the photographic qualities of the subject are extraordinarily impressive (tho I think I would have left him a bit more of his head!
- the crop strikes me as being too journalistic - then again maybe you are right) clap
For me the subject part of the image does not gel with the background. As you might know, I believe that portraits are about more than a face, a smile, a backdrop as background. So I would really like to see this face in its "den", maybe among the cardboard boxes and newspapers and plastic bags where he sleeps. In other words, this face looks at sea in this environment. It is not convincingly his "natural environment". The face is feral (even beyond urban feral), the context suburban.
Maybe therein lies your message? But the people in the background don't get/reflect it, and remain impervious and superior... Maybe a background as epic as he is? A cityscape in doomsday mood...?
I love that face! You have not made him pathetic, but a fierce hero! (Another of my soapboxes!)
Thanks.
Neil
PS I wish my last pics got as much attention as this
nice use of some desaturation. I like how that really draws the focus to his face. I felt at first that it was a tad over filled, but it grows on ya:) However I would try and burn the BG out a little, keep your blur and maybe even bring some of the BG saturation back in. I think that would achieve Niel's comment about him being out of context, it would help accentuate how "out of place" or "homeless" he is. One odd thing I noticed is his catchlight in either eye is not the same size! that is really weird, I think it may be because he has a lazy eye, interesting picture. great shot:)
Hey thanks for all your comments, but I'm having a problem here, and I don't know what is it, I edited my TIF with the Adobe (1998) ICC profile, and I got a jpeg from that, that's the one here on the thread, now, the jpeg on my desktop that I attached is different from the one I have on my desktop as I said, this one looks more desaturated and overexposed, the background was halfstop underexposed that the face of the beggar, f/16 for the face at 125, although sunny days are f/16 (125 ISO 100) I wanted the back at f/18 so I wated for the cloud to pass and those two characters on the back just appeared from nowhere, so I took the picture that way, it was pretty hard shooting at Guatemalas "downtown" because you can get mugged, so it was pretty fast, no more than 15 minutes.
I also edited this one using a bleach bypass emulation, I don't know about the post-processing, I'm hacing troubles since my CRT died, I was using dual monitors and now I only have my LG LCD that's really awful for editing and I don't have the ispider for callibration, so I'm kind of elucubrative on colors and contrast, anyway, I'm processing all my recent picture this week as I get a new CRT and a iSpider, thanks for all your wise comments, thanks for your time, I'll be posting more work soon, have a great day.
PS by the way, this is part of my training to get a better way to compose, I have someone in mind to emulate for now, Philip Lorca diCorcia, I'm a HUUUUUUUUUUGEEEEEEE fan of his composition, and I guess it's not emulation, just inspiration
"... anger, frustration, deception, loneliness are its meal... don't feed him" - Donatto on Zeoneth
I like this shot a lot just as it is. I disagree with Neil that the subject is out of context just because he is not surrounded by rags. The reality is that poor, crazy people are all over the place in every major city I have been to recently both in the US and in Europe. The background does not look suburban to me in any way, at least, not in the North American sense of the word. Aside from the mad expression, what intrigues me most is what seems to be a look of wariness on the people in the background. Is that because of the guy or because you were pointing a camera in their direction?
What PS did you use? I've seen other photos that have this look to them, and I haven't been able to find a method for doing it. I've been wanting to try my hand at this.
I like this shot a lot just as it is. I disagree with Neil that the subject is out of context just because he is not surrounded by rags. The reality is that poor, crazy people are all over the place in every major city I have been to recently both in the US and in Europe. The background does not look suburban to me in any way, at least, not in the North American sense of the word. Aside from the mad expression, what intrigues me most is what seems to be a look of wariness on the people in the background. Is that because of the guy or because you were pointing a camera in their direction?
Nicely captured.
Regards,
The "madness", and also maybe the anomalous catchlight mentioned by another poster, comes courtesy of a glass eye. His own eye is filled with intelligence and goodness.
To me he looks like a cutout in front of the background which has apparently no relationship to him (even the pole he is carrying does not extend behind him into it). Had the background been more theatrical (with more of his own drama), as well as more illustrative of him, I think the image would have been an order of magnitude better.
Well, the reason the photo may look different is because if this file has the Adobe RGB profile, it's not set correctly for the internet. Save your jpg sith the sRGB profile and it should fix it.
Comments
the photographic qualities of the subject are extraordinarily impressive (tho I think I would have left him a bit more of his head!
- the crop strikes me as being too journalistic - then again maybe you are right)
For me the subject part of the image does not gel with the background. As you might know, I believe that portraits are about more than a face, a smile, a backdrop as background. So I would really like to see this face in its "den", maybe among the cardboard boxes and newspapers and plastic bags where he sleeps. In other words, this face looks at sea in this environment. It is not convincingly his "natural environment". The face is feral (even beyond urban feral), the context suburban.
Maybe therein lies your message? But the people in the background don't get/reflect it, and remain impervious and superior... Maybe a background as epic as he is? A cityscape in doomsday mood...?
I love that face! You have not made him pathetic, but a fierce hero! (Another of my soapboxes!)
Thanks.
Neil
PS I wish my last pics got as much attention as this
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
Scott McPherson
www.fortecinema.com
I also edited this one using a bleach bypass emulation, I don't know about the post-processing, I'm hacing troubles since my CRT died, I was using dual monitors and now I only have my LG LCD that's really awful for editing and I don't have the ispider for callibration, so I'm kind of elucubrative on colors and contrast, anyway, I'm processing all my recent picture this week as I get a new CRT and a iSpider, thanks for all your wise comments, thanks for your time, I'll be posting more work soon, have a great day.
PS by the way, this is part of my training to get a better way to compose, I have someone in mind to emulate for now, Philip Lorca diCorcia, I'm a HUUUUUUUUUUGEEEEEEE fan of his composition, and I guess it's not emulation, just inspiration
I like this shot a lot just as it is. I disagree with Neil that the subject is out of context just because he is not surrounded by rags. The reality is that poor, crazy people are all over the place in every major city I have been to recently both in the US and in Europe. The background does not look suburban to me in any way, at least, not in the North American sense of the word. Aside from the mad expression, what intrigues me most is what seems to be a look of wariness on the people in the background. Is that because of the guy or because you were pointing a camera in their direction?
Nicely captured.
Regards,
The "madness", and also maybe the anomalous catchlight mentioned by another poster, comes courtesy of a glass eye. His own eye is filled with intelligence and goodness.
To me he looks like a cutout in front of the background which has apparently no relationship to him (even the pole he is carrying does not extend behind him into it). Had the background been more theatrical (with more of his own drama), as well as more illustrative of him, I think the image would have been an order of magnitude better.
Neil
PS I wish my last pics got such attention
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
I'm assuming.
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