Young man working on Vespa bikes

Antonio Correia · July 25, 2008

When I stopped at the traffic lights I spoted this young man - who will be tomorrow, the 26th July 2008, 31 years old - I know him since he was a young child.
I yelled at him and asked if I could make some shots of his activity in the garage where he works on restoration of Vespa models.
I arranged a meeting with him for 5 o'clock and drag some of my stuff with me.
This time and as usual, I took the 5D + 16-35 + 24-70 + ST-E2 + flashes + supports for them + plastic reflector (some 80/80 cm * 2).

Here are the photos I shot of him, or some of them.
I had a success rate of about 10-15 % which is very good I think.
Without hesitation I threw away (erased) all the picture not tack sharp and those where I simply failed or the flashes were to blame because they were lazy asking for holidays not working when I asked two shots in a row.
This time I applied some different "treatments" HDR like, to some pics simply working on Lightroom.
Comments please. Thank you people !

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InsuredDisaster · July 25, 2008

You are always taking so many cool photos!

My personal problem with the series is that the man is looking or nearly looking at the camera in every shot. It seems to destroy the idea that he is working on the Vespa. Just doesn't convey the notion that he's working on much. His face doesn't express any kind of emotion or the intense concentration that I would expect to see from someone working on a vespa. But this is not really a technical problem. Just my personal preference.

I think #1 is a good picture of him with the framing.

I think #2 could benefit from tighter cropping. He is very small and there is a lot of stuff on the left that could go perhaps.

#3 Has a bit expression. Perhaps he is trying to figure out which tool to use?

The HDR is a bit weird. The walls are a brownish grey intead of white and his face is weird. The Vespa body looks cool though.

Antonio Correia · July 26, 2008

InsuredDisaster wrote:

You are always taking so many cool photos!

My personal problem with the series is that the man is looking or nearly looking at the camera in every shot. It seems to destroy the idea that he is working on the Vespa. Just doesn't convey the notion that he's working on much. His face doesn't express any kind of emotion or the intense concentration that I would expect to see from someone working on a vespa. But this is not really a technical problem. Just my personal preference.

I think #1 is a good picture of him with the framing.
I think #2 could benefit from tighter cropping. He is very small and there is a lot of stuff on the left that could go perhaps.
#3 Has a bit expression. Perhaps he is trying to figure out which tool to use?
The HDR is a bit weird. The walls are a brownish grey intead of white and his face is weird. The Vespa body looks cool though.

My next serie of shots on this theme will be more "natural" and I will have the persons working and concentrated ontheir own work as well.
i hope to shoot both ways: concentrated on their work and looking at us.

I can't promise but I would like to re-shoot the 1.st pic to make it better.
The 2.ed shot it is more a photo of the Vespa than of João Paulo. I think it is not very well with him just in the middle of the picture ...:cry

Yes. He was looking for the right tool to use when I asked him to look at me. We can't say that he is someone with very strong faces expressions...:cry

The last picture is done with Lightroom trying to mimicking HDR.

Thank you for your comments.

D