Neighborhood Character

00SS

bfjr

she looks like he is

Ok I fixed it but it reads funnier the other way

Sure looks like he is.

00SS

bfjr wrote:

she looks like he is

umm.. lost me on that one ??

bdcolen

00SS wrote:

Wonderful image - though I'd like to see a bit more as I'm a bit thrown by his leaning back, with no suggestion of whether he's sitting, standing, or what.

00SS

bfjr wrote:

she looks like he is

Ok I fixed it but it reads funnier the other way

Sure looks like he is.

Amazing how one 'character' threw me off..

00SS

bdcolen wrote:

Wonderful image - though I'd like to see a bit more as I'm a bit thrown by his leaning back, with no suggestion of whether he's sitting, standing, or what.

Thank you BD - sadly that wasn't a cropped image, and it was more of a quick shot, and as soon as he saw me with the camera.. he leaned back in his chair as a response/pose i guess. I'll keep at it.. thanks for commenting.

bdcolen

00SS wrote:

Thank you BD - sadly that wasn't a cropped image, and it was more of a quick shot, and as soon as he saw me with the camera.. he leaned back in his chair as a response/pose i guess. I'll keep at it.. thanks for commenting.

It is too bad, but it's a lovely image none the less. The leaning back makes perfect sense.

seastack

Love it! The shallow depth of field is nice and crazy me, it's why I shoot wide open, or nearly, most of the time. Less would have been even better here.

Personally I'd go a little bit darker, perhaps increase the contrast a hair which will give you a more graphic background, enhance his rugged character and maybe pop out the smoke at the tips of his fingers a bit. If you shot in RAW, I'd start with the initial processing of the file and lower the exposure. I'd also crop it just enough to lose the trash can and the picture frame which will also throw his face to the right and off-center a bit but still mantain a nice negative space. I'm thinking cropping to a 10 x 8 might work out just about right.

One very small thing that really helps this photo is the background stripe of light and the fact that he is within it. That tiny sliver of light on the wall between his hair and the darker background is perfect, and the crossover of his brightly lit finger into the dark background is a subtlety that works equally well, it's complementary in fact. One small thing that doesn't help is the blown highlight of his hood, although it's not critical. I will often shoot in mixed lighting situations like this by presetting my camera in manual to expose for the highlights, i.e. metering off my open hand in the sun. This means you will often lose much of your shadow detail but often end up with more dramatic photos ... or total junk depending on your timing and framing.

Again, very nice photo and I think being instinctual like this often yields the best photos. Actually I'm going to disagree with B.D. a little and say this is one of the nicer images I've seen here, and has a lot of potential with a few small changes. It was clear to me that he was leaning back. I suspect given the lighting this would also be good in color ... muted warm tones would be nice.

00SS

seastack wrote:

Love it! The shallow depth of field is nice and crazy me, it's why I shoot wide open, or nearly, most of the time. Less would have been even better here.

Personally I'd go a little bit darker, perhaps increase the contrast a hair which will give you a more graphic background, enhance his rugged character and maybe pop out the smoke at the tips of his fingers a bit. If you shot in RAW, I'd start with the initial processing of the file and lower the exposure. I'd also crop it just enough to lose the trash can and the picture frame which will also throw his face to the right and off-center a bit but still mantain a nice negative space. I'm thinking cropping to a 10 x 8 might work out just about right.

One very small thing that really helps this photo is the background stripe of light and the fact that he is within it. That tiny sliver of light on the wall between his hair and the darker background is perfect, and the crossover of his brightly lit finger into the dark background is a subtlety that works equally well, it's complementary in fact. One small thing that doesn't help is the blown highlight of his hood, although it's not critical. I will often shoot in mixed lighting situations like this by presetting my camera in manual to expose for the highlights, i.e. metering off my open hand in the sun. This means you will often lose much of your shadow detail but often end up with more dramatic photos ... or total junk depending on your timing and framing.

Again, very nice photo and I think being instinctual like this often yields the best photos. Actually I'm going to disagree with B.D. a little and say this is one of the nicer images I've seen here, and has a lot of potential with a few small changes. It was clear to me that he was leaning back. I suspect given the lighting this would also be good in color ... muted warm tones would be nice.

Thank you for the nice comment, I went back and tried a few adjustments..
and ended up wth two more versions.. but I think i like this one better:


thanks for taking a look
Devin

sara505

00SS wrote:

Thank you for the nice comment, I went back and tried a few adjustments..
and ended up wth two more versions.. but I think i like this one better:


thanks for taking a look
Devin

Yes - this one!

00SS

sara505 wrote:

Yes - this one!

Thanks for your input Sara

michswiss

00SS wrote:

Thank you for the nice comment, I went back and tried a few adjustments..
and ended up wth two more versions.. but I think i like this one better:

thanks for taking a look
Devin

I didn't really like the first version, but this one is fantastic. The crop, the new conversion. Lovely. There's now a three dimensionality to it that brings depth to the image. I feel much more connected to the subject.

rutt

Much better!

00SS

michswiss / rutt - thanks for taking a look, feedback much apprecaited.