PORTRAIT IN B&W

[Wombat124]

A photo of my neice's daughter - PP in Photoshop - Equalised; New Layer to which a Gaussian Blur applied - this was my first attempt at this technique:




Steve

[Glen]

Very cute Wombat, your niece will love it

[sirhc55]

A lovely looking little girl. Just one suggestion, if the eyes and lips were in sharp focus it is always a good idea to bring them out by removing that area in the second layer so they are sharp and the rest blurred slightly

[christiand]

Nice shot Wombat.

I also agree with Sirch.

Cheers
CD

[Wombat124]

Thanks for comments - will apply that technique in future PP. Her lips look a little "artifical" as she had put some lipstick on but not "accurately". I left that in without touching up..

Steve

[SoCal Steve]

What a little doll.
Nicely captured. Works very well in B&W.
I'm sure the family will treasure a nice size print of that.

Cheers.

[the foto fanatic]

Yes, a real cutie.

[Wombat124]

Socal Steve and Cricketfan

Thanks for your kind comments. She is a real sweatheart - I am sure she was an actress in a previous life.

I am doing a Photo Album via Photoshop for my dad's 80th and the 2.5mb version will be included.

Steve

[Sean]

Great shot mate, it looks like the older style of portrait photography with the softness and also a lovely address to the camera from the cherub.

Your Dad will love it!

I took a similar shot of a mates daughter if you want to compare 28-80mm nikon, not sure on the apperture
http://www.seanreason.com/Photography/Portriture/Lauren2.jpg

Keep up the good work mate

Sean

[kurokaze204]

I've always wondered about the balance of "Softness" and sharp shiny eyes. How do you guys head at this? Do you focus on the eyes and let DoF do the job, or is Photoshop better , doing an unsharp on the eyes after the shot is done?

[Sean]

kurokaze,

I guess its a bit of both mate, I always touch up my photos in PS but I always try to get the eyes in focus on the camera. The only times I touch the eyes it to bring out the highlights ie with dodge highlights.

Sometimes i have found my lenses have trouble finding the eye and it will take a few attempts (especially at distance) I have tried manual focus a few times but I must admit because its slower and I don't like spending much time in people's faces I have steered away from it..

But thats just me

Hope it helps

Sean

[Wombat124]

Sean and kurokaze204

Thanks for comments.

I used Pre WB on the original photo whcih help significantly with the skin tones. But the natural beauty of those eyes did most of the work.

Steve

[nigels]

Guys,


I am sorry if this has been covered before, but what are the best methods of B&W photography, with filters or PP in photoshop

Nige

[Wombat124]

Nigel

Here is a link to a PDF document which outlines a number of ways in Photoshop.

http://www.russellbrown.com/images/tips ... rtoB&W.pdf

I use Photoshop 7 and have used all of the ways suggested - Grayscale/Desaturation/Channel Mix. I try a couple of things before processing such as equlaizing if there are too many dark areas which appear as just big black blobs in B&W. Also for Portraits I use Layers and the Gussainian Blur under Filters - this is the method I used for the photo here.

Most of the doc I have read advise that it is better to take a colour photo and then do post processing in PS. As the D70 doesn't have a function to take a B&W, this is no problem. Read the suggestion on Channel Mix as it is a good one to control the different colours.

I am only learning myself, so other members will no doubt have some other tips.

Regards, Steve

[Sean]

My PP for B&W is like this, open image, adjust levels, desaturate, adjust brightness/contrast, maybe burn or dodge, clone or heal in this process too.. save with another file as to protect the original. Thats about it..

Sometimes depending on the type of exposure the adjustments might only be needed in part of a photo, in this case I use the adjustment layer tool - which is the little yin/yang symbol on the bottom of the layers palete.

Once you have made whatever adjustment to the image via that individual adjustment layer you can remove the effects individually by painting back over that layer with the brush tool and in black..

By adjusting the opacity of the brush, you can control how much of the previous adjustment you may want to remove.

You might want to do this say for a photo that has part under exposure and part over exposure: for instance if you wanted to bring up the mid tones in the under exposured part, I would control that with an adjustment layer of levels, then increase the midtones.. Noticably the hightlights would begin to get brighter and if I wanted to tone them down I would paint over those bits.

Once completed you can make say three files, the original - that has not been touched, the flattened image ie; jpg etc and the layered PS file for future work, so you can go back and work it more down the track?

Hope this process may help you and others

Regards

Sean  PS I use this same process for colour work, just dont desaturate image. - you proberly knew that but someone may get confused -ciao