Color or B&W?

[crimbfighter]

color definitely (I know you've already decided)

That I have, for a print anyway. Doesn't mean I can't still do something with the color version!

There's tons of ways you can edit the photo to look nicer in color. I just felt like there's more than one choice between the two. Here's an edit that I think makes the color look more interesting, although I could have spent a little more time to make the face look a bit less gritty.

I say go with color. Hopefully my reply/edit is useful to you.

View attachment 78760

PaulWog, I like what you did with the edit! Knowing this family, I think they will prefer a more traditional edit, thought. I have had an interest in editing some portraits this way, do you mind sharing what you're doing to achieve the style?

 

[AlanKlein84]

Thanks everyone for the responses! I was genuinely torn, but I think b&w won. I was trying to pick one to print to give to the family of this gentleman. He's the eldest in a family of fire fighters and police officers. He is a retired fire chief, and his youngest grandson is an officer near by, and a good friend of mine.


AlanKlein, thanks for the reply! I definitely see your point. This was a quick shot I snapped when I saw him alone by the work bench. There's a couple little things I would change, if only I had the time to try again!

Why not give the family a BW and a color one and let them decide which one they like the best? Or show them both and let them decide. Since he's a fireman, they may like the red overtones.

 

[sscarmack]

BW


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PaulWog]

PaulWog, I like what you did with the edit! Knowing this family, I think they will prefer a more traditional edit, thought. I have had an interest in editing some portraits this way, do you mind sharing what you're doing to achieve the style?

Here's a link to most of the things I used:

Basically if you go through step by step, and understand what each modification layer does, then you can apply a lot of this knowledge to other things as well. I edited your image in a very similar manner to the way it is done in the video I've linked, although not absolutely exactly. (I didn't do retouching of the eyes or facial features either).

The basics that are gone over in the video can be applied to just about any portrait (face only, full body, multiple people), and you can take the same method and tweak it to work with anything.

 

[The_Traveler]

Nice pictures, good composition, nicely sharp
where they fall a little short is in the PPing.
While the background is nicely OOF, it is waaaaay too bright and the man himself is so contrasty that the white shirt just pulls the eye.