Black and White portrait

Chef-Michel-black-and-white.jpg


This is a photo of famed Chef Michel Richard of Citronelle (Washington, D.C.) during a momentary break between courses at a charity function ($2,000/person) near the Napa Valley.
When I looked at this image after the event, it instantly brought to mind the back cover of a book - which everyone attending received an autographed copy. Comments?
 
Last edited:

Joseph Bautsch

New member
Hey, that is a great shot. What a great expression. I do have a recommendation and it's only simple cropping. Crop it to vertical and eliminate the guy in the white coat in the back ground. This white coat is distracting, drawing the eyes attention away from the subject. Also crop the left side to take out some of of the flowers. They have a little too much presence in the composition and are a little to dominating. Make the subject, Chef Michel's face, the dominant feature. I'm not a B&W person, but your choice to use it here was a good one. I think it adds character and style to the subject. It's a very good exposure. You didn't provide any EXIF data. Please tell us what lens and settings were used.
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
Yea, I've heard of that rule but I'm a break the rule type guy. (I also use the delete key a lot.) What you did worked and that is what counts. Good job.
 

Ruidoso Bill

Senior Member
Nice job Essence, I like the shot and the expression captured demonstrates his true joy and openess, almost welcoming. I love B&W, especially in portraits. I do agree with Joseph on the cropping. All in all a really nice candid shot!
 

KennethHamlett

New member
Here's another version to consider.
Removed the "growth" protruding from his beard and the distracting "coils" across his forehead. Also added a little space between the flowers on the left and his face for separation.
Other Photoshop enhancements include:
1. Adjusted the curves based on the histogram settings. This slightly bumped up the contrast without losing detail in the shadows.
2. Opened the exposure by +0.44
3. Used OnOne Phototools 2.0 fill flash to open up the chef's coat (couldn't make out what it was originally) and added Super Sharpener
4. Used NoiseNinja to reduce noise (and smooth out some of the facial wrinkles) and increase sharpness a second time.

Chef-Michel-black-and-white.jpg
 
Here's another version to consider.
Removed the "growth" protruding from his beard and the distracting "coils" across his forehead. Also added a little space between the flowers on the left and his face for separation.
Other Photoshop enhancements include:
1. Adjusted the curves based on the histogram settings. This slightly bumped up the contrast without losing detail in the shadows.
2. Opened the exposure by +0.44
3. Used OnOne Phototools 2.0 fill flash to open up the chef's coat (couldn't make out what it was originally) and added Super Sharpener
4. Used NoiseNinja to reduce noise (and smooth out some of the facial wrinkles) and increase sharpness a second time.

View attachment 285

I'd love to know how you did the pruning - I spent two hours in Photoshop CS5 - and even with the "content aware" was unable to prune AND keep the shape of the top of his head.
PM sent...
 
Top