SF1: The Conductor

Nikolai

The Conductor:



C&C welcome! :thumb

pemmett

Love itthumb

Nikolai

pemmett wrote:

Love itthumb

What, no snide remarks?
Thanks!

pemmett

Nikolai wrote:

What, no snide remarks?
Thanks!

I can think of something to say if you'd like, but I'll have to look around and see if I can find 2 cents first

Nikolai

pemmett wrote:

I can think of something to say if you'd like, but I'll have to look around and see if I can find 2 cents first

Please

pemmett

Nikolai wrote:

Please

Well I found 2 centavos (Philippines money which is roughly USD 0.0001) so here goes - you seem to have a bit of camera shake around the edges of the photo and there seems to be a problem with the colour as it only appears in the middle. I would have the camera checked if I was you

I really do like this image, I think that the motion/radial blur around the edges may put some people off, but I think that it helps focus on the conductor and actually makes the picture feel like music is being played.

I wish I could see more of the conductors face and that his clothes were more colourful - not like a clown or anything, just something that would make the whole person stand out more.

Well there you go mate, two whole centavos worth of feedback. cheers.

Nikolai

pemmett wrote:

Well I found 2 centavos (Philippines money which is roughly USD 0.0001) so here goes - you seem to have a bit of camera shake around the edges of the photo and there seems to be a problem with the colour as it only appears in the middle. I would have the camera checked if I was you

I really do like this image, I think that the motion/radial blur around the edges may put some people off, but I think that it helps focus on the conductor and actually makes the picture feel like music is being played.

I wish I could see more of the conductors face and that his clothes were more colourful - not like a clown or anything, just something that would make the whole person stand out more.

Well there you go mate, two whole centavos worth of feedback. cheers.

Well, my friend, your two centavos feel like a good solid dollar!
Thank you very much, appreciate your time!

pemmett

Nikolai wrote:

Well, my friend, your two centavos feel like a good solid dollar!
Thank you very much, appreciate your time!

No worries, I really enjoy your photographs and also hate you for your skills

If the peso continues to strengthen like it is, 2 centavos may well be worth a dollar soon.

Flyinggina

Hi Nik!

It is always an education to watch your work develop. I like this one a lot better than the guitar for the competition but think you may need to push harder to get a solid spot in the top ten. That said, you would probably be wise to ignore my advice since my record at picking the top ten in the first 4 contests was dismal.

Virginia

richtersl

Very NICE, Nikolai!

I prefer this one over the image with the guitar. Placing the conductor in the center works well! I scrolled the picture around to see how it might look if he were off center and that just didn't cut it.

As a musician myself, I would have liked to see the hand with the baton up in the air. But a judge in a photo contest is not likely to notice anything like that. It's nice that you caught him in the act of cueing one of the sections. The white shirts of the young men in the trumpet section make an interesting natural border. The blur you added was tastefully done.

I like it, my friend!!!

pyroPrints.com

much better =c) have you considered making the BW conversion tinted with brown a bit?

JillG

Hi Nick,

Like this shot a lot. I think the whites of the top row of shirts and the conductors music are a bit too bright and distracting. Maybe you could tone them down a bit. BTW what are they playing?

Jill

seastack

Damn Nik, very SF worthy. Grabbed me right away and I like the both the radial blur and selective color. clap

If I can find anything to comment on, it's the placement of the conductor. Seems slightly offcenter. IMHO, direct center placement here would work well, really the only option. Literally, he is the center/focal point of the orchestra. But where is Waldo?

Nikolai

Virginia,

Flyinggina wrote:

Hi Nik!

It is always an education to watch your work develop. I like this one a lot better than the guitar for the competition but think you may need to push harder to get a solid spot in the top ten. That said, you would probably be wise to ignore my advice since my record at picking the top ten in the first 4 contests was dismal.

Virginia

Thank you for your comment! Yes, I know, this may be not on par with some other entries. But hey, you can't win them all. I'm here mostly for the game itself.

Cheers!

Nikolai

Linda,

richtersl wrote:

Very NICE, Nikolai!

I prefer this one over the image with the guitar. Placing the conductor in the center works well! I scrolled the picture around to see how it might look if he were off center and that just didn't cut it.

As a musician myself, I would have liked to see the hand with the baton up in the air. But a judge in a photo contest is not likely to notice anything like that. It's nice that you caught him in the act of cueing one of the sections. The white shirts of the young men in the trumpet section make an interesting natural border. The blur you added was tastefully done.

I like it, my friend!!!

Thank you, girlfriend:-)

Yes, I can see some better placements for the baton, but this is what I got. Considering the fact I was in a mezzanine of a rather large concert hall some 200+ ft away I'm glad I got this:-) Yet, lesson learned - next time I will use burst mode.

Cheers!

Nikolai

Pyro,

pyroPrints.com wrote:

much better =c) have you considered making the BW conversion tinted with brown a bit?

Thanks, homey!
Yes, I did... Didn't work out. My primary idea was to make sure the conductor does stand out and is a central part of a composition.
Here's (pretty much) unedited version:



Any other tint would blend him back or create a certain distraction, thus adversly affecting my primary idea.

Thank you for looking and commenting!

Nikolai

Jill,

JillG wrote:

Hi Nick,

Like this shot a lot. I think the whites of the top row of shirts and the conductors music are a bit too bright and distracting. Maybe you could tone them down a bit. BTW what are they playing?

Jill

Thank you, appreciate your feedback!

As Linda pointed out already, the white shirts on top create certain conept of a border. Removing/shading them does not improve the image, imho.

As to the what they were playing at the moment... It could be the "Gettysburg, 3d day", but it could be some other things, too, like "YMCA", "Disney in the moveis" or "We'll be right back".

Cheers!

Nikolai

Thomas,

seastack wrote:

Damn Nik, very SF worthy. Grabbed me right away and I like the both the radial blur and selective color. clap

If I can find anything to comment on, it's the placement of the conductor. Seems slightly off center. IMHO, direct center placement here would work well, really the only option. Literally, he is the center/focal point of the orchestra. But where is Waldo?

Thank you very much, appreciate your C&C!

I have fiddled with the placement more than once.
It's a very subjective thing.
As you can see from the "original" shot I posted in my reply to Pyro, putting him in a geometrical horizontal center can also work.

The presented version should create (at least I tried:-) a slight focus shift towards the upper left corner, thus moving the viewer to the conductor's point of interest and adding one extra step of the "image-viewer" interaction. It also puts his heart (rather than his spine:-) into the the focal point of the composition.

But I understand that all these little things may be too subtle to grasp at first glance and can be, in fact, considered by the judges as some lame technical mistake, just like a horizon tilted by 0.38 degree ;-).

Decisions, decisions...

ChrisJ

Nikolai wrote:

But I understand that all these little things may be too subtle to grasp at first glance and can be, in fact, considered by the judges as some lame technical mistake, just like a horizon tilted by 0.38 degree ;-).

That was 0.37 degrees thank you very much!

Nik, I really like this one. Fantastic job on the PP seeing what you started with. For me, I think it would work fine with the conductor being centered. His "focus" is the entire orchestra, he just happens to be looking/gesturing up and left at that moment. Or maybe he's telling the three boys (suitably burned in the PP'ed shot) to pay attention!

annnna8888

Nik, I looked at this one several times before commenting. At first I wasn't too fond of the selective coloring, but after seeing the original I agree it was a good idea! The radial blur is neatly done and suits the photo well. All in all I think it's a fine photo, but somehow it doesn't really do it for me. But that's just me, of course.

Ana

LiquidAir

Sadly, the first thing I notice in this shot is that the conductor has stuck the baton in his ear ... ouch. I am not usually a fan of selective coloring, but I like it here. I am less fond of the radial blur. All that said, I like it better than the guitar; the message in this shot comes across loud and clear.

Dalantech

I like this one better than the guitar, just don't like the conductor in the middle when he's gesturing to the left. Seems to place a lot of dead space to his right...

Nikolai

The Conductor, take 2
Fixes:

• baton is repositioned so it does not go into his ear
• bright music sheets and white shirts are toned down

LiquidAir

Nikolai wrote:

Fixes:

• baton is repositioned so it does not go into his ear
• bright music sheets and white shirts are toned down

Nice work on the baton. I think you should leave the conductor's score and podium bright. To me it is both part of the story and it balances out his arm on the left. The bassoon player's shirt is a bit of a quandary. It looks kind of muddy the way you have it in the new version because it is darker than his face but it is a bit distracting in the original. Off the cuff I'd say bring the podium back to white and place the shirt about 1/2 stop darker, but there is no warranty on that advice.

richtersl

LiquidAir wrote:

Nice work on the baton. I think you should leave the conductor's score and podium bright. To me it is both part of the story and it balances out his arm on the left. The bassoon player's shirt is a bit of a quandary. It looks kind of muddy the way you have it in the new version because it is darker than his face but it is a bit distracting in the original. Off the cuff I'd say bring the podium back to white and place the shirt about 1/2 stop darker, but there is no warranty on that advice.

Swartzy

Me 3
Totally agree with the brightness of the score......it's just about there Nik...nice job.

Tessa HD

nope, it's awful
don't enter it

(I'm a terrible liar. This is a winner. Dang, I LOVE it!)

Tessa

Nikolai

Ken, Linda, David,Tessa,

LiquidAir wrote:

Nice work on the baton. I think you should leave the conductor's score and podium bright. To me it is both part of the story and it balances out his arm on the left. The bassoon player's shirt is a bit of a quandary. It looks kind of muddy the way you have it in the new version because it is darker than his face but it is a bit distracting in the original. Off the cuff I'd say bring the podium back to white and place the shirt about 1/2 stop darker, but there is no warranty on that advice.

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback?

Something like this?

davev

I agree that the score should be white, but I also think you went just a bit to grey with the shirts. They look muddy and out of place.
So maybe try making them somewhere between the white/white of the score, and the grey that they are now.
I think you have a very good shot here Nik.

Nikolai

Dave,

davev wrote:

I agree that the score should be white, but I also think you went just a bit to grey with the shirts. They look muddy and out of place.
So maybe try making them somewhere between the white/white of the score, and the grey that they are now.
I think you have a very good shot here Nik.

Thanks!
I upped the shirts in the latest version. Better?

davev

Nikolai wrote:

Thanks!
I upped the shirts in the latest version. Better?

Yes it is, damn it.:D

Good luck Nik