stop . . . turban time!

[CLC]

I agree with the square crop.

I disagree with the edit. For starters it's not a Zone edit. Some of the forehead is squarely in zone 9 (check the PS densitometer...it reads 0% black). You're supposed to stay the hell out of detail-less zones if you can help it. More importantly, by zone convention, I believe the edit is actually backward. While I agree that more tone variation in the skin is important, the vast majority of the image is the "turban," which is in shadow, but is flat. The histogram confirms that its gray values are all lumped together in a narrow range. The processing ought to emphasize greater tone range especially in the "turban."

I agree that you disagree. Like i said 2 times before (please read posts), it is just so he gets the idea. Kind of hard, see nearly impossible, to work from the desaturated image above with an histogram that is blown out in the blacks and completely flat in the white. So for the 3rd time all i did is boost the mid (between the black and the whites in the histogram), from the original desaturated image which give equal weight to all 3 channels.
The purpose of my edit was to show him optimal image composition according to the golden section, and like you said, more tone variation.

It is an old wives' tale that you are supposed to stay "the hell out of detail less zone". Solid Black and solid white or full on shadows and highlights are acceptable if you can justify it. Stating otherwise is being narrow minded and limiting creativity. Photography is an art, and as an artist, it is entirely up to me to use or not use solid white or black as long as I can justify it. Zone 0 = solid maximum black 000 in rgb, zone 9 = solid white 255 255 255 in rgb. both part of the zone system to be USE by the artist, including the inventor of the zone, the great Ansel Adams.

Now, like i said before, in order for me to prep that image for a show or a porfolio, I would have to work with the original color image in order to figure out exactly what to do. I don't even know what color is the turban. Lets assume it is red, i would then have a lot options for the BW conversion just by adding a colored filter with more or less transparency in order to get a rendering in BW of the turban that would go from white to black. Surely you know that. It's one of the first thing i learned when first starting in Photography 23 years ago.

All the best,

 

[Cappahayden]

I thought, and everything I've seen in regards to the "golden section" in relation to photography places the main subject, (the eyes) on one of the four lines, not in between them. Otherwise you wouldn't really need to employ the "golden rule" you could just put the main point of interest smack dab in the middle??? Eyes in my opinion should just about always be in the top third of any portrait. Like I said JMO.

 

[Amnesic]

What about like this?