[Zig]

Further to my other post about a digital representation of this darkroom/movie technique:
I've been experimenting with this in a variety of convoluted ways, here using a multiplicity of quite different ways in Photoshop to see if i could arrive at roughly the same end.
I'm pretty tired at the mo, so a detailed summary will have to wait for the present. Suffice it to say that one can end up a very far cry from the "base" image!

As an example, here is firstly an entirely uncropped, unadjusted default shot:



And here are 2 treatments of the same raw file, each taking a good couple of hours to get to the finished article. My starting-point for both was a low-contrast 16-bit tiff, exported uncropped from Adobe Camera raw into Photoshop. I'll see if I can remember the workflow over the next day or two!

[Irma]

Both in their own style look really nice... I like the crop you did from the original..

[matthew]

Hmmm… not so much this time. I think I prefer the second take, but it's feeling a little like zombie bluegrass.
(and for the record, I like bluegrass.)

[Don Schaeffer]

I like the first of the two croped versions. The second is too harsh.

[Zig]

Ta chaps.
Matthew, I do believe you've invented a new musical genre here...
Good point Don; I too was surprised that processing alone could change the mood of the subject as well as the scene...yes, not too flattering I agree.
Funnily enough, what with the comments of you both, that pentangle star near the player's right hand starts to suggest some significance. :/

[Toad]

I prefer #1, Zig. The vignette works there, and the face in #2 feels a bit too HDR to me - whereas #1 strikes the right tone, I think.

[NT73]

They both have something going for them.

[Photopro]

The first one still retains some of the "human" look while the second one looks more like a finely crafted wax figure in a historical museum (not necessarily a bad thing). I prefer #1

[Don Schaeffer]

I think the sign is an important part of the image. Maybe cropping that out was not a good idea.

[photokev]

Love the crop and I think either image is strong by itself, when you do an A _ B comparison though each has it's strength and weaknesses. (There's never a "perfect" image treatment) I like the facial tonalities of the 1st edited image but like the more subtle vignette of the second. The first shot's dark fade makes him look like an amputee.

But, I think if anyone just saw one shot by itself they'd say wow...