Help on this "portrait" & conversion

[BostonRott]

Finally got a few decent snaps of Miss Emilie today. It's really hard to catch a vibrant 22mos old! Seems like just as I get things lined up, she heads off in a new direction or turns her back to the camera.

I realize she's rather strongly backlit. There's a glass sliding door behind her with afternoon sun.

I'm interested in comments on composition, as well as the B&W conversion. Is it too contrasty? Re: the composition, I cut off her foot in shooting, not in cropping. It's set with a 4x6 restriction on the crop, and is at the far left and bottom edges of the frame. I was trying to get rid of the hot window area above her head.

Suggestions/thoughts are appreciated!

D200 50mm f/1.8 ISO400 EV+0.3
Converted in RAW in PS Elements 5.0

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[greyflash]

It's a delightful image with good conversion technique. As you have already alluded to the foot touching the bottom of the frame is not the best but there is not much you can do about that now. Compositionally I like it.

 

[Jetta32696]

I think it's a beautiful shot, and I like the conversion as well. Composition is good, and the cropping of the foot doesn't take away from the image. I can't provide much help though, my BW conversions usually suck! :biggrin:

 

[BostonRott]

It's a delightful image with good conversion technique. As you have already alluded to the foot touching the bottom of the frame is not the best but there is not much you can do about that now. Compositionally I like it.

Wow, thanks! :smile:

The conversion was something from Kelby's book on PSE. Simply slid the saturation slider (in the RAW converter) all the way left, adjusted the temp and exposure sliders, and then finally used the shadows and contrast sliders to make things "pop" a bit more.

He has another method too, if you've shot in JPG, it's a bit more complex.

I think it's a beautiful shot, and I like the conversion as well. Composition is good, and the cropping of the foot doesn't take away from the image. I can't provide much help though, my BW conversions usually suck! :biggrin:

Thank you Keith! :smile:

 

[davidzvi]

Gretchen, do you have a high res we could play with? I don't think it's too contrasty, maybe not enough for my tastes, but it is a taste thing. For crop, it doesn't bother me. But I wouldn't worry about the hot window. You can always tone that down a little in post. Composition is very nice and she is just way too cute.

 

[BostonRott]

Yes, give me a sec and I'll get the original (uncropped) converted and saved as JPG and upload to PBase.

 

[BostonRott]

Ok, hopefully this file works for you. It's the NEF file, left in the B&W conversion as I had it, and saved as a .PSD It's large, around 11meg, not cropped or sharpened.

Full picture

 

[hoanginc]

I did a rough edit, see if you like it:

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[Czechman01]

I think it's wonderful just the way it is.

 

[Kurt]

With all that space around your subject, you could have easily included much space under her feet by turning your camera.

Its a cute shot as you have it, but that would have given you several other crop options.

 

[Steve S]

My try

Using your same 4x6 crop ratio, I used the majic wand to select the hot window, and made it the same shade as the wall using paint bucket, then cleaned it up with the healing brush. Then I ran the Gorman action on it, making adjustments to the separate layers, resulting in this rendition.

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[BostonRott]

I did a rough edit, see if you like it:

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Very nice!! I like how tight you were able to get in on this, and yet still leave in the "story" of the couch.

Thank you for your time! :smile:

 

[BostonRott]

Gretchen, do you have a high res we could play with? I don't think it's too contrasty, maybe not enough for my tastes, but it is a taste thing.

David,

It's gotta be this monitor. When I viewed the picture on my laptop (via this thread), it's definitely NOT as contrasty as it looks to me on this computer. I went ahead and had a print made at Walgreens, and like the laptop, not as contrasty as this monitor.

Perhaps it's time to investigate the convoluted world of monitor calibration (and hope that I don't end up viewing everything in plaid!).

 

[BostonRott]

I think it's wonderful just the way it is.

Thanks Woody!

I do have question for you: if I was skilled at using fill flash, would it have helped with lighting her face a bit more? I have very little comfort with using flash, and thus haven't bought one (only have the pop-up on the D200).

 

[BostonRott]

Using your same 4x6 crop ratio, I used the majic wand to select the hot window, and made it the same shade as the wall using paint bucket, then cleaned it up with the healing brush. Then I ran the Gorman action on it, making adjustments to the separate layers, resulting in this rendition.

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Steve, I really like this! I wasn't sure when I was playing with it if I liked what *I* was doing with a more right-hand crop, but you did a great job!

Is the Gorman action something that is here in the tutorials? Or is it a PS tool?

 

[Steve S]

Can't go wrong with any version

The little girl (yours?) is just so darn cute, any of these versions is a real keeper! Yes, the Gorman PS Action is here in the Tutiki.
http://tutiki.nikoncafe.com/w/index.php/Carr_Gorman_B%26W_Conversion#Carr_Gorman_B.26W_Conversion

 

[BostonRott]

Thank you! We really enjoy her, she's a very kind and happy soul. :smile:

I will look up Gorman in the tutorials, thank you. :smile:

 

[Steve S]

edited my post

to include the link to the Gorman action and tute.