Mariachi men...

[markg740]

please forgive me if i mis-spelled that :blush2:

here are some mariachi :blush2: guys playin at a local festival, i photoshopped it, and used the channel mixer method to get a more dynamic b&w photo, but im not too sure if its too much. please let me know and critic! thanks a lot everyone.

[swmdrayfan]

The shadows make their faces hard to see. At least on my monitor.
John

[markg740]

Youre right John, thanks, im going to dodge their faces right now.

[Overbeyond]

I find this all a little too busy especially with that distracting background.
But the image of main guy with that huge guitar and wonderful expression is priceless.
So I feel this would have survived brilliantly with just the inclusion of the main man.
Tom

[Photo-John]

I love mariachis, mariachi music, and I love good photos of mariachis. This one is a good start but it's got a couple of problems. The main problem is the distracting background. You didn't say what camera, lens or settings you used so it's hard to offer any specific technical advice. But I would have liked to see this shot with a larger aperture so that it had a shallow depth-of-field and soft background. That's the best solution for a scene like this where the background doesn't compliment the subject.

I alos think the main subject - the mariachi with the guitar - should fill more of the frame. The other guys are important, but background. I think I might have tried to get closer to the one musician and made the other guys even more support players. I wish the guitar wasn't cropped at the bottom and the head, too.

The other main problem is the image quality. The images are very contrasty and the black and white conversion is a bit harsh. It looks like this was shot at midday - pretty much the worst time to take outdoor pictures. But sometimes that's when it has to be done. In that case, it's really nice to be able to use a bit of fill flash to soften the shadows and balance your exposure. You can open up the shadows a bit with photoshop by dodging or using masked adjustment layers. The Channel Mixer tool is the best way to do a black and white conversion. But I think this one is too contrasty. Back oof a bit on the red/cyan channel a bit. Or just do a curves or levels adjustment before you use the Channel Mixer. And if you're not using adjustment layers, start using them. They are where the real power of Photoshop lies.

Hope that helps - and welcome to the site!