Storytime with Grandpa - C&C appreciated

[D L]

Binnur, Geoff, John, Jack, Izzie, Manfred, Richard and Mike, thanks for all your time, thoughts and comments.
I've read them all thoroughly. I'll try and respond by subject rather than to individual comments.

Exposure/Brightness/Histogram
I dramatically reduced the brightness of my monitor after my first post.
However, that excuse "papers over the crack" of the problem Mike identified. I understand the histrogram, but I'm not checking it. I was checking my exposure with the image on LCD on the back of the camera, which, given the comparatively dark position the camera was in, made me see the exposure as brighter than it was.
Where I self-identify in post that the exposure is wrong, it is almost always under-exposed. It's taken this thread (intervention? ) for me to realise this.
As to whether the exposure was artistically correct vs technically correct, I think I should be tending towards the technically correct for now (if those two are indeed different in this case).

Just to clarify on Manfred's flash power comment. No equipment deficiency was holding back the exposure. Yes, Manfred, flash was manual and set too low. I had at least 4 stops of flash power available to me (plus flash could've been positioned closer). Plus a few stops of ISO.


What Did I Want the Image to Convey?
I think sub-consciously I had an idea at the time, but if you'd asked me, you probably wouldn't have got a good answer.
Here it is: Warmth and closeness. My son adores his Grandpa. I didn't want the image to look cold and brightness to me would convey this. Trying to minimise bright whites was a conscious goal at the time. I knew I didn't want the light wall to camera left. I tried re-positioning the flash, but I didn't try getting it closer, which may have helped.
I thought too much contrast within the image might go against this goal, also. However, I didn't really try it to be honest.

I'll break into another post...

[D L]

B&W Conversion
In the software I currently use (Aftershot Pro 2), I have various options for B&W conversion (they are actually called "plugins"). I don't really know what I am doing with B&W conversions.
The one I have used previously has 2 panels. The first has sliders for saturation, hue, luminance, contrast and "mid". The second panel has luminance colour equaliser sliders for red, yellow, blue, green, cyan and magenta.
My process has been to enable the plugin (which basically just desaturates the image), then play around with the colour equaliser sliders. I'm assuming you should have your histogram/tones sorted before enabling this one, then mess with the effects of the colours on the tones of the B&W output?

There is a different B&W plugin which is all about tone curves. It seems with this one you get your colours right first, then mess with the histogram. What process do others use?

What does a "colour filter preset" available in other software actually do? (Should this be posted in the post-processing section???)
Would preferentially altering a "luminosity colour equaliser" mimic this effect?

[D L]

Shutter speed
Manfred, you are correct, there is minimal ambient in this shot. I was playing with a reading lamp as a hair light on Grandpa, which is why I wound my shutter speed down to 1/25s. I couldn’t decide if I liked it and switched the reading lamp off and didn’t increase shutter speed back to 1/160s where it had been. I could’ve/should’ve taken this shot at a faster shutter speed, but it seems like that is the least of my worries now

Vignette
Yes, I like this idea, thanks Richard.

Composition
Thanks for the positive comments on this. I wanted books in the background, because my son loves books, loves Grandpa and this is the house I grew up in surrounded by and immersed in books.
With hindsight, I’m thinking what I could’ve done differently. I’m thinking flash around to basically the same axis as the spine of the book. Flag the flash from hitting that white wall, but it will hit the bookcase. Shoot from further around to my right giving my son under-exposed wall as background while Grandpa gets chair/bookcase background. Wisdom to the right and more of a blank canvas to the left.

Health
Yes Izzie, his eye looks a bit off. My son’s gesture over-ruled his wonky looking eye for selecting this image. He works next door to/chats over coffee with an optometrist, so hopefully they would’ve picked it up. I'll mention it to him though. I think his condition may relate more to a genetic family trait of not being photogenic. Hopefully my sons have my wife’s genes on that one.

Apologies for the long, 3 post, response.

[D L]

I almost forgot.
Anticipated question from someone "why do B&W when you know you don't know what you're doing?"

Without the technical know-how, I know it was the way I wanted to go because of my son's pyjama top, and also the colours of the books in the book shelf potentially distracting from the subject.


I've brought up the exposure on this further (to technically correct possibly?). I'll hold off on inflicting another version of my latest B&W conversion edit in case more advice/comments come in that subject that will assist me in that endeavour.

[bnnrcn]

David, If you are looking for warmth and closeness I think your second edit is the one which conveys them

Binnur, Geoff, John, Jack, Izzie, Manfred, Richard and Mike, thanks for all your time, thoughts and comments.
I've read them all thoroughly. I'll try and respond by subject rather than to individual comments.

Exposure/Brightness/Histogram
I dramatically reduced the brightness of my monitor after my first post.
However, that excuse "papers over the crack" of the problem Mike identified. I understand the histrogram, but I'm not checking it. I was checking my exposure with the image on LCD on the back of the camera, which, given the comparatively dark position the camera was in, made me see the exposure as brighter than it was.
Where I self-identify in post that the exposure is wrong, it is almost always under-exposed. It's taken this thread (intervention? ) for me to realise this.
As to whether the exposure was artistically correct vs technically correct, I think I should be tending towards the technically correct for now (if those two are indeed different in this case).

Just to clarify on Manfred's flash power comment. No equipment deficiency was holding back the exposure. Yes, Manfred, flash was manual and set too low. I had at least 4 stops of flash power available to me (plus flash could've been positioned closer). Plus a few stops of ISO.


What Did I Want the Image to Convey?
I think sub-consciously I had an idea at the time, but if you'd asked me, you probably wouldn't have got a good answer.
Here it is: Warmth and closeness. My son adores his Grandpa. I didn't want the image to look cold and brightness to me would convey this. Trying to minimise bright whites was a conscious goal at the time. I knew I didn't want the light wall to camera left. I tried re-positioning the flash, but I didn't try getting it closer, which may have helped.
I thought too much contrast within the image might go against this goal, also. However, I didn't really try it to be honest.

I'll break into another post...

[Shadowman]

I almost forgot.
Anticipated question from someone "why do B&W when you know you don't know what you're doing?"

Without the technical know-how, I know it was the way I wanted to go because of my son's pyjama top, and also the colours of the books in the book shelf potentially distracting from the subject.


I've brought up the exposure on this further (to technically correct possibly?). I'll hold off on inflicting another version of my latest B&W conversion edit in case more advice/comments come in that subject that will assist me in that endeavour.

Color version was pretty good, the books are a minor distraction that could be deemphasized in many ways.

[Mike Buckley]

You're doing a great job of thinking everything through, David. My suggestion is that you work on one basic topic at a time, whether it's setting up the lighting, learning how your black-and-white plugins work, keeping an eye on your histogram, or whatever. Once you feel comfortable that you've got a much better understanding of your first topic, move on to the next one.

For me, the best reason to convert this image to black-and-white is because doing so minimizes a little bit the distraction of the child's clothing. When you sense a photo opportunity of this type coming up, dressing the child in plain clothes will ensure that the clothes aren't a distraction from his or grandpa's face whether it's a color or monochrome photo. In this case, you're trying to build a connection between the two of them and the boy's clothing really gets in the way of that happening. If you haven't already guessed, I ask my wife to wear a particular color of clothing when we go hiking and the color depends on the colors in the scenery around us.