Colored Gum Print. Just a different feel than they would be in color?

Yes, B+W works for these, but as you say, that was the idea all along. It's the same thing if you shoot Tri-X or use a large format camera ora B+W darkroom. On the other hand, this portrait was shot with a digital camera. I know the color is a little difficult because my dad is getting on and because it was high noon and I didn't use a fill flash. But still, it is a color photo and the challenge is to make it work in color.

BTW, see if you can find the Avedon Portrait of Betrand Russell if you want to see a beautiful B+W portraint of an interesting looking old man. I tried to find it online, but failed.

[wxwax]

Is this it, by any chance?

http://users.drew.edu/~jlenz/Russell.jpeg

Or this?

http://www.npg.org.uk/live/OC_Data/images/weblg/2/6/mw56726.jpg

[ginger_55]

I have similar, in feel, pictures of my father. No, he was not as happy with them as I was. But they were definitely color pictures, for my purpose which was to portray my father. I like this as a color portrait. I like both the cropped and the original one we were shown. The cropped one shows me a happier man than the one slightly further away. The first one, the uncropped one, shows me a man who is withdrawn a bit, loneliness is there, but also the hint of enjoyment at whatever he is seeing. I think it depends on the intent of the photo. g

[rutt]

Here is the Avedon portrait of Betrand Russell:

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/4794462-L.jpg

This is not a perfect repro of this photo by any means. The photo was framed behind glass and I just shot it. You can see some reflection in the neck. I doctored it a bit to remove the worst of the glass reflection. In a way, I'm glad this is a bad repro, because I'm sure there are copyright issues.

Still, you can see the difference between what we consider technically perfect and what Avedon can do in his studio.

[rutt]

I have similar, in feel, pictures of my father. No, he was not as happy with them as I was. But they were definitely color pictures, for my purpose which was to portray my father. I like this as a color portrait. I like both the cropped and the original one we were shown. The cropped one shows me a happier man than the one slightly further away. The first one, the uncropped one, shows me a man who is withdrawn a bit, loneliness is there, but also the hint of enjoyment at whatever he is seeing. I think it depends on the intent of the photo. g
I'm thinking about the crop. I like the hat with the flag, but I also like the tighter crop. I'm going to let it cook for a week or so and then revisit. It was humbling to go and look at the Avedon portrait. I think I'll have to let that experience fade before I can cope with my image again.