Critic needed on b&w picture, thanks :)

[marion]

Hi,

here is one of my first pictures using my new Canon Eos 6D. I tried to make a (very short) photosession with my son in a little patch of shadow, without my reflector as I'm still unsure how to use it when alone (and my son wants to play with it, mostly, so this doesn't help). The light was very even and not too dark, I was hoping this would be enough ?
Oh, I... forgot my gray card at home... (oops)
Took the shot in raw (+jpg) in aperture priority mode, f2.8, ISO 200, 1/800s with my EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM.
Post-processing using trial version of DxO, trying to use the tonal curve (tiny S-curve and white point moved to the left a little). The b&w was the strange style toning thing at middle value to get true b&w, I need to read a tutorial on DxO, was just testing after reading photoshop tutorials here.
My computer is a second-hand MacBook Pro from 2009, I read the tutorials about monitor calibration but depending of the tilting of the monitor, I get different results for the gamma... I guess I'll have to invest in a display if I don't want to waste my time making adjustments on the raw files.

Here is the jpg right from the camera jpg without editing (just a very slight crop top and left) :


and an attempt at developping the raw file with DxO :


but I thought that the colors were not very compelling (dark green, dark blue and bright aqua + yellow ?) so decided to stop working with colors and switched to b&w, starting from this last raw state.

Sooo : could you tell me what you think of the b&w rendition ? Did I contrast the picture correctly ? Too much ? Would the picture benefit of a softer look ? And could you tell me what you think of the overall composition (I wish I had a better background and more interesting bokeh, the little wall on the right seems even more distracting in b&w, doesn't it ?).
To tell you everything, I don't know anymore if I like this shot or not, I'm at a state of learning when I'm ashamed of almost every shot I have taken before starting to actually learn and I'm of course not happy with the current shots I'm taking. And I'm sure I'm terribly biased and that all I like here is because it's my baby smiling happily...

Also a silly question : is it worth it, given my very amateurish level, to invest in my absolute dream lens : Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM as it's the lens that seems to give the most amazing render of blur and veloute in the pictures (in the expert-level pictures I have seen) or is my 100mm f/2.8 a good lens for now ? I'm already thinking I'm way overkill with my amazing 6D (I had a second-hand 40D before) but I promise I'm studying to earn the right to use it .

Sorry for my English and thanks a lot in advance for any advise .
Kindest regards,
Marion

edit :

I opened the file again and here is the picture without the tonal curve editing :



and an automatic DxO b&w on the original picture (my crop was bad, wasn't it ?)



Now I look at everything (on my laptop... again...), I think that the automatic conversion and the non-cropped image might be the best ? I'm a little lost .

edit 2 : I should sharpen the eyes a little ? Shoudln't I ?

[flashback]

Hi Marion and welcome to CiC.
My opinion...I think your first image is the best and that the first image is very good, both in your conversion to b&w (which I think works best on this image) as well as the composition. Granted there may be others who may have other thoughts as to the composition but to me I think you did a great shot. As for the subject matter, he looks like he has a bit mischief in his eyes. You should be proud, of the shot as well as the little guy.

[FootLoose]

I agree with Jack, Marion, I think the first is the best although I would like to see a little more space on top and to the left. It is great photo, but after seeing the last shot and returning to the first again, I feel the boy is a little cramped in the frame.

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi Marion,

I hope you dont mind but i had a play with your edit if you dont want it just let me know and ill take it down. What do you think please look at it in the light box



Firstly you English is better than mine and its my first language dont apologise for it.
If you can afford your dream lens then buy it it wont necessarily improve your photography but it will help you get the shots you want
Your trying to learn a lot of things very quickly, relax your doing very well
The image of your boy is great and looks good in B&W
Im not sure if a reflector would have helped because there seems to be little shadow in the picture anyway and i dont think reducing shadow on the right side of his face would have added to the image
The only way youll use a reflector by yourself is with some sort of stand and thats difficult in the wind!!
Contrast and cropping are all a matter of taste and theres nothing wrong with yours.

Hope this helps but remember its only my opinion and there are as many of those as there are photographers.....

[John 2]

Marion, for me, the first shot is about right because the background highlights distract less. The increased contrast in the automatic version brings them up a bit more. If you want a bit more contrast as in the auto version, then my instinct would be to tone the background highlights down a bit. The crop is a little tight but it's a good portrait. One thing that works for me in these situations is to forget the image for a few days and then go back to it. You will then begin to see for yourself where you need to tweak.

[bnnrcn]

I think you are being too hard on yourself Marion. I like the first two images . Your English is fine and we are all foreigners here. Please have some fun while shooting and don't feel stressed. Welcome

[marion]

Thanks so much to all for your kind replies ! This helps a lot ! It's great knowing I am actually going in the right direction, I can work more peacefully, thanks again .

Mark, I really love your edit, thanks a lot for your time ! Could you explain me a little what you did here to push the highlights ? If I tried tweaking further the tonal curve, I would start getting some clipping and I stopped before even the tiniest ones occured, for example, the top of the bottle cap and a tiny part of the seam on the Tee sleeve would get burned if I further touched the curve.
Did you increase the tiny white reflects in the eyes manually ?

I realise comparing versions helps a lot too, I did not do it before looking at your edit, I suppose one get used to the image one is currently working on if not comparing on a regular basis ?

I'll post a slightly less cramped crop when I manage to reproduce Mark's edit . I'll bother my computer scientist husband until he manages to install me lightroom -doesn't work with my computer which is his older computer because of the way he had configured it if I understood all- so I can finally make zone editions like toning down the background only too . Thanks a lot John, forgetting the images for a few days will help immensely as I feel like I loose objectivity very quickly.

Thanks again to all, I'm getting back to my books with renewed motivation ! (and start saving for my dream lens ... and a monitor first maybe... And a tripod that is not a super-heavy-not-so-stable-one from the seventies )

[Mark von Kanel]

My goodness Marion thats quite a shopping list! one piece of advice DONT BUY A CHEAP TRIPOD!!! im sure all of the togs on here will happily send you one of the six cheap tripods that they have lurking in their cupboards

the thing that struck me about your original edit was that your boys eyes looked flat so i used an adjustment brush in light room to increase the exposure and highlights of the existing catch light in his eyes this could have been done much more effectively in PS but im STILL not good with PS if Colin reads this he would be able to do a much more effective edit.

with the tone curve on my people shots i typically pull the bottom 3rd down a little and the top 3rd up a little if you hold your cursor over the tone curve in LR i alter at 30% (bottom 3rd) and 70% (top 3rd) i then pulled the shadows up and highlights down to get rid of the clipping.

The eyes still need some work on the catchlights if you used an off camera fill flash you would get much better catch lights in his eyes but carrying all the gear around can be a real pain!

[chauncey]

Location, location, location...a phrase bandied about with real estate people that has it's needs in photography. Before you take that hyperactive child to a shoot...pick your site, check the weather/light/camera settings/everything else...then insert the hyperactive imp into the setting
and be quick about the whole thing.