folsom street Booty and the Beast

Please provide constructive critiques. Thanks!

I'm speechless

Good things happen to good people. Constructive wise its a candid photo the light is good the subject is intresting, perhaps a less centered composition or a different angle, but hey, how long is someone going to hold a pose like this. Good job

I agree, interesting shot.

Truthfully, at first I rolled my eyes. But this picture grows on you and I think it is one of the best B&W's I've seen in a while. I really like it.

Honestly the photo has several distracting elements, which I think in retrospect makes the photo unique. It has the appearance of a candid photo with subjects that clearly need posing. Good contradiction. I like it. I hate it.

Hmmmm

I suggest that you set correctly the leash of the dog.

I'd like more details in the shadow regions (purely for technical reasons, you understand.) But it's a creative take on Life, and three cheers for that.

Good composition, poor subject matter.

Nice catch.

you can't give a picture that name and then expect constructive criticism...Oh! but you just did. It's very striking, looks like a film still or an outtake from a fashion shoot. Fab.

Well, since you ask for constructive criticism, here is my opinion. I find the idea funny, as probably many people do, but it strikes me as quite poor aesthetically, sorry. An idea is is just an idea and it needs to be developped. The contrast is imo too high, and I'd suggest to lighten the shadow areas. I would also get rid of part of this wall at the back - which seems useless and distracts due to its brightness. I'd crop a tad on the left as well, but very little.

Well, that's about the shot I see. Now, onto the shot I would like to see. Any angle that would show us both the girl AND the dog, would be better than this, no ? Ok, we get a rear as a compensation, but the picture goes down the drain aesthetically because the dog is simply half hiden. I honestly don't understand how this can be at 6 points average. I don't mean this in an aggressive way, but I think it's pretty flagrant that this is a snap shot and a funny idea. O:5 only due to the fact that the angle doesn't fit the concept. And A:2. Regards.

Thanks for the comments. This was a candid street photo and I was capturing a moment in time. There was no elaborate staging involved. I saw an interesting subject and quickly composed the shot before the subject fled or someone in the huge crowd walked into the photograph.

 

Marc, I am sorry you felt this was just a "snapshot". I really don't think it would fall under such a classification.

 

"Any angle that would show us both the girl AND the dog, would be better than this, no ?"

 

I have to say no, as I enjoy the mystery of the image. The other items such as cropping could work, but I did try them and did not like the feel of the final results. It is funny how photography can be so objective.

 

Anyways, my main point is I saw this moment in time and captured it. No funny idea (except the title) was there to be developed, just a quick humorous moment in time.

 

Once again thanks for the comments.

gratuitous butt shot

One again, the tried-and-true photo.net rule applies: skin and high heels get high ratings. Marc is absolutely correct here. I didn't rate or comment on this before because I thought it was a below-average composition from a skilled photographer, but well...

The dog is hidden not just by the woman but by the tonally similar shadows it is sitting in. The centered subject and level, nearly straight-on angle aren't as interesting as what might have been, and the shadows on the wall that seem to extend out from her identically-toned left arm are distracting.

This isn't bad. It was a great try. You saw something funny and were quick to shoot it, and a newspaper or magazine may well be happy to run it, but the idea and situation are better than the image, and this is far from your strongest, well-toned hindquarters or not.

I don't want to see someone's asscrack. :/

Here is a modification of the image intended to bring out detail in the shadows.

 

I used Fred Miranda's Shadow recovery Action at medium, followed by Unsharp Mask 20/10/0 followed by a 50% blend of Nic Sharpener Pro, Internet Autoscan, "Anna".

 

Finally, I cropped the image and smoothed out a few jpeg artifacts I brought out with my sharpening.

I just dropped by to see what was the progress of this discussion, and I would like to thank you for your reply.

We apparently disagree, and that's totally fine by me, and normal in arts anyway. Meanwhile, I find interesting to read Steve's post and to see that other people may have disliked the image but skipped rather than comment.

On a bad day, I would have done the same, to be honest, bt here I saw your critique request and therefore decided to express my opinion. What worries me is the trend to skip, which seems to be spreading on photo.net.

As you well understood it, Craig, we can learn a lot more from a constructive and detailed negative critique than from a Wow... It has an added advantage to actually foster discussions from which we may all learn more...

This being said, I would now add that I like John's amended version a lot better. In this amended post, I'd say that the picture addresses its subject a bit more.

But let's go back to your reply, Craig...

"This was a candid street photo and I was capturing a moment in time. There was no elaborate staging involved." Ok, point taken. I actually supposed it wasn't posed. I would just add 2 things:

a) that John's upload was a candid photo as well, but imo aesthetically worth a 4 or even maybe a 5 - and that's probably the best he could do.

b) I have heard a thousand times photographers explaining that when shooting on the street, there is often no time to do much... This is of course agreed. But that's precisely the difficulty in street photography, and it's he reason why so many street photographs are not very good. If you have a look at Ian MacEachern's or Tony Dummett's work, you will find incredibly well composed pictures captured just like this image, in a matter of seconds or less. It is normal to have 2nd and 3rd class shots on a roll shot in the street, but art galleries don't buy these shots, and we don't find many of them in art books either. Which means that a good street photograph is a photo where all the elements have been reasonably well controled. Nobody cares what the situation was like, unfortunately. Maybe you could have followed these 2 for a while and maybe you could have had a better opportunity, or maybe not. That's the share of luck. This week's POW, to me and to many others, is a little perl in that sense. Everything is set so well, that it could almost have been posed...

"Marc, I am sorry you felt this was just a "snapshot". I really don't think it would fall under such a classification."

Let me explain WHAT, to me, makes it a snapshot. It's the fact that you didn't find the time to compose better, and that you did not at least do what John did before uploading the shot. The subject is fun - though not really my cup of tea, but who cares... The subject IS NOT a snapshot subject. But the aesthetics of it seemed to be showing a quick click, with very little care about the image at post-production level.

"Any angle that would show us both the girl AND the dog, would be better than this, no ?"

I have to say no, as I enjoy the mystery of the image.

Fair enough. My question would then be: could we keep the mystery and still see the dog a bit more, or zoom in a bit, etc. I think it was possible - maybe not in the time frame you had...

"The other items such as cropping could work, but I did try them and did not like the feel of the final results."

Well, that, to me, is what you may want to think further about... I have absolutely no doubt that John's version is better - though I could of course be wrong...

"My main point is I saw this moment in time and captured it."

My point being that it still needs to be captured well. Just capture it isn't good enough imo.

"No funny idea (except the title) was there to be developed, just a quick humorous moment in time."

And the idea to photograph it - which is a humorous idea...

Again, you may want to consider in the end how many people disagreed or agreed with my (harsh) judgement on this image. I see now that some other negative reactions have popped up... If there are more, it should tell you something...

Anyway, lok at it from the bright side, it has at least enabled us to meet up and discuss a bit about street photography, its difficulties and its goals... That may matter more than whether I liked or disliked this shot. Best regards, and thanks for the reply.

I think Marc is correct on this one, although ultimately it boils down to what you're after with your street photography.

 

Many think that "street photography" is only about ideas. This theory says that a funny juxtaposition or an unusual face - a candidate idea - is enough. I believe it can be more. Sure, capture the funny face and/or the unusual pose, but try to get the technical aspects and the compositional aspects right too. Everyone who does this kind of photography has little time to compose or even see the shot, much less capture it, but they're the constraints under which street photographers work. Because its difficult doesn't mean you shouldn't still throw away most of your work and only keep the gems.

 

To the present photograph, I think you've caught the "money" shot shot here (a straight-on view of the woman's derriere), and the juxtaposition of the big dog (I see it as a sexual ikon?) is a quirky observation. Yet, I find it hard to get too interested in the picture, but that may have a lot to do with my personal taste. You certainly made the best of the situation that presented itself to you, but the question needs to be asked (of this or any other street picture), is it, in the end, a compelling shot?

 

There's no need to settle for second best in street photography, as in any other field of photography or, indeed, creativity. We all have amusing but "not quite there" shots in our neg files, gathering dust. And we are often not the best judges of our own work.

...and I am afraid that I have to agree with someone else here that it comes over as a snapshot. There is, of course nothing wrong with that, but I think the picture is trying to be something that it is not. To me it is very superficial. Maybe I am spoilt by Mr. Newton's work, but there you go. Sorry.

I like John's corrected version. I would also crop tighter from the top, the background is distractingly bright.

 

PS: it seems the one/oners never rest... Guys, what about a photographical critique?

The photo does have a lot of aesthetic problems, considering the shadows, the posts, the bright back ground. It's really a shot for butt aficionado's and sleazy bars. The humor is entirely in the title, unless someone can explain to me what's so funny about a woman wearing straps bending over a great dane. It has a lot of shock value, that's true, and there is an element of credit to the phototgrapher for seeing and exposing the photograph, but in the end, it's a photograph that survives on its curiosity value more than its aesthetics or charm.

Douglas, it is fine by me to have the image critiqued. I have done a lot of thinking based upon some of the comments and other comments from photographers in the local community (who really like the image) and came to the conclusion that I still like this image. I also looked around at images on the site and elsewhere that exhibited similar "issues" like mine, but did not receive the strong criticism mine did, but I guess in the end we must remember art is subjective. Thanks again.

:-)

Forgive me... but IS THAT A WOMAN (i dont think it is)? Calves are a bit high, and legs are a bit... well... not that it matters too much.