Portrait in B&W

[gregj1763]

I have be looking at a lot of wonderful black and white portrait photos of late and while I was in Bali last week I asked my friend Lilly if she would mind if she would be my guinea pig to see if I could take a decent one as well. I wanted a face with character and Lilly definitely is a character
Lilly runs a small clothing store on Kuta beach and is one of the most beautiful people inside and out I have ever met, she has a heart of gold. She has little and works hard to survive but I rarely see her without a beaming smile on her face.
I sat watching her braid tourists hair, laughing, smiling, then captured this moment. To me it looked very natural.
PP through Photoshop CC then Silver Efex Pro2
C&C welcome.

[Shadowman]

Nicely processed, I think her particular expression would've benefitted if more of her body were visible.

[gregj1763]

Nicely processed, I think her particular expression would've benefitted if more of her body were visible.

Yes perhaps John but there were a lot of distracting elements I had to crop out of the image and I wanted to concentrate the image solely on her expression. Here is the original.
Appreciate your comment.
Greg

[Shadowman]

Hi Greg,

For a mono conversion you could get away with having some of the distracting elements considering the style of her expression. Additionally, as her expression is so animated including the person she is speaking, perhaps slightly blurred, would make for a more personal portrait. I like the uncropped version as it does show optional crops that you could try, too bad her hands aren't included.

[Hanginon]

I'm a newbie here, much to learn, and I have great respect for everyone on this site who's "putting it out there" for C&C.

My take on this image as originally posted is that it's a beautiful shot, but without your verbal expression, it would not have made sense. I agree a key element missing is her hands.

[Manfred M]

Good image given the challenging shooting conditions that you were working under. The "original" definitely shows the shooting situation. It resembles a "grab shot", rather than a more traditional "portrait".

1. If Lilly had agreed to be your "guinea pig", you could have worked with her positioning and pose a bit more. That would have made the image easier to work with.

2. Eye contact with the camera usually works well in this type of shot.

3. Getting her to brush her hair out of her face would have been a consideration as well.

4. I think that a head & shoulders shot works well (it tends to be my favourite type of portrait, as it mostly deals with the subject's face. Getting the rest of the body in is a lot more challenging if one is just getting into portraiture.

5. Why did you decide to go to more of a toned, sepia look than a traditional B&W?

[gregj1763]

Sorry for the late reply, I'm very poor after our trip so had to put in a few big days to get some money together

Thank you all for your comments and Manfred upon reflection you are quite right it is a grab shot not a portrait so it should be titled "Grab shot in sepia"
I was after very natural and I think that is what I got, hair and all.
I'm going back in October so I will take onboard everyones comments and try again.
Here is another one with Lilly at work, it shows her hands this time and I'm working on a mono version tonight.
Ps I just liked the toned version better Manfred, would B&W worked better in your opinion.
PPs, Hanginon, don't be afraid to post for C&C, they haven't drawn blood from me yet and its the only way to learn.
Regards, Greg

[gregj1763]

Still a grab shot, but this time in B&W. Neutral with green filter. Removed distracting hair, poles out of nose, purple blob from sign top of head.
C&C please

[Shadowman]

Nicely processed,

[Rufus]

I very much like the skin tones and vibrancy of the colour one in post #7. The concentration combined with her enjoyment of the work seems more evident in colour too.

The colour version picks up the various brown colour tones in the background, wooden structure, furniture, hair, dress and skin. This being the case, the brightly coloured fabric, particularly the pink is a little stark for my eye. The B&W version gets round that.

Of course, it would be nice to see the amendments mentioned in post #6 performed in the colour version.

Both are framed to give sufficient information about the environment and Lilly's client without detracting from the Lilly herself.

David

[gregj1763]

Thanks for the comments, colour version Rufus

[Rufus]

That's great!

David

[Manfred M]

Thank you all for your comments and Manfred upon reflection you are quite right it is a grab shot not a portrait so it should be titled "Grab shot in sepia"
I was after very natural and I think that is what I got, hair and all.

There is nothing wrong with grab shots. I like taking them as well. Someone called Henri Cartier-Bresson made quite a reputation for himself taking that type of shot.

While it is not the typical street shot, I personally like the tighter crop; something I think of as a "street portrait". The question that always crops up is eye contact with the photographer versus no eye contact. Some people are quite passionate when it comes to this and insist eye contact is necessary. I don't necessarily agree with them as in formal portraiture, eye contact is not viewed as being mandatory, so why should it be the case in street photography?

Ps I just liked the toned version better Manfred, would B&W worked better in your opinion.

Again something that there is no right or wrong answer to. I generally find pure B&W image tend to be a bit stronger because in a sepia shot, the white point is not truly white and the photographer has given up some degree of tonal range to achieve that effect. Whether that bit of loss is important to you or not, is purely a personal choice.

I have played around with toned images, especially when I print. Photographic paper that lacks OBAs (Optical Brightening Agents) will tend to have a warmer tone and I find that I prefer going that route when printing a B&W portrait, so the result is somewhat along the lines of what you have done here, but perhaps a bit more subtle.

If this were my image, I probably would have gone with a traditional B&W just to pull out the tonality of the image a bit more. That is simply my personal taste and has nothing to do with the way you interpret this scene.