Is this Bad?

[chaud]

I converted this shot to B&W added contrast and noise to simulate high ISO film. Not sure that it is working all that well. What is you honest opinion?

[Jim Jones]

I usually prefer shadow detail, but in this shot increasing the contrast to eliminate that doesn't bother me. I see little logic in adding noise. That's something we once tried to eliminate, not add. A photo that looks good without grain is rarely improved by adding it. Perhaps adding grain will mask defects in the original capture. If you want to manipulate the image, clone out the two men in the background. They compete with the priceless expressions of the three women. I'd also be tempted to clone out the horizontal line near the top and the letter at the bottom. Great photographs are usually made, not taken. Of course if this is to be a record shot, not fine art, such editing is tabu. The composition is great, too.

[Ned James]

Most would agree with Jim's remarks. A few would disagree about the grain. Very few perhaps.

Some documentary photographers felt that grain was needed. As if the grain conveyed a sense of realism. It represented a hard look with no concern over presenting a subject in it's best most beautiful way but rather just the way it was (a lofty and unachievable goal really, but that's the argument the way I understand it).

Others felt that grain gave an image a sense of romanticism or dreaminess. Fashion/glamor photographers were the proponents of those ideas.

I happen to agree that adding noise doesnt' really help here though. I just wanted to remind some that there have been other points of view in the past. Perhaps that's where they should stay--in the past. But who knows.

[chaud]

Some great feedback and suggestions. I will work on another version of this first image with Jim's suggestions.

Below is a couple more using the same treatment as the first one.

[chaud]

This is the first image re-worked using Jim's suggestions.

[winger]

I prefer the reworked one. The line was especially distracting. The guys less so.

I am in the camp of not disliking grain when it's there because of how the shot was done (1600 iso film, funky developing, whatever), but I don't try to have it. It also doesn't look like grain to me in the first shot - just noise.