Portrait-Colour or Mono

[yogestee]

I'm in two minds with this one..I like the strong colours of the colour version. I also like the documentary feel with the mono version..What do you think??
This is a grab shot of a Black H'mong woman taken in Sapa far North Vietnam..

Nikon F90X/Nikkor 70-200mm AIS
Fuji Superia 200
Negative scanned

Jurgen
Australia

[swmdrayfan]

Can't put my finger on it, but the mono version I like better.
John

[EastCoastHucker]

I'll say MonO.

you still shooting with the F90x?
Great camera..

[Chunk]

A wonderful shot in both versions. I, too, like the colors in the first.

Having that lightest portion of the BG behind her face works very well.

[drg]

Jurgen,

What a good face to photograph.

The b/w is better I believe because the shadow across the lower part of her face isn't as distracting in b/w. In fact, it has a complimentary effect to the photo and adds character to the image.

On the contrast topic, this photo I feel would be stronger if the contrast and tonality had some more range. It borders on being slightly gray. I haven't put the histogram to it to be sure, but it just looks like it ought to be more contrasty. It could be the conversion as well.

One minor compositional quibble, the blurry bag/fabric in the lower right is very distracting. In the b/w version you might wish to consider burning it some to lessen its overall effect and with it darker, it will add some weight and thus an 'anchor' for the photo and the movement of the eye across it.

Thanks for sharing this one.

[photophorous]

Hi Jurgen,

This is a very nice shot, and I think either version is good, but... I'm going to disagree with everyone else and say I prefer the color version. When the color is that good, I think you have to use it. And something about the smooth grain from C-41 film doesn't look good in B&W, with this documentary style shot. I think it should either be color, or B&W film with big fat grain...like Tri-X. That is of course just my opinion. I do think both could benefit from a little bump in contrast...at least on my uncalibrated monitor.

Thanks,
Paul

[GB1]

I prefer the color. The B&W's OK but the colors look so harmonic that it wins.
GB

[readingr]

Jurgen,

What a choice to have to make so I'm going to sit on the fence because either look great to me.

I like the colours in the first and the tone in the B&W is wonderful.

The composition is spot on.

Nicely spotted and taken

Roger

[Greg McCary]

I like the B&W better, I feel the background is less distracting, but tomorrow I might like the other? They are both good. I don't like the object in the lower right of the frame. But again you capture people and their charactor as well as anybody, Nice shot.
Greg

[yogestee]

you still shooting with the F90x?
Great camera..

I gave all my Nikon film gear to my niece who is studying photography including the F90X along with an FE2 and F801s plus a swag of Nikkor lenses from 20mm to 300mm...It is a long term "borrow" threatening her a thousand deaths if she doesn't look after it..After all Julia is my fave niece..

Jurgen

[yogestee]

Thanx everyone for your feedback..I'm still sitting on the fence also..I intend to mount and frame either for the wall...It appears Amanda my wife could have the final say :cryin:

Jurgen

[McMadCow]

I'm just going to say the color shot. This should be in B&W IMO, but desaturating a color shot isn't the way to go about doing it. Please don't take this criticism personally, I would just love to see this shot on Delta or Pan-F. I'm just not feeling it in digital B&W here.

[yogestee]

I'm just going to say the color shot. This should be in B&W IMO, but desaturating a color shot isn't the way to go about doing it. Please don't take this criticism personally, I would just love to see this shot on Delta or Pan-F. I'm just not feeling it in digital B&W here.

McMadCow,,I agree with you totally...Digital just doesn't handle B/W very well...The problem lies with image brightness range...A B/W film like Tri-X for example has a brightness range of 5 to 5 1/2 stops from black to white with countless tones in between...Digital has a brightness range of around 3 stops similar to slide/transparency films..When an image is converted into mono the midtones are compressed resulting in a so so image and a loss of midtones..

Jurgen

[ravenmore]

digital can handle b&w well but its harder than you think. My old olympus c5050 did a really good job with b&w - not sure why but it reall did.

I like the b&w. The colors are nifty, but take away from the subject which ISN'T about the color. At least for me.

[Glycerin19]

Lately whenever I've wanted to do b/w I've converted it to LAB color then viewing only the Lightness channel, I've then converted it to grayscale. Then I play with the levels or contrast until I like the way it looks. I've gotten much better b/w's that way.

[LeeIs]

Looks like I'm a bit late, nevertheless, I like the b&w version more. I still think it lacks a bit of contrast and true black & white spots. Looks like the midtones are over powering the range here a bit on my monitor.

[hughosborn]

From my point of view, the coloured one just tells more of the story. The colours in it are attractive and gives more detail and insight into the clothes she wears and her jewellery and what it is made of (it could appear to be made from a silver metal or anything in the BW). I also think we can tell more about her age, lifestyle and the type of place she comes from as well as her health from the tones and colours of her skin. And the colours of the background give a glimpse of what could be a bright and wonderous place. Really nice photos. That's just what I think from a not-so-knowledgable position about much to do with photography.

[yogestee]

From my point of view, the coloured one just tells more of the story. The colours in it are attractive and gives more detail and insight into the clothes she wears and her jewellery and what it is made of (it could appear to be made from a silver metal or anything in the BW). I also think we can tell more about her age, lifestyle and the type of place she comes from as well as her health from the tones and colours of her skin. And the colours of the background give a glimpse of what could be a bright and wonderous place. Really nice photos. That's just what I think from a not-so-knowledgable position about much to do with photography.

Thanx Hugh,,,You are pretty spot on regarding this woman...The H'mong are an ethnic group in Nth Vietnam, Northern Laos, Myanmar and Thailand..Their life is harsh as is the environment they live in,,high up in the mountains..These countries don't treat their ethnic groups particulary well,,,Laos goes one step further and ethnically cleanse the H'mong et al..

Jurgen

[hughosborn]

Whoa that's crazy. Very interesting though. Thanks for that. I hope she's not in Laos then.

[Jaedon]

in the Mono my eyes go directly to her face and her eyes. With the colour version my eye gets caught on the thing on her shoulder.

Definitely the Mono is my choice out of the two.