Can some shots work equally in colour and mono?

[Nigel Allan]

Or do they always need extra adjustments?

Here are two shots I took of my daughter this summer in her riding hat. These are followed by straight mono conversions in Lightroom without adjusting contrast, colour temperature, filters or anything.

1) First I'd like opinions on them as portraits. Could I have done anything better?

2) Second I'd like opinions on whether the skin tones etc work as straight conversions or whether some tweaking would be better for the black and white spectrum. Normally I find that very few shots work exactly the same in colour and black and white and some adjustment is needed, but these are IMO quite close

For what it's worth, I think the first works better than the second as the skin has become too grey in the second, but I'd like others' input on this and suggestions on how to make the skin appear better in mono in this shot. Generally speaking I add more contrast to mono conversions since I like bright whites and deep blacks

1. Nigel Allan – Montana in riding hat # 1 - colour

2. Nigel Allan – Montana in riding hat #1 - mono

3. Nigel Allan – Montana in riding hat # 2 - colour

4. Nigel Allan – Montana in riding hat #2 - mono​

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Hi Nigel,

Very quickly in a 5 minute break, for me the first works better as a portrait. In the second her attention is diverted and the expression is less satisfactory (not suggesting a smile is always required though). In the second there is perhaps too much space above her, given that this shot doesn't include her environment - easily fixed with a quick crop though.

In terms of converting to monchrome, a straight conversion doesn't usually work and often it's necessary to do quite a lot to get a satisfcatory result. I had a play with your second colour file (the first is a lot nicer from the start) - please let me know if you mind and I'll take it down - and came up with a different look to the straight conversion. This comprised convert to black and white increasing reds and reducing greens/cyans in photoshop (same tool is in LR), Increase contrast, local sharpening of eyes, lips and rim of hat to get separation from background and then burning of lips using a masked curve layer to give them some more definition.

Best

Mike

Montana, copyright Nigel Allen