Pre-parade--Getting Ready

lizzard_nyc

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Awais Yaqub

I like how busy 1st two shots are.

Nice photos of parade

Wil Davis

Oh, the subjects are great, but I don't know how you've desaturated the photos; the B&W is just that: Black & White with little or no grays.

There was a thread hereabouts recently on how to desaturate in a very controlled way, using LAB colour rather than the simple desaturate command in PS; (if I can find it, I'll post a link) (actually I found one in the Digital Photography School: It's not one which I was thinking of, but it'll do: Helen Bradley )

Some of the expressions in your B&W pics are great. Perhaps it's my imagination, but the colours in your pics are just not "popping" (step forward Darren Rowse ).

Hope this helps -

- Wil

lizzard_nyc

Awais Yaqub wrote:

I like how busy 1st two shots are.

Nice photos of parade

Thanks Awais--I think I could have done better at capturing the chaos--This was for the NYC Hispanic Day parade, which represents all the Latin American Countries. Imagine all the sidesstreets along 5th Avenue filled with parade participants getting ready. Two to three different countries in each block--CHAOS. I did get more shots, but I thought these were the best.

lizzard_nyc

Wil Davis wrote:

Oh, the subjects are great, but I don't know how you've desaturated the photos; the B&W is just that: Black & White with little or no grays.

There was a thread hereabouts recently on how to desaturate in a very controlled way, using LAB colour rather than the simple desaturate command in PS; (if I can find it, I'll post a link) (actually I found one in the Digital Photography School: It's not one which I was thinking of, but it'll do: Helen Bradley )

Some of the expressions in your B&W pics are great. Perhaps it's my imagination, but the colours in your pics are just not "popping" (step forward Darren Rowse ).

Hope this helps - -Will

Hi Will and thanks for the tips. I will hopefully be getting Lightroom soon, in the meantime I'm stuck with the simple PP stuff that comes with my camera. I am learning how to meter on my Olympus (and struggling) the b&w are SOOC.

As for the color--when I post any color in PJ/street forum I find it difficult to tweak photos in anyway besides cropping and simple exposure, it seems to me like they should be as SOOC as possible--maybe I"m wrong, I'd like to hear more thoughts about this.

FWIW, the shots on this post are all pre parade, catching people as they prepare for the big day--I will post another thread in "people" of the actual parade, I will boost the colors on those etc. and play with them as much as my Olympus program and Picnik will allow.

Thank you for commenting and for your helpful tips--and yes I agree my b&w could use a little help--but at least this time they are not TOTALLY blown out like in my past post.:D

adbsgicom

Great shots! Can't pick a favorite. They all work.

damonff

yeah
1 and 2 are brilliant (for real). 5 is "Weegee", and Rutt will tell you how special that is. I am totally digging your work.

damonff

my favorite:

lizzard_nyc

damonff wrote:

my favorite:

I debated for a while as to which of the line up shots I should post--this was the other I had considered.

As far as #5 goes the little girl kept trying to tell her mother I was taking pictures of her and to cover her back, but the mom paid her no mind. I figure if she's out changing in the street, she's fair game. They are used to it.

Thanks for looking at my smugmug page---just fyi, not a gallery exactly, just using it as a learning tool right now and pretty much the good the bad and the ugly go in there.

Thanks for the encouraging words.

lizzard_nyc

adbsgicom wrote:

Great shots! Can't pick a favorite. They all work.

Thanks Andrew. I wanted to post all of them, lol.
I'm still working my way through the actual parade shots--that's going to take me forever.

rainbow

Excellent set.

I really like #3. I imagine that she is so proud of her outfit and showing it off to the other two girls, who are oohing and ahhing and sharing the joy.

Looking forward to your parade shots.

Wil Davis

Lizzard,

I just took a quick peek at the pre-parade pics on your site which you didn't post here (why on earth not??? ) you have some absolute gems! particularly of some of the expressions on the kids faces, especially when they didn't realize they were being photographed! I think you need to get your light out from underneath that bushel…

My particular favourite is #14 - simply gorgeous!

- Wil

lizzard_nyc

rainbow wrote:

Excellent set.

I really like #3. I imagine that she is so proud of her outfit and showing it off to the other two girls, who are oohing and ahhing and sharing the joy.

Looking forward to your parade shots.

Those little girls were adorable, they were seeing who could make their skirts "swish" more. I definately got more little kids coming in my parade post which I hope to get to in a couple of days. I'm a sucker for the little ones.

lizzard_nyc

Wil Davis wrote:

Lizzard,

I just took a quick peek at the pre-parade pics on your site which you didn't post here (why on earth not??? ) you have some absolute gems! particularly of some of the expressions on the kids faces, especially when they didn't realize they were being photographed! I think you need to get your light out from underneath that bushel…

My particular favourite is #14 - simply gorgeous!

- Wil

Thanks again Will .
I wanted to post them all, but I just picked my favorites instead. As for the little girl, she is a favorite, but I have a few just like that coming in my new post in "people", which I will retouch and bump up the color etc.

I was tryin to get a photo of her unnoticed when her Mom noticed me snapping, she took that little girl's jacket off so fast and gave her a little shove and she started posing for me. So funny, poor kid was freezing, but she looked fantastic.

I love capturing children without their notice and in their natural state, you know just being kids, so thanks for commenting on that.

bdcolen

lizzard_nyc wrote:

Hi Will and thanks for the tips. I will hopefully be getting Lightroom soon, in the meantime I'm stuck with the simple PP stuff that comes with my camera. I am learning how to meter on my Olympus (and struggling) the b&w are SOOC.

As for the color--when I post any color in PJ/street forum I find it difficult to tweak photos in anyway besides cropping and simple exposure, it seems to me like they should be as SOOC as possible--maybe I"m wrong, I'd like to hear more thoughts about this.


Thank you for commenting and for your helpful tips--and yes I agree my b&w could use a little help--but at least this time they are not TOTALLY blown out like in my past post.:D

First, I like the way you are seeing - which is 9/10th of the battle - But I can't quite figure out what's happening with your exposure/processing. Things look under exposed, and then the BW is way off. Which Olympus are you using? I don't like shooting jpeg, but I have found the BW built into the Olympus to be pretty good. You might want to try it for a bit to see what you get. You also ought to check what you're metering on. If things are this under exposed using the 'matrix metering,' I'd look to see if there's a lot of bright light in the scene, which might cause under exposure. You might want to dial in about 3/4 of a stop of increased exposure.

As to cropping, not cropping, etc. Up to you. The goal is always to crop with the viewfinder, but cropping is not a crime. As to what's done in photoshop, you make the adjustments you need to make to get the scene you saw - which is essentially what people did in the wet darkroom.

lizzard_nyc

bdcolen wrote:

First, I like the way you are seeing - which is 9/10th of the battle - But I can't quite figure out what's happening with your exposure/processing. Things look under exposed, and then the BW is way off. Which Olympus are you using? I don't like shooting jpeg, but I have found the BW built into the Olympus to be pretty good. You might want to try it for a bit to see what you get. You also ought to check what you're metering on. If things are this under exposed using the 'matrix metering,' I'd look to see if there's a lot of bright light in the scene, which might cause under exposure. You might want to dial in about 3/4 of a stop of increased exposure.

As to cropping, not cropping, etc. Up to you. The goal is always to crop with the viewfinder, but cropping is not a crime. As to what's done in photoshop, you make the adjustments you need to make to get the scene you saw - which is essentially what people did in the wet darkroom.

Hi B.D.
Olympus E620.
I can't meter properly to save my life!!! Notice the original of the police officers and the line up--the three people on the left are dark, than you have your lighter skinned person and he is blasted white, can't even tell what flag he's holding it's so bright--and I toned it down some. I spot meter, partial meter, matrix meter, but I'm also walking around in different lighting situations. The parade was at noon, pretty bright day, some of the shots were taken under scaffoldings etc--was working with the exposure and metering--still trying to figure it out. But I still don't know why within one shot some are dark and some are overly bright!!!!!:bash :bash :bash I will try dialing it in 3/4 of a stop to increase exposure....

As far as tweaking to post in PJ, I didn't want to start playing with the color saturation when posting in PJ--I have a heavy hand as you know. So I was leaving the color SOOC--but now that I have your blessing .

adbsgicom

Liz, bear in mind that your meter is trying to get a medium grey, so if you have dark subjects in your metering area, it is going to overexpose to lighten it up. Similarly, if you meter on light areas, it will be darker, so you need to shift the exposure compensation in cases like that.

Jane B.

This seems like such a colorful event that I am wondering why the black and white. The colors in the outfits to me adds so much to the ones in color.

I know this is personal preference though.

Thanks for posting these.
Jane B.

bdcolen

lizzard_nyc wrote:

Hi B.D.
Olympus E620.
I can't meter properly to save my life!!! Notice the original of the police officers and the line up--the three people on the left are dark, than you have your lighter skinned person and he is blasted white, can't even tell what flag he's holding it's so bright--and I toned it down some. I spot meter, partial meter, matrix meter, but I'm also walking around in different lighting situations. The parade was at noon, pretty bright day, some of the shots were taken under scaffoldings etc--was working with the exposure and metering--still trying to figure it out. But I still don't know why within one shot some are dark and some are overly bright!!!!!:bash :bash :bash I will try dialing it in 3/4 of a stop to increase exposure....

As far as tweaking to post in PJ, I didn't want to start playing with the color saturation when posting in PJ--I have a heavy hand as you know. So I was leaving the color SOOC--but now that I have your blessing .

No! No blessing! For Gds sake don't start screwing around with saturation! Work on overall exposure and contrast.

bdcolen

adbsgicom wrote:

Liz, bear in mind that your meter is trying to get a medium grey, so if you have dark subjects in your metering area, it is going to overexpose to lighten it up. Similarly, if you meter on light areas, it will be darker, so you need to shift the exposure compensation in cases like that.

Absolutely - which brings us back to my suggestion that you get a small handheld meter and fool around with incident metering.

lizzard_nyc

bdcolen wrote:

Absolutely - which brings us back to my suggestion that you get a small handheld meter and fool around with incident metering.

I'm working on it (getting the meter).


As for the "blessing" lol--You know I was "pulling your leg"

lizzard_nyc

Jane B. wrote:

This seems like such a colorful event that I am wondering why the black and white. The colors in the outfits to me adds so much to the ones in color.

I know this is personal preference though.

Thanks for posting these.
Jane B.

Jane B.
I posted the color version of the parade under the "people" forum, just fyi-
Thank you for looking and commenting.
Just fyi--the only time I usually post in b&w is in this particular forum, and for me it is a preference--can't speak for the others.