Streetphotography; Review Thread #4

[tonmestrom]

<p>The "rules" are simple. Apart from the OP, each poster first critiques the image immediately above (and only that image ) before posting his/her own picture (preferred is one that hasn't previously appeared in this forum). One post per person per thread. The point is to get an unbiased opinion. <strong>Therefore explanation of your own photo is not required</strong> . Please control the urge.<br>

Let's try an added rule. Since a lot of people have let me know they want a bit more discussion here let's try to refrain from that for the first 24 hours after the initial post in order to give everyone a fair chance to post their photos first and receive a comment.<br /> Also, if in the end you feel looking at a photo it would benefit from a crop describing it is enough. And lastly, if you've got or feel there are some personal issues, take them outside.<br>

And here are some pointers for those that wanted them</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[tonmestrom]

<p> </p><div></div>

[bebo_vasquez]

<p>I like these image. Look like gypzee man. Nice frameing and like woman in background. Enjoy B&W tones. Very good!</p>

<p><img src="http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/8673/mg2601.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[petr_tyll]

<p>The subject does not convey to me any special thing but the way it´s done - BW and grain, I like that. Actually I like the iron bridge. It reminds me one picture. Here it is.</p><div></div>

[AJHingel]

<p>Petr I like the theme this photos refers to, the relation between material and human world and the B/W although mostly in grey shades serve it well. I continue the theme.</p><div></div>

[marc_rochkind]

[Two of us got here at the same time... this is a comment on the photo two up from here. But, re-reading my post, it works with the photo just above, too, although now I think those really are people.]

 

A street photo taken from underneath the street! Love the composition, especially the contrast between the huge steel sections and the tiny workers.

 

Wait... those aren't WORKERS... they're BIRDS! Fooled me at first glance.

 

(Too bad there isn't a bit more light on the birds.)

 

--Marc<div></div>

[geoff_r1]

<p>This kid is a bit of a character, but I don't think the photo is quite interesting enough. Perhaps a photograph from the front with eye contact could have made it. The pole is a very dominant part of the image, a front point of view would also reduce or even eliminate it.</p>

<p><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2493/4116381245_1cb70a86f1.jpg">http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2493/4116381245_1cb70a86f1.jpg</a><br>

<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2493/4116381245_1cb70a86f1.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="322" /></p>

 

[spanky]

<p>An interesting shot although it's very low on the "human interest" side of SP which is something I look for. Yes, there are people in it, but they are unidentifiable and there isn't any indication of their relationship to this environment. It's more of an architecture shot and thus I wish a little more of the building that stretches from the right side almost to the left side was shown. This could make an interesting album cover. It also could be a film still from David Lynchs' "Eraserhead".</p><div></div>

[fi_rondo1]

<p>Nice moody shot, Geoff... has that film noir feel to it. There's something about uniformity that I find a little foreboding... like those windows... I suspect you'll find the same set of eyes behind each window peering out into the almost empty street... Well done...</p><div></div>

[fi_rondo1]

<p>Hey Marc, seems you posted a split-second before I did... for the sake of continuity, I'll take on your picture...</p>

<p>After seeing your work for over 3 years I sort of got used to (and quite like) your use of a darker print... here the overexposure draws attention to the woman's silhouette... but once I'm there there's no place to really go. The picture has good atmosphere but there's a but somewhere and it keeps jumping underneath my fingers as I type: b-u-t... a sort of incomplete thought of a photo in a way... and there's something distracting about that chair font-stage-center...</p>

[dthew]

<p>Fi, I like the background as it almost seems as though it's an old oil painting. The lighting is great, especially lighting up the box in his hands. Is he reading the packet? Is he considering giving up? He's obviously been looking at it for a while as the ash is pretty long on the cigarette that he's already smoking. My only improvement would have been to try and include the rest of his right leg and feet. At the moment it gives the feeling that he's trying to exit the frame a bit.</p><div></div>

[pnital]

<p>David,</p>

<p>It is a nice street photo ,where the street and back of the store are well seen through the reflections. Even though it was photographed through the store window glass, the inside parts of the store and jewlry are well seen. The man in the window and the printed models are adding a nice context and color especially the brown tone of the model on the R, and the red tray vs. the greeenish whole.The man is either the owner or a client.<br>

I think that the FG is a bit overexposed especially in the middle and on the R side, so the elements of the jewelry have lost some of their details. Other than that it has a nice DOF , color palette and image.</p><div></div>

[mbh]

<p>Double Post</p>

[mbh]

<p>Pnina,</p>

<p>Interesting photo, you've got two sets of three rectangles carving through your image. First, the foreground red walkway barrier and behind the girl, we have the 'white paper' set of shapes. In between, a young lady strides through framed between these two guiding sets of shapes. As I look up, I realize we have yet another set of rectangles (squares in this instance) echoing the theme above. <br>

The girl's face is obscured by the red barrier, which thus renders her anonymous. The sunglasses have a red frame which echoes the red of the barrier and also plays off the plants at the bottom. In all, your photograph works well for me on a number of levels not the least of which are her oh-so California sunglasses.</p>

<p>Mark</p><div></div>

[eric_arnold]

<p>this looks like an illicit gambling game in chinatown. the pole adds to the sense of obscurement, a physical barrier to being able to see what is happening. the theme of public secrecy and of glimpses revealing what's actually happening is supported by the game pieces and the men's underwear peeking out of their pants. the symmetry of the heads is a nice touch. ultimately, though, this street-level perspective leaves us wanting more--a different angle, perhaps.</p>

<p> </p>

[eric_arnold]

<p>hmm, thought i posted a pic. maybe the server lost it.</p><div></div>

[tonmestrom]

<p>Jerk Chicken Dinner; Frankly I'm afraid to ask ;-). One wonders why they would choose such a place, in front of a ladies toilet to try to get some business their way. Anyway, their expecting posture could mean they are distracted by some mishap to their left or perhaps some possible punters coming their way, their posture is quite telling although the background is rather boring if not distracting. A square crop would perhaps help that to some extent and make for a more adventurous composition as in putting that guy with the sunglasses and the cellphone right to the edge which IMO would put more emphasis on their inquisitive gazes and their posture as a whole. The lighting I don't like to be honest. Personally I would prefer more contrast with deeper blacks.</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Hi Ton -</p>

<p>To be honest, I am completely baffled by your comment about Eric's image, "Personally, I would prefer more contrast with deeper blacks". </p>

<p>Attached is a annotated version of Eric's image where I superimposed the measured gray level at a number of the darker points in the image. As you can see, most of the levels shown are below R=G=B=10. It's hard to get much darker than that. I initially thought you might have been joking when you made this comment, but then I remembered (or, at least I think I remember ;-) ) that you have made similar comments about other photos. What's your take on this?</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

<p>PS - BTW, if you want to recheck the gray levels yourself, use the original photo (as I did). Don't put the PS eyedropper over my annotated image as the output step in my workflow automatically applies some sharpening and this (obviously) will slightly modify Eric's original RGB levels.</p><div></div>

[tonmestrom]

<p>Tom, it's a fair and good question. I wasn't joking and you're right, I've made similar comments on other occassions. For me however in the context you referred to such a photo is not so much about numbers but about atmosphere and here I myself would prefer deeper blacks. I'm not afraid of blacks without detail because in some photos they can add a lot of atmosphere as I think it would here.</p>

[tonmestrom]

<p>to be complete, the term "personally" I used was put there quite on purpose and refers to an opinion as in providing another take and not necessarilly as a qualification as such.</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Ton -</p>

<p>Thanks for the clarification. </p>

<p>I'd absolutely love to see how you would have handled the tones in such an image, and I suspect I would learn a lot, eg, would you apply darkening locally, globally, starting at what tonal value, etc. Any chance you could be talked into showing us how you would tweak the image? If so, maybe such a discussion should be put in a separate thread.</p>

<p>As I believe I said to you in an email, I learn best by example and I think a lot of other people are like me in this, hence my enthusiasm for threads in which one image is tweaked by a variety of folks. We get to see everyone's opinion, styles, techniques this way.</p>

<p>Best regards,</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Impatient guy that I am, I couldn't resist trying out your suggestion, and believe it or not, I like your suggestion to completely darken many of the dark areas. It seems to even further reduce visual confusion / distracting elements in the bkgnd.</p>

<p>Tom</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Arghh... image didn't upload. Let's try again.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[eric_arnold]

<p>hmm, well thanks for blackening my blacks and the suggestion about cropping, ton. but the results kind of lose some of the depth. i decided it might work better in color.</p><div></div>

[tonmestrom]

<p>Eric, just for the record, I haven't blackened your blacks {at least not here ;-) } Your color version works better for me than your b&w but to be honest I still don't like the lighting and that background. Sorry. The crop however does work for me.</p>

<p>Tom, thanks for providing your take on it. It's closer to the kind of contrast I myself would prefer. Still, although I know you a quick conversion on this I would have kept the detail in the trousers because that is actually important and something I think that Eric wouldn't want to loose.</p>

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