Contrast, matte finishes and crushed blacks

 As a photographer I find me eye is continually evolving, and my post processing style evolves as I come under increasing influences.

One particular 'style' of editing has always challenged me, not technically, but aesthetically.

I don’t know if I like the increasingly accepted norm.

The art of matte finishes technically is a rather simple one, moving the extremes of the histogram in a curves layer to bring the tonal values closer together.

Some photographers would argue that it reflects the look of the film era, or it is their style and they 'love' it.

Myself, I am unsure.

Although in certain circumstances I do adore the mood it brings to the image, in particular fine art photography.

It does have its advantages, for example allowing detail in the black/shadows to been seen easily.

I am wary of accepting it as a 'style'.

Below I have played with it as a compositional tool.

It is a 'rule' that the viewer is led to the area of greatest contrast.  

So if you selectively 'crush the blacks', the theory is that if I leave the eyes with greater tonal values (contrast), the viewers gaze will be drawn to them.  

The truth is, I just couldnt make the image work in colour.

(A seven image panorama pushing the limits of Brenzier method portraits at f1.8)

It is a crutch for poor photography.

The camera is limited in its ability to portray light to dark (dynamic range).

Instead of solving this issue before they take a shot (reflector or fill flash), they attempt to salvage the shot by bringing up the dark areas and lowering the light areas.

Often resulting in muddy tonal values which lacks vibrance, is flat and 'meh'.

Black and white images are much more forgiving than colour.

Below is an example of me stuffing an image up. I forgot to turn the high speed function of my flash on, as a result I was (unknowingly) limited to 1/180th shutter speed and as a result it was terribly over exposed.

In a no pressure situation, you would just discard the image.

But increasingly I see this sort of things representing wedding ceremony's, the 'must have' shots. The pretty formal portraits.

It is piss poor photography.

As you see the original image is screwed, the colour edit image is horrid, and only making it black and white, and artificially crushing the tonal values, it almost becomes acceptable.

Why anyone would choose to do this is beyond me.