Liberty For All

Very interesting composition Dennis, because of what it has to say. as it is a B/W conversion I don't know if the man is a black man, looks like one, seating " pressed" under the Statue of liberty has a great refference to the American history. The composition itself has a very special light and emptiness, even it is full with chairs and tables but not people.Thouhght provoking image.

Thank you for your kind comments. If I had to guess I would say that the man is of mixed ethnic origin, which is symbolic of what we refer to here as a "Melting Pot" of cultures. Whether or not cultures actually amalgamate is a subject for a long debate.

 

The lighting in this scene made it a challenge to create any sort of decent final image. The man?s face was in shadow and I felt like I needed to dodge that part of the image in order to show some detail. The shadow areas on the right had a lot of digital noise and the highlights on the left were much too bright. This is my compromise to join all those opposing elements into one.

 

A beneficial confluence of light and subject. The pizza is pretty

good too.

A very symbolic image. I think you managed the difficult light (and technical consequence to the image) quite well, in this size anyway. I like it.

Yeah, without going into the symbology of the picture, what really strikes me is the range of lights and darks here. I think we all know how difficult a picture like this is to pull off and you've done a great job. Your main subject is fortuitously placed, perfectly spotlighted across the room in the corner. Actually the weakest part of the composition is the drawing of the SOL, thrusting herself into the picture, but maybe this is symbolic, too.

Sometimes it seems to me that your images are as subtle and delicate as your words (at least as I've seen them in innumerable comments) are brash, humorous and to the point. Interesting contrast. Besides the obvious symbolism, I find the patterns of the chair backs and their shadows to be very entrancing. Wonderful work on taming the extreme lighting conditions.

Thanks for the comments. I like this image a lot in spite of it being a technical mess. I used to go to this place fairly often but I have not been here at all lately. If you think the decoration is garish then you should see it in color. It's not easy to stomach and the staff is just about as colorful.

 

If I were doing this now I might try taking two exposures in order to get a better sample to show the dynamic range. I'm not really into the HDR images (partially because I can't figure out how to accomplish that technique) because they really do not look photographic to me.

You know what made this shot interesting for me ? The light ! Yup ! :-) Not the paintings at first, not the guy... Strange, isn't it ? But I'd say light and busy graphics concur very well in setting a mood here. Graphics... as in... chairs (verticals)... buildings and reflections on cityscape painting (verticals)... floor tiles, tables and horizon line of the painted cityscape as horizontals, and finally truly oblic (oblique?)...: the light !

 

All this means to me that you had all the ingredients of a perfect background... Now what's happening in there...? A guy in a corner is busy doing something, but we can't say what... and... he's partly hidden behind that big thing at far right... I guess that not optimal. Not sure if you could have moved to the left a bit without hurting your composition ? But the questions that come to my mind here, are: how long could you stay in this place that day ? How long did HE stay ? How long DID you stay with camera ready on him ?

I think I invested about twenty minutes in this or approximately the time it takes for a pizza to come out of the oven. I don't go here very much anymore even though it is right up the street. I think my new camera would do a better job with the shadow details. I may have to resort to using the 20mm 2.8 as well in order to get a faster shutter speed than my slow zoom lens.

 

This could only possibly work as a black&white photo due to all the garish colors in the mural. Maybe I should find an excuse to go back here sometime later this year when the afternoon shadows get long again.

 

That thing sticking out and partially blocking the subject is the corner of the counter where you place your order. I don't think I had a wide enough lens at the time to get the exterior window if I moved over a couple of feet and I thought it was important to show the source of the light. I like the fact that he is directly under the liberty graphic but I had to wait for him to lean forward to get his face into the shot.

 

I have a wider lens now so that is another reason to try again from a better angle if there is one.

 

Thanks for the critique.

20 mn is very little time for a masterpiece ! :-) Maybe, what I'm trying to say is just: in such places, you can't expect a miracle to happen within 20mn. If I may suggest something like that, what about going there for a pizza + a desert + a couple of coffees, say for at least 2 hours or so, camera ready all the time. Yeah, people will find that you are an odd fellow, etc, but does it matter ? I feel you are perhaps a little shy with life sometimes... I see it in your photographs. I believe you can't afford to be shy if you want to bring back some really great street photos - or you need to wait till you are very lucky, but then it's not 2 or 3 hours that you will wait, possibly a couple of years... You've got all it takes to do even better than what you've posted so far, that's why I'm pushing you a little... and because I guess you'd love a few coffees there...:-)

Hello Dennis . Very interesting your composition . The atmosphere and lights are great .

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