Houston St.

Cigar store Indian outside a junk store on Houston St. in New York.

Hi Kevin,

I really like this photo! It is a good image with great potential. I like the way you isolated it from its (probably not very pretty) environment to make an attractive and strong image.

Here are some of the things I really like:

• very good use of selective focus to emphasize the noble profile and blur the background.
• The background is recognizable as a chain link fence and a sign, but not distracting; rather it provides context - we know this is in a city, and in a not-so-great-area at that
• The almost triangular (horizonally) shape of the head/headress and the repeating chevrons of the feathers (pointing in same direction) create a dynamic compositional element in what could otherwise be a static and boring image
• good compositional balance between the head/headress and the background.

Here are some suggestions that I think could transform this into a great image:

• I would like to see the face and lower headress darker - it's a bit washed out because of the lighting. My guess that about as dark as the feathers would be good. Maybe you can adjust this in a photo editor
• I'd like to see a more distinct separation between the nose and the background - the suggestion above would probably take care of this, but I'd pay special attention to the bridge and tip of the nose
• I really like the negative space created by the black shadow area to the right of the feathers - but in addition, I would say to experiment with cropping it out to see which way you like it. I can't decide if it unbalances the photo or not.

I've attached a .jpg of a cropping, in which I also changed the contrast a bit to make the face darker and used a "sharpening finger-thing"(??) to sharpen the nose in an attempt to separate it from the background. Just a 30-second thing, so I can't say it's the way to go, just an idea.

As a former "naturalized" Manhattenite, I really like you NYC photos!

Best regards,

SteveR