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very nice capture, good compotition

A great great documentary image, full of mood and telling us many things about rural lifes in deep winter.
Congratulations, Orhan !

Thomas, your assessment is spot on regarding ignorance, although a few people did point out the rather obvious selection artifacts around the figure, most people got there shorts in a knot if any of the very apparent artifacts in this image file were pointed out. I am not informed enough myself to be certain the figure was moved but it certainly was altered. Too bad while the photographer was pushing around pixels he did not bother with a curves adjustment or some rudimentary dodging and burning. Apparently when it comes to PN you can fool most of the peole most of the time.

"how does one "improve" upon a spur-of-the-moment grab shot like this? You see it - you take it. Quick, simple. It's gone in a nano-second."
D F

The moment you look through your viewfinder you're composing the image. Are you saying that the could not have been better? Let me rephrase. Do you think the photographer was incapable of being more aware of the composition thus producing a stronger photo? Post processing aside, there are numerous visual tools that any photographer can change/use in a "nano second" to change the outcome. IE: Length of exposure can be changed to blur the snow, sharpen the snow, or show a motion blur in the man walking up the road. Angle, take a step left, take a step right, tilt camera, etc... Composition. Pointing the camera more to the right or left would have changed this image significantly. As was stated before, waiting a second for the man to look at the ground again would have changed the image drastically. Not everyone has a ten year old point and shoot. The technology exists today to take 200 raw shots of this "moment." Even with my manual Nikon F, I could go through an entire roll of film before the man walked out of my composition. As you see D F, it isn't just a "grab shot."

Wow, had we had Thomas observation last Monday, there would have been a very different conversation. The deal is, I don't believe anything was moved in post here and those artifacts show up in several places, including along the windows and even that long horizontal area by the guys knees--I presume just some over sharpening or uploading interference, it happens. I think before one starts to even suggest this sort of thing it would be wise to look over someone's body of work. As with another POW, Orhan shows no propensity towards such things and to go there is probably to get fully diverted from anything relevant to the image. "Recomposing" an image like this would be no small feat and this would not be the result of a first try.

well, hard to understand why the elves chose this photo for POW. The photo does not add as a new vision, or a different angle, or a different light. Anyway, I'm not saying that the picture is bad, is not, but it is a picture altogether common and unnecessary to give prominence to it

Yeah, I really don't think the man was moved or added. I think the white-ish line around him is a result of some king of digital contrast clarifying tool... Which I'm also assuming is the reason for the sort of faint halo around him as well. It does seem over sharpened though, to the point of almost becoming pixelated even.

It's a curious thing though that in this shot the whites aren't too white, and the darks aren't too dark. Usually, in this type of shot, it's nearly impossible to expose for both the snow and everything else and still get detail in the brights and darks. Everything in this photo sort of occupies the middle ground in terms of contrast. I can't imagine the snow was THAT dirty on the roof to keep it from getting blown out... even with overcast, it should be brighter I think.

While I agree with John in as much as it would be a significant challenge to move the figure within the frame without leaving tell tale signs, particularly as regards filling the hole from which the figure was removed, it would be considerably simpler to cut and paste the guy out of another photo into this photo and it would be very hard at this size and resolution on the web to know if this was or was not the case. This would explain the white line around the figure however so would a host of other explanations. Again as stated by John the best approach is to look at the rest of the photographers portfolio and there is no indication of any fancy composting in Orhan's pages.   While there are a lot of unsightly artifacts in this photo it is a pointless to have yet another debate about whether the pow has been altered. No meaningful conclusion can ever be drawn.

There would be no problem getting an exposure for this scene which would encompass the whites of the snow and the shadow detail of the scene. I shoot scenes with a much wider dynamic range all the time and get solid blacks, clean white spectral highlights and loads of detail in the shadows and higher tones. David is way off base with his assessment whether this was shot with film or shot digital. The snow is gray because the camera was most likely left on automatic and an exposure meter shooting a scene with this much snow in it is going to attempt to make the snow 17% gray. In this sort of situation a upward exposure compensation on the part of the photographer was needed and it did not happen .The resulting file contained much less information that it could have hence the blocked up shadows and most likely a good amount of the artifacts from pushing around a limited amount of pixels. As for the large amount of midtone this gets back to my comment regarding a need for a curves adjustment.

David when you mentioned " hate-mongering " in your previous post I think you were being a bit over the top and a bit too hard on yourself. While there is no denying that you are direct in the expression of your views I would not characterizes your lack of subtlety as hateful and I've always thought your comments were made in the spirit of learning. Just my two pennies and we all know what that's worth.

I should probably just stop posting to any forums until I get a new monitor. I should probably get a new keyboard too. It keeps writing things other than what I intend. As for my previous comment, I think we have a different threshold and understanding for "detail." As much as I would love to debate detail, I'm exhausted and can only put together a basic response here. I wasn't saying it's impossible to expose for both the snow and the shadows, but I wasn't off base when I said it was nearly impossible to draw the same amount of detail out. Looking at your portfolio, I would say you have more skill than the typical "professional," and I really don't think anyone will disagree with that. Looking at your portfolio, you obvious deal with the issue more intimately, and more often, than most. If it really was that easy, eveyone could do it, every auto contrast/white balance feature would do it, and every hate-monger would probably still hate it. ;-) Like I said a moment ago, maybe it's just my monitor, but a lot of the snow in some of your photos is NEARLY solid white, where I'm sure there was more detail in the snow than actually captured by the camera. ("Flurries" for example) I'm tired and I digress. I'll rabble rouse in the next POW. For the time being, I'm headed to Chile for four days. Ha ha.

David one of the many disadvantages of discussing a photo on the web is as you mention, the fact that dependent on our monitors we will each see the photo differently thus making discussion about degrees of separation of tonality a bit challenging.

As for my own photos I regularly let go of the detail in my whites. If and when I do so , I do so with intent having decided that I do not need them for my purposes in that given instance. There is a big difference between throwing something you don't need away and failing to capture something in the first place.

My monitor is not top end but it is fair and I keep it calibrated.

My keyboard is good at writing what I mean, my problem is more in that some number of people wish that it wasn't.

I reread the discussion, and this back-and-forth on page 8 changed my thinking about the criticisms:

I've re-evaluated the criticisms of the photograph. A number of problems have been identified, one being the lack of detail in the figure. On my monitor, that detail is obscure. I'd assumed the man was walking. Now, looking more closely with this criticism in mind, as unlikely as this may be, I'm uncertain whether he might not instead be standing there, leaning against the cane. Be that as it may, my thinking has changed as to how to learn to see a photograph.

Brian, thanks. That was really nice to read!

I think the biggest disadvantage on here is not being able to hear tone, inflection, etc, as well as body language, not so much people's monitors not being top notch. I guess I should use "emoticons" more often or something. I just hope they add a "rolling eyes smiley face" and a "blech smiley face."

I think writing well about photos is as difficult as making good ones. Both can be done . . . without emoticons. Part of writing on the Internet, in my experience, is knowing that inflection, etc. is not there and sarcasm and irony are tough to convey. It can be done, though through writing style and the tone of the writing, and also by having back and forth discussions as we've done here, clearing up misunderstandings, allowing people latitude to misspeak or not speak completely the first time and then fill in the blanks. Generally, that takes more time and patience than Internet communication is known for.

Apart from all the technical discussions, this photograph has a feeling. You can read the cold from the old men's face, and the whole photograph speaks.

I personally think that during the BW processing, some more contrast added would be better....but the DOF and the moment capture is good..nice accent with the roof too

bizi yansıtan bir kare... fotoğrafta sanki köyümü gördüm...kareyi bozan tek şey güneş enerjisi olmuş :)

As one of the original posters on this image, and sometimes one of the culprit "good shot" posters, I offer my reason for taking the time to post originally. There are literally millions of photographs here on PN with thousands posted weekly, with (ahem) hundreds being in the "good shot" category. That being, photographs that catch your eye, spark an emotion whether it be humor, wish I were there, or just admiration for being a "good shot". It doesn't mean that all are perfect, or for that matter, technically correct; it is just an expression of appreciation.
This is such a shot to me. Orhan was in the right place at the right time to capture this old gentleman walking in the snow. Sure, he could have set his black/white points and cleaned up the tones, he could have been a little more careful there on the wall where he cloned out something, but I didn't notice that originally and didn't comment on it because it didn't matter.... the photo caught my attention. That was what was most important (to me).
As for these solar panel heater things.... Where? :-)

Just a brief comment on some of the critiques. I appreciate reading ALL of the critiques..it is a learning process for me..and too bash an opinion seems to be an exercise in frutility.

For the first time I have actually stopped to read (some if not all) the comments posted here on POW…
The photo at first glance appeared to be an evocative image of a time gone by, pleasant to look at if nothing else, the "nice shot" comments ensued...
I found my self reading on, and instantly disliking some of the more critical comments about bright bits, solar panels, contrast, and as for the comment about pixilation, frankly I didn’t see the stripes on the cane let alone pixellation!!
I realize the world of photography is somewhat alien to me:
I’ve pursued my love for photography without ever asking why I love it, and what I want from it; I’ve come to PN to find inspiration (as to not lay dormant again) and to find my photographer self (and I guess I might not be the only one)…
As a “lost soul” in this world of photography, I sometimes tend to feel somewhat oppressed by the so called nit-pickers. (No offence intended to anyone)
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it, and realize that what I fell in love with was the ability to “trap” a moment of “my” life on a piece of film… of course it was an expensive hobby for the likes of trigger happy me and I became dormant for long periods, until I brought my 450D this January.
Maybe not everybody wants to “be good at taking or making photographs” or even “BECOME good at it”, some may just want to share that “moment of their life” with others, and enjoy the “NICE SHOT” be it by leaving such comments or accepting them.
Hats off though to you “nit-pickers” regardless of my level of understanding and agreement! You made me stop and think and try to learn something today…
Since solar panels, halos, and splodges have been brought to my attention, they are attracting my attention and detracting from the overall appeal of the image, and so I get your point! However I’m aware that it is not always necessary to pay so much attention to detail, how many people know the number of stairs there are on a certain staircase? And how often do you look to see what’s on the roofs of houses? When reading things we don’t look at each letter that is written, and we don’t set the table using a tape measure unless we have OCDs
As for the old man looking into the camera, if he was in London I would expect him not to look at me, but as he is in a rural setting it is natural that he would look your way regardless of the camera, and regardless of weather the photographer belonged there or not. A second shot could have been taken a few paces further up the slope but there would be less snowflakes in front of the old man. I dare speculate that a flash was fired thus making the snowflakes more visible and brighter that the “grey” background snow making it difficult to balance the levels/contrast? I like the crop Doug presented.
I like the photo very much, it makes me think of my youth when I used to walk the dogs in the snow and ponder, I think of the deep pleasure of a hot bowl of soup after you’ve been out in the cold all day, I think of when us kids used to shovel the snow outside old ladies houses and they used to call us in and give us home made liqueurs and biscuits and cakes and money (unsurprisingly I used to stay out all day shoveling LOL...)
I’d like to extend my gratitude to Orhan Köse for taking and posting this photo and to ALL who commented, although I was meant to be working these past 2 hours and I’m probably going to get in trouble!!
All the best
Alec

Hi Orhan, very nice photo. I like its atmosphere very much. And BW increases its mood. Congrats for POW. Best regards, Antonio

Alec, you make some valid points. But please remember this is a Photo of the Week discussion, whose purpose is to analyze a chosen photo and analyze whether we think it's good and whether we like it AND WHY. There is absolutely nothing wrong with just liking a photo and wanting to declare "nice shot." But there IS something wrong with doing that or expecting that here. Because the description of this particular part of the site specifically says this is not the place for that.

Orhan, fantastic details!!!