Conversion Critique HELP?

[tmjjk]

I am completely clueless on good black and whites... the last one I posted totally got creamed, so I am trying to take what I heard from the last critique to make this better but..... help would be greatly appreciated

 

[gsgary]

Post the color version so people can have a go

 

[tmjjk]

thank you...

 

[Designer]

As I understand it, B&W needs a wide "tonal range", between really white, and really black to look the best. Here the headpiece shows stark white, but oddly the dress does not show as being very white.

As to her face, it seems somewhat underexposed.

The frame could be improved some by cropping the left side and the top and bottom a little, so that the subject has some "space" into which to walk.

 

[Ernicus]

to start, I'd rather use the raw, but this will be ok I guess. lol.

There are lots of reds and oranges in her skin and the fence. So when doing your conversion, you have to compensate for that.

I first used 'auto' to see what the program would do. then I did it my own way.

I had the headband and dress the same when I started, but after I messed with it, they are a tad bit off. Didn't feel like doing it over. lol.

The dress has lots of shades of white in it if you really look at it. I tried to bring that out with the history brush. I didn't really do much to her skin, although I did try to highlight her toes and feet a bit, everyone likes kids' feet and toes. Her skin can almost blend in with the fence, so I tried to darken the fence a bit where it met her skin.

Most of what I did was in the editing side, as far as the conversion. Most of my adjustments were with the red and yellow for the skin and fence. Then with the cyan and blue, cyan mostly for the dress.

 

[Ernicus]

oh, and what are you using to convert?

 

[tmjjk]

I really like this! Thank you... I was using Lightroom.. How can I upload RAW... I couldn't seem to figure out how... The RAW file wouldn't show up in my upload screen... But I saved it in photoshop... Maybe that was the problem? I will work on that

 

[Ernicus]

I really like this! Thank you... I was using Lightroom.. How can I upload RAW... I couldn't seem to figure out how... The RAW file wouldn't show up in my upload screen... But I saved it in photoshop... Maybe that was the problem? I will work on that

can't upload raw, I was kinda being sarcastic. But ya do have more tools with raw files. Did you do any editing to your image or just conversion? that might better help see where you went "wrong" per se. Not that I did it right, but yours is a bit blotchy and dark and light in wrong areas.

 

[amolitor]

With all due respect, Ernicus, you made her look like she's dark skinned, and rather blotchy. There's nothing wrong with either of these, except that the little girl is neither of those.

The only trouble I see with the original conversion is that the dress looks a little dark, and that's because it's a little dark in the original, but we don't see it as much in the color version since the color is neutral, we read it as white. The values are low, however. I would simply dodge it to bring it up.

EDIT: Also, in the original conversion you've lost some texture in the fluffy part of her head thing, which appears to be present in the color.

 

[amolitor]

Here's mine. A burned the tiara down a little, lightened the dress up a little, spent some time smoothing the child's face down lightly, performed a straight desaturation in GIMP and then popped the contrast up a bit with curves, carefully leaving the facial tones pretty much alone. Your conversion isn't the problem, this looks a lot like the original conversion. It's the dodging, burning, and contrast management that make my version (in my opinion) better.



It's a very cute image, but a little soft, I think.

 

[Ernicus]

Yeah there was a lot of red in her skin and I didn't adjust that part very well, made her dark, I spent more time on her dress than on her.

 

[gsgary]

Here's a quick conversion from me, but it not great to start with

 

[The_Traveler]

I think all of these conversions point out some of the problems with the original image.
The subject is way OOF
The background is distracting and sort of at odds with the subject.
Her eyes are in shadow
The composition is off, with too much space around and she is on the wrong side of the picture.

Trying to make some of these changes - leaving low-key to hide the oof a bit and making a bit sepia

 

[The_Traveler]

100% crop