It’s Groundhog Day! And it’s also #monochromemonday. so instead of another infrared blog post (I did that yesterday) or something featuring a black and white landscape image or what passes for the kind of landscapes I make, I’m going back to a portrait session I had with Megan, a model who I featured recently and who again appears in glorious black and white.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected. — Robert FrankA femme fatale is…is]s an archetype of literature and art of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps.—from Wikipedia
Black and white is a wonderful media for making portraits because the lack of color simplifies the image, causing you to focus on the true subject of the photograph instead of their clothing or surroundings.
It’s All Black & White to Me
Most digital cameras give you a choice of shooting color or black and white—even at the same time or you can capture a color image and convert it to monochrome later using some of the techniques available in Adobe Photoshop. Back in the not-so-old days the only way to make a black and white photograph was by shooting black and white film. Now digital shooters can have it both ways:
As mentioned in my book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography, I didn’t start out as a people photographer. Sometimes I’d make a business portrait or headshot but people were really my wife Mary’s game. When I took an extended sabbatical from the studio, things changed and I started making and enjoying shooting portraits like today’s featured image of Megan..
How I made this portrait: Camille Paglia once said,The mystique of the Femme Fatale cannot be perfectly translated into male terms.” This portrait of Megan is my attempt to try.
Megan reminds me of Gillian Anderson and this portrait is from the only session I did with this aspiring model who was sent to me by a local modeling agency. It was shot in the office of my former home, using only window light with her sitting on the red Queen Anne chair that I’ve used as a prop for many portraits. The image was captured with a Canon EOS D60 with an EF 22-55mm f/4-5.6 USM lens at 55mm with an available light exposure of 1/50 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 400 with a minus one and one-third stop exposure compensation to emphasize the shadows
After opening the JPEG file in Photoshop, the first thing I did was use Dfine to minimize the noise from the more-than-I-liked underexposed color portrait (above right.) Then I used PhotoKit 2’s burning and dodging tools to dodge the left hand half and burn the right hand half, before applying Unsharp Mask to add some semblance of sharpness.
Next I converted the color image to monochrome with Silver Efex using the Low Key preset but pushing and pulling the slider controls to produce the look I wanted. Then a little more selective burning and dodging was done.
I like to think the final black and white version of Megan’s portrait has a 1940’s film noir femme fatale look. While the original unretouched color image was nice but underexposed, I think the monochrome version is more dynamic and graphic. But hey, if you prefer the color version, that’s OK too.
Coming Up: Look for a Noise, Grain and Cookies podcast on my YouTube channel, Joe Farace’s Videos, featuring a look at how Barry Staver discuss the subject of black and white photography real soon snow.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), please click here. And if you do, thanks so much.
My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography and includes information on all of the cameras used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. New books are available from Amazon for $23.30 with used books starting around ten bucks. as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.