Altogether

[armand]

Exploring B&W conversion in LR.

[Jeremy Roussak]

It's an amusing shot. It looks to me as if it lacks deep blacks and hence is a little flat: have you tried pushing up the Blacks slider in LR?

Jeremy

[RSL]

Armand, That's the kind of thing Elliott Erwitt did so well, and this is well done. Jeremy's probably right, but it's really hard to tell. What one sees on the screen is quite different from what one sees in a print. The easiest approach to good B&W conversions is Nik's Silver Efex Pro, but you can get the same conversion if, as Jeremy suggests, you play with the sliders. Don't forget the color sliders. They can make a major change in middle gray tones.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Armand, this is an excellent shot. I am personally less bothered by the B&W conversion and tonality, as the essence of the shot lies in the humorous juxtaposition, in the best tradition of Elliott Erwitt, as Russ already mentioned. A nitpick: a slight change in camera position would have avoided the appearance of the tree "growing" out of the girl's back.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

+1

[armand]

It looks to me as if it lacks deep blacks and hence is a little flat: have you tried pushing up the Blacks slider in LR?

it's becoming my nemesis, my B&W phtots don't have enough black and are flat  I did push the black slider until I started losing detail in the hair. Probably if I lighten just the hair I could push it a little more.

A nitpick: a slight change in camera position would have avoided the appearance of the tree "growing" out of the girl's back.

The wind was blowing quite hard, I could barely hold myself. It was the beginning of a hurricane in the Miami area.

[David Saffir]

I really like the effect of the wind and the repeating shapes. Original, and at the same time funny and also a bit awe-inspiring.

The image has good highlight detail. You might want to experiment with bringing down your blacks and the lower-range midtones to create more contrast, depth, and dimensionality in the image. I realize the wind made composition difficult, but the tree in the back thing is a wee issue....

Good work!

David
GuruShots Photo Critique

[jeremypayne]

it's becoming my nemesis, my B&W phtots don't have enough black and are flat  I did push the black slider until I started losing detail in the hair. Probably if I lighten just the hair I could push it a little more.
The wind was blowing quite hard, I could barely hold myself. It was the beginning of a hurricane in the Miami area.

Push the Blacks and then try and use Fill to try and bring the hair back ... might help.

[RSL]

Armand, I'm not sure this is better, but the mid-tones have been brought into range. It's pretty hard to do much with a jpeg, but I used Viveza and then curves to touch up the result. Her skin may have ended up a bit too dark. In any case, it's a really good shot. Wish I'd made it.

[armand]

I was lucky to have the right conditions and the right model

Another funny shot that could have been gold but it's just pink. It lasted for less than a second and until I changed the focus point the positions changed. Still funny despite the failed focus.