CAUGHT RED HANDED

I tend to like this original version better, which is fantastic, both in composition --- the bricks in the foreground shaded contrasted with the bright 2/3rd, and the tone. compliments -koushik

Thanks. Good to hear from you.

Thanks for your thoughts on this. Cheers

I prefer your second version David...it has more contrast...I agree that you loose a bit on the highlights but there should be a way to get both according to what you want....I think as Fred said the wonderful thing about this photo is the dog expression and compo leading to the dog...improving the rest would be a bonus...

To make your life more difficult... ;-)) I like your first version with a bit more contrast, the second has too much for my taste, so some thing in the middle will do,the photo is, as I wrote you in the previous comment.

I'll just say outstanding !

Here's a very nice shot. The dog's expression is indeed irresistible. Just like David and Ton, I must say that I wasn't quite sure about how you'd processed it and find your second version much better in terms of contrast.

I think your redo loses some of the energy, lightness, and life from the original, though you achieved some deeper tones which give the second one a certain amount of richness.

I'm posting three photos by LEE FRIEDLANDER, in subsequent comments. I just saw a show of his here at SF's Museum of Modern Art. You are likely familiar with his stuff but, if not, I would imagine he is a kindred spirit of yours. I immediately thought of you when I was surrounded by his photos. His sense of composition, of humanness, of irony, of special found places and situations. So I chose him because of your similar sensibilities and also to show you some examples of technical treatment that I think work. These are, of course, only to show you some various ways of pursuing the look of a photo.

The word "contrast" has been used with regard to your original and, while it's an obvious place to begin, it was not the concept I was really thinking about when I wrote my critique. What I think your post-processing technique needs here (and I think it's probably true to a bit of an extent with the organist and certainly moreso with the Montperlier portrait) is texture. With each example, I'll try to illustrate what I mean by texture. I'll leave it to you as to how to translate some of this to your own photo, but I think it will give you a better idea of what I think can be given to your photo to give the excellent subject matter and composition more visual interest and add to the storytelling that is there. Texture in a photograph can lead your eye around, can create more depth than simple contrast, can make some of the content into main characters, some into the supporting cast, and one or two like the standout secondary character who almost steels the show.

Note the tree in this photo. It's not just that its leaves have more contrast (darker darks and lighter lights) than yours. It's that the tree has a textural quality. I can feel the leaves. And they operate on various levels. Some appear in complete shadow, others have detail. Look at the different ways in which so many areas of the leaves catch the light. My first love was music so I always make musical analogies. When I look at this tree I hear the entire orchestra, the bases in the deepest shadows, the brass in the brightest highlights, the violins in the forground leaves above, the woodwinds in the midtone grays. This tree has been photographically painted, with light, with transitions of light, with branches brought out. My eye tends to be led from the top left to the bottom right in almost a waterfall of foliage, swirling downward and around, like a musical scale that I follow as it progresses.

Note how the two subjects in this photo relate. Clearly there is a main subject and a secondary subject. Attention is drawn to each and, simultaneously, a relationship is established between the two. My eyes can't help but first to go to her bright face and the suggested movement in the reflection of the glass in the door. But, even though I may not be directly pointed toward the photographer, I am always conscious of him, even in his darkness. Note how bright the light is behind him but note how far behind him it appears to be. He is extremely important to this photo yet he relates to, and doesn't distract from, her. He is in much shadow yet we feel his presence quite strongly. (What if she were a dog looking right at us and he were a bunch of folks with their legs under the bench under the shadows and dappled light of a tree?)

Finally, note how the light here actually leads us out of the frame and away from the subject of the portrait but how clearly central the face and figure are and how our eyes still always remain with her. If this were posted by just anyone on PN, I guarantee there would be comments on how that light toward the edge of the frame is too distracting. Well? Is it? Not to me. It serves as a comment on the portrait. It provides life and movement, a suggestion that there is more outside of the frame. Note the railings on the fences, how the light varies so subtly but yet so clearly from rail to rail, even from the top of the fence to the bottom. (In what ways could the bench in your photo operate like this fence? In what ways could the pews and piano keys in your organist photo operate like the fence here? This could actually BE your organist photo, portrait with important background, subject in harmony with its space, merging and at the same time standing out, living within, being surrounded without being lost or overcome.)

Just to give you some insight into my process of learning. I might take these photos and draw direct technical matters from each of them right into your own photo. I could see myself taking a section of any or all of these photos and simply copying or mimicking the technique with portions of my own that were of similar feel or composition. That's exactly how I worked on my Japanese stuff and how I worked on the last portrait of Ian. I am happy with them as finished products but am probably happier with them because of what they taught me and how excited doing them got me to now adapt those kinds of techniques a little more individualistically. I could never have created the second portrait of Ian (which I know you don't respond to as well as the other two, but that's ok) had I not struggled through mimicking Hosoe on those body part photos months ago. There will be those who will say that mimicking someone else would be stifling your creativity. Believe me, good and creative artists have borrowed and downright copied each other throughout history. They're confident enough in their own visions to do that. (I recently saw this great show on

PICASSO AND AMERICAN ART. It shows Picasso's influence on American art and shows instances of blatant and direct copying of his works, for a variety of reasons. None of the American painters who mimicked Picasso at certain points in their growth could be accused of not being creative or of having been stifled by this practice.) I think it's a great experience to feel for yourself how techniques work that others have used and how that technique affects vision and emotional content. To me, this is giving yourself a tool, not unlike learning how shutter speed and f-stop relate. I think this kind of learning can open us up to new possibilities.

You have graciously given me a ton of material to digest. I am examining what you say, and will need some time to fully absorb your wise commentary. Thank you so much. It is appreciated.

I've told you before you'd make one helluva teacher. You're right about the texture but just for the record one doesn't exclude the other. Like you said yourself, it's an obvious place to begin. Point is it's all there and if processed correctly you indeed have the best of both worlds. What also works in those photo's is the composition, you implied as much, as it does here. It's a terrific photo to work on because you feel how much there can be gotten out of there.

 

(you're lucky to have such an exhibit so close at hand, I envy you)

PN is supposed to be about sharing and while more often than not it doesn't work that way you on the other hand have found a great tutor. Go with it.

I've managed to snag several great tutors. Your no slouch yourself.