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.

Originally Posted by 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.

Good DOF Rutt, what do you think about B&W for this one? Good shot.

Originally Posted by Steve Lear 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?

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?

Originally Posted by rutt 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.

Originally Posted by 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?

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.

Originally Posted by rutt I'm not a huge fan of B&W conversion except in very special cases. What makes this a good candidate?

[font=Garamond]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."
[/font]

• [font=Garamond]First I cropped it a bit to really pull the viewer in closer to his facial expresion. [/font]

• [font=Garamond]Then I adjusted the levels, [/font]

• [font=Garamond]converted to Grayscale, [/font]

• [font=Garamond]then TriTone- selecting warm grays and black, [/font]

• [font=Garamond]adjusted levels, [/font]

• [font=Garamond]tweeked contrast, and saved for the web.[/font]

[font=Garamond]Let me know what you think.
ginette




[/font]

Originally Posted by AltPro [font=Garamond]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." [/font]

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.

Originally Posted by rutt 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

Originally Posted by AltPro 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.

Is this it, by any chance?

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

Or this?

http://www.npg.org.uk/live/OC_Data/i.../6/mw56726.jpg

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

Here is the Avedon portrait of Betrand Russell:



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.

Originally Posted by 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

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.