Seeking Opinions
Flyinggina
Registered Users Posts: 2,639 Major grins
I took a photo a few days ago because I saw something that I wanted to capture. For me, the photo succeeds. But we all know that it easy for the photographer who, after all, knows what was in her mind when she took the picture.
I can certainly understand that, for a number of reasons, others might not see what I saw and/or might find the photograph lacking in interest.
To complicate matters, I like it better in color than in black and white, even though the color could be seen to distract.
Anyhow, if you have a reaction - blah, OK, toss it, or whatever - or an opinion re color vs black and white - or if you see something interesting in the picture, I'd love to know.
Suggestions for making it work better are always welcome.
Version 1 - color
Version 2 - black and white
Virginia
I can certainly understand that, for a number of reasons, others might not see what I saw and/or might find the photograph lacking in interest.
To complicate matters, I like it better in color than in black and white, even though the color could be seen to distract.
Anyhow, if you have a reaction - blah, OK, toss it, or whatever - or an opinion re color vs black and white - or if you see something interesting in the picture, I'd love to know.
Suggestions for making it work better are always welcome.
Version 1 - color
Version 2 - black and white
Virginia
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"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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Va
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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It looks somewhat oversaturated for my tastes -- that is the first thing I noticed. There are a few nice elements, including the color matching, the sitting kids in front of the standing adults, and the reflection of the church.
I think the crop could be improved. I don't like the amount of empty space at the bottom. I'm guessing there are more pixels where those came from--unless you were shooting medium format. One possibility is cropping square anchored upper left and extending just beyond the girl in the purple, but you get a couple of people cut in half that way. It almost works cropping 5x4 from what you posted, but not quite. It would work if you could extend the frame to the right a bit. If there's something terrible lurking there, then I would even consider just chopping some off the bottom and using a non-standard aspect ratio. It's only rock 'n' roll
BTW, I wish you would post some more Paris shots. There's going to be a new, ridiculously high speed train between Madrid and Paris soon and it would whet my appetite. :bread
Fun color shot from Boston!
Don
'I was older then, I'm younger than that now' ....
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Thank you Don. Yes, it is definitely a Boston shot!
Richard - You are correct. There are plenty of pixels left! I will give cropping a try. I'm just feeling at the moment that the scene overwhelms the people part of the shot (which is as it was experienced in real life, btw) and, unless I can successfully crop it to tell a more coherent story, which means being closer to the people, I will consider the pic a miss. (I might consider it a miss anyway!)
One other comment as I process my reactions to this shot. The fact that the photograph loses impact in black and white suggests that it is not strong enough compositionally. Color can be great, but for a shot like this, you also need to communicate something beyond just a busy square in the city.
Virginia
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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Neck out - Okay, Virginia, I love you AND your photography. But this one doesn't work in color or black and white. Sorry. I really love the reflection and the church front, in either color or black and white. But in both the kids are just distracting busyness. In the color version the damn purple makes my stomach start doing flips. And in black and white its all these bloobs of white filling the center of the frame. I know, I know, the banner is purple and yellow and the kids are purple and yellow, but...does the world need that much purple and yellow?
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
I think, sometimes, that I learn a lot more from failures than I do from successes. The lessons may take a while to sink in, but I find that understanding what others see - or don't see - really helps me progress.
Don't get me wrong. If I love a photo (mine or anyone else's), I don't stop loving it because others (even you!) do not. But for this one I was pretty sure I was projecting something that I saw and felt that just didn't show up in the photograph. Nonetheless, it was very hard for me to be subjective.
Which is a long winded way of saying again, thank you very much for weighing in.
Oh, and thank you too for the kind words the preceded your comments on the photo.
Virginia
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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In regard to the last comment, you're quite welcome. As to the photo and your difficulty with assessing it - that's a problem we all have. We see something, and we love what we see. We shoot it thinking that we will capture what we saw, but what we saw was really something we imagined, we idealized. The problem is that when we look at it on the screen, or as a print, we often have difficulty separating what we "saw" from what we actually captured.
To put this at it's most basic - and this certainly doesn't apply to your photography
Which is a long way to say something I've said countless times here - we are all our own worst editors, because we are emotionally invested in our images; if we hadn't thought there was something special to shoot, we wouldn't have shot it.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
Which is an interesting position. I consider this a learning space and a virtual editor for my own work. Assuming that we all thought we saw something of interest when we pressed the shutter, did the PP and posted, what were we looking to get by posting images here? I'm sensitive to this forum becoming an echo-chamber of the same small group supporting each other. But, I'm not sure how to balance being open and inviting to newcomers yet still harsh but honest to the established crowd.
Well that old adage, "Honesty is the Best Policy" works balanced with respect.
I consider this place a learning/sharing place as well. However I don't feel this is elementary school,
I think more college.
I figure by the time you get to college you should be able to handle slings and arrows along with roses and chocolate.
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michswiss - Although I have yet to post a photo to this forum (seem to have a mental block when it comes to shooting street) I agree with you, this forum is definitely a learning space.
bd - "Emotionally invested in our images" Yep, thats it. I know I will stand to be corrected if wrong, but I believe that for some of his images, Garry Winograd intentionally allowed weeks if not months to pass between shooting photos, and actually processing them, so as to emotionally detatch himself from the photo.
You may well be right - or that's the intellectual bs and the truth is that he was such a prolific shooter that he was always weeks and months behind in processing. I don't know which is true, but I do recall reading that when he died he left behind literally thousands of rolls of unprocessed film.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
bd - As with most stories, truth probably being somewhere in the middle. That's where my info came from as well, an article around the time of his passing.