Man With Mirror -- color or B&W?

[opus]

I'm having a real hard time working with this shot because the lighting is so flat. But I love it. Any suggestions on what I can do with it? Feel free to make adjustments of your own and post, along with an explanation of what you did.

Or do you like one of these fine enough?

[Seb]

I'm having a real hard time working with this shot because the lighting is so flat. But I love it. Any suggestions on what I can do with it? Feel free to make adjustments of your own and post, along with an explanation of what you did.

Or do you like one of these fine enough?

Kelly, I feel that this picture have a greater potential in B&W but neither of these version have the visual impact they could/should have. I am not home now so I can't play with your picture nor do I pretend to be proficient enough to make proper adjustments but I would tend to believe that a slight unsharp mask with a slight contrast boost could lead somewhere.

I like your basic idea here though. It's quite annoying when you have an idea for a composition and when the lighting isn't there. It happens to me to often...

regards

Seb

[shadz]

Pretty subtle. Unsharp mask 20/60/0. Increase Contrast +5, Increase Saturation +10. Unsharpen Mask again 400/.2/0. Add noise, +4. A hair more pop is all. I haven't transfered my channel mixer presets to PS CS yet, so I didn't play with the B+W. You can see the diff better with 'em next to each other.

[Sebastian]

Kelly,

This is the best shot from the weekend, bar none.

The way the man breaks up the geometry of the grating, the way the shadow falls on the wall behind him, the way the mirror doesn't look at all like a mirror but like a printed photo, and the way your reflection is shown, it all comes together into an AWESOME shot.

I love the B&W version, the noise is much more emphasized and really adds to the mood of the shot, as if you shot it on 3200 ISO film.

Great job.

[Seb]

Pretty subtle. Unsharp mask 20/60/0. Increase Contrast +5, Increase Saturation +10. Unsharpen Mask again 400/.2/0. Add noise, +4. A hair more pop is all. I haven't transfered my channel mixer presets to PS CS yet, so I didn't play with the B+W. You can see the diff better with 'em next to each other.

Wow shadz, This is much better than what I could have possibly done. I think that the picture now stand strong to its full potential but the shot isn't mine so let see how Kelly feel about it.

Seb

[Chunk]

I'm having a real hard time working with this shot because the lighting is so flat. But I love it. Any suggestions on what I can do with it? Feel free to make adjustments of your own and post, along with an explanation of what you did.

Or do you like one of these fine enough?

I like this shot a lot Kelly and I'm not bothered by the flat lighting. How did you do the conversion? I assume the graininess is intentional. You lost a lot of detail in the clothing, etc. in the process. I tried a split to RGB and used the green channel. I used curves to get some detail back into the dark areas and boosted the lightest areas just a bit too. I also used the face from the red channel layered over the green channel because it had better skin tones. I also did a mostly unsaturated colorize at the end.
I think you ought to leave the word 'mirror' out of the title and let it be a happy discovery for the viewer.

[Steph_B]

Hi Kelly,

I also think that this is a great shot! It seems that the positions of the people in the frame were orchestrated.

The stance of the man is particular: proud to show us our reflection in his mirror, while being grave about its potential meaning (i.e. seeing ourselves in his mirror). He almost looks like a judge passing judgement: stern and solemn. The fact that we do not see his eyes is a MAJOR plus.

You, the mechanical eye, impersonify us as spectators interested by our own reflections (I guess this does not make sense to anybody, but it does to me ). For instance, your features are unclear as they are hidden by your jacket and the camera. As such, you can actually be anybody. I do not have any difficulty in portraying myself as the actual photographer.

The attitude of the woman is one of disdain and disinterest, looking outside the frame of the mirror and the frame of the picture. Is she not interested by what she sees in the mirror?

This is cool.... I can really picture this scene in a Dali-like painting.

Now for my little contribution.... A couple of things disturbed me: first, there was an overall cyan cast which I removed by desaturating the cyan channel. As a result, the scene is warmer (which might not be what you were going for though) and more natural looking. I also boosted the overall sharpness a tad bit. The window frame behind the man was not exactly straight. I first tried to compensate for the perspective, but then the mirror started to loose its squarish shape. So I decided to crop the top of it. I do not know if this works better or not (it does for me, but others might find that it is necessary to include the full window frame).

I am curious to see what others will think of this.

But this is a GREAT capture. I really should start thinking that taking pictures does not necessarily involves a tripod and a set of filters!

Thanks for sharing,

Steph.

[Seb]

Hi Kelly,

The window frame behind the man was not exactly straight. I first tried to compensate for the perspective, but then the mirror started to loose its squarish shape. So I decided to crop the top of it. I do not know if this works better or not (it does for me, but others might find that it is necessary to include the full window frame).

I am curious to see what others will think of this.

Steph.

I agree. That's something that I have totally missed but now that you are pointing out the flaw I much prefer your crop on the top.

Seb

[another view]

Kelly, your B&W is the one. Flat lighting and grainy - and it looks great here! If you could design the composition (obviously not in this type of shot or you'd lose the whole point), I'd like to see a version with just you centered in the mirror, and a version of just the other woman centered in the mirror. The guy would have to move the magazine though. Burning in her bright bag might help a little with the shot you've got, but it's very well done.

I seem to remember a time when you didn't want to post a self portrait... Like I should talk!

[opus]

Thanks so much for your comments!! I want to give a longer response to each of you than I have time to give right now, so please keep your eye out for this thread to pop to the top again, and read my responses.

luv ya all!