I’ve been working mostly in black and white street photography, where the frame often depends more on weight, shadow, and timing than on clean description.
In this image, I let the blacks get quite heavy because I wanted the figure and the surrounding space to feel slightly hostile, not neatly readable. I’m never fully sure where that line sits: when does contrast become atmosphere, and when does it simply start eating the photograph?
Shot in harsh available light, edited with the shadows left deliberately dense rather than rescued.
Would you pull more detail back from the black areas, or does the loss of information help the image?
Most black I see still has plenty of definition, so I don't think you overdid it.
Thanks, that’s reassuring. I wanted the blacks to feel heavy, but not dead. There’s a difference between depth and just throwing a bucket of ink over the frame, though photography forums sometimes pretend that’s a philosophy.
I may still test the upper tones a bit, but I agree: the shadows keep enough texture and detail to hold the image together.> Most black I see still has plenty of definition, so I don’t think you overdid it.