revisit/reprocess

[Pallycow]

so I revisted this one as I am going to submit it in a contest at the fair this year for "child photography". Think it's good as it is or should I desat it a tad...or maybe even hue it a tad more yellow vs. dirty color ?

I got different opinions locally going both ways from leave it to back to black and white, to more yellow. So I dunno.

Knowing how vast the opinions are here, thought I'd see what thoughts are.

 

[Pallycow]

and yes...I wanted it grainy and old looking, vintage feel. ;-)

 

[Pallycow]

if anyone is curious and does not recall my original post however long ago it was, here is the original color shot.

 

[Derrel]

I have a feeling that the yellow toning will not fare as well in a fair as would a sepia-tone or brown-tone image. I dunno...the yellow toning seems just a bit, well, jaundiced. I think a lot of people have a learned prejudice against yellow-toned B&W images. Perhaps look at a cream-tone, like the Lighrteroom creamtone preset look? About halfway between this yellow and brown-tone. Maybe? Anyway, I see some slight color patterns ( avery faint reddish tint on the outside, darker, almost greenish inside) in the dark areas that parallel her hair, on both sides, and a little bit of the same color on her chest, so I assume this is still in RGB, desaturated, and still has some color information that's maybe not immediately obvious, but which might very well look like posterization when printed. The degree of grain looks simply perfect!

 

[Granddad]

I think Derrel is right. Here's my lightning conversion (LR3 creamtone preset then adjusted exposure, blacks and brightness down to where I like it).



I didn't add any grain, you do that beautifully!

LOVE this image and what you're doing with it. Definitely a potential winner.

EDITED TO ADD: On second look I think your conversion is MUCH better as is.

 

[tirediron]

I like Grandad's conversion MUCH better, and agree with the both him and Derrel. Aside from the "jaundiced" aspect of it, her clothing and hairstyle don't fit with that conversion, and to be honest, it looks to me like you just went, "Hmmm... this might look cool" and hit 'Go' on an LR action. Now, if you got her into some period clothing, it would work like a hot-damn.

 

[Pallycow]

I have a feeling that the yellow toning will not fare as well in a fair as would a sepia-tone or brown-tone image. I dunno...the yellow toning seems just a bit, well, jaundiced. I think a lot of people have a learned prejudice against yellow-toned B&W images. Perhaps look at a cream-tone, like the Lighrteroom creamtone preset look? About halfway between this yellow and brown-tone. Maybe? Anyway, I see some slight color patterns ( avery faint reddish tint on the outside, darker, almost greenish inside) in the dark areas that parallel her hair, on both sides, and a little bit of the same color on her chest, so I assume this is still in RGB, desaturated, and still has some color information that's maybe not immediately obvious, but which might very well look like posterization when printed. The degree of grain looks simply perfect!

I thought there was some green in there, I was seeing that too...or I was just up too late. Think I might desaturate it and re add in a different tone

 

[Pallycow]

I like Grandad's conversion MUCH better, and agree with the both him and Derrel. Aside from the "jaundiced" aspect of it, her clothing and hairstyle don't fit with that conversion, and to be honest, it looks to me like you just went, "Hmmm... this might look cool" and hit 'Go' on an LR action. Now, if you got her into some period clothing, it would work like a hot-damn.

I used a preset in silver exf pro and then modified it from there. I did not feel the clothing quite matched earlier, hence the fade along the edges and bottom to wash out the clothing a bit to hopefully take away from it some so it would not stand out as much. but if ya noticed it, then maybe it don't work

 

[frommrstomommy]

i played.. but i dont have the slightest clue where to begin for grain.

 

[Derrel]

I took a shot at it. One of the things I wanted to see was just a bit more definition in her shadow-side eye, so I added some digital fill light, and also added some recovery, to preserve the highlight side's skin texture, converted to B&W, moved the tint a bit,added some light grain in Lightroom, and added a Matt's vignette, #3. It looks old-timey to me. It's always tough working from an 8-bit JPEG image.

Looking at this now, I'd say I've added way too strong a grain effect. I am trying to emulate a "look" I used to see when I collected old photographs at flea markets. Thinking about what tirediron said about period clothing vs mode-modern clothing, I think maybe going with your original yellowed look but in an oval shape might minimize the dress's elastic-top look, which is modern, and "might" make the old-timey-like, faded, yellowed image really,really work great!

 

[Granddad]

... and another go, just to add to the general confusion...

Did a cream tone conversion then an antique greyscale conversion, added grain and a white oval vignette, moved to PSE, merged the two with the antique greyscale on top with about a 40% opacity to give it just a hint of the brown tones.



You know you've got a cracking image when people are lined up around the block to give their interpretations.

 

[Pallycow]

printed a test strip and it looks awesome. decided not to try to do much to it and it printed out well, the lab does not always print as I see it on my monitor anyway so much of the green ish thing I was seeing is not even a factor afterall. lol

 

[Pallycow]

my boss is funny, she took my file and said "almost" then took out some greens and added soem blues and reds and printed and it looks perfect. I guess doing it for 38 years has some sort of advantage. lol I still can't "see colors" like she does. I left the digital file at work but she made it the color/tone I saw in my head in like 5 seconds in the lab. lol

 

[DanOstergren]

In my personal opinion, the editing is too much. In my experience I've learned that more subtle edits have a bigger impact on the photograph.

This is how I would edit it:
[before and after]

Using layer masks, I reduced the saturation, made a curves adjustment to bring out the highlights and add depth to the shadows, and used a "selective color" layer mask to make some adjustments to the color tones. I also added a small amount of grain, but not enough to be too terribly noticeable.