bilbao , san sebastian (spain) Street portrait

Thanks to the unknown models.

Thanks for critiques

guuuaaaaoo, el tratamiento es delicioso, mi mas sincera enhorabuena.

saludos

atte contecon

Great angle of view for such a "monumental" person! It emphasizes the grandiose look! Fatto bene amico mio! 

Best regards

PDE

nice diagonals Sergio, i think an important part of this impressive image...regards....David

Perfect presentation!

Reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting.  Well done.

The effect you applied makes this image.  Well done.

Dear all, many thanks for your comment!

First impression: visual chock and rejection.
Second impression: leaving the colors aside for a moment, the composition is well made, with the lines of the wooden pier building up a scene for the various individuals, well situated and separated, creating an almost scenographical setup worthy of a professional, with two couples and a red-shoed lady leaving the scene. The glance of the self-confident heavyweight looking at us (the photographer) provide a great scene of photography. However, one has to mention the colors and post-processing, which for me ruins it all.
Had it been a painting, it would go in the category of popular sofa scenes which no-one could stand looking at every day ! As heavy post-processed photo it goes in the same category. As pastiche I can appreciate it, though.
Again, I miss some input from the elves on the why ?
Looking forward reading what others have to say about this POW !

Anders, I tend to cut digital images some slack on color manipulation because I am guessing that the picture's maker is untrained in color (as compared to painters) -- which is hard! I applaud the willingness to try, to experiment, and, surely, to get better at it.

I am less indulgent with the all-over art-i-cizing of line throughout the picture. Line, it seems to me, if "handled," must be done so with delicacy. Certainly not with an indiscriminate dump of emphasis. As done here, it's like "bolding" the whole visual text, which I think is a mistake.

Structurally, there's a lot of fun in the way the picture flares like a fan from the departing woman on the mid-left side. As opposed to a simple tilt, this makes the stuff on the right side all move in different trajectories. Nicely active. With that in mind, however, I therefore am not sure if I'm happy that the head of the foreground woman (with a hat) is higher than that of the large central man -- it makes the rising angle fall back to him rather than keep going.

Of particular interest to me is the point of the elbow of the central, large man -- that jabs directly from the frame, along with the echoing bend of his forward knee. These two physical "comments" from the man give a little subversive "punch," to me, sort of a like a nudge with the elbow or a wink of the eye.

Oddity that I don't quite understand is why there is light under his upper hand. Again, it seems as if he's punching that arm outward rather than resting it in a classical folded-arm posture.

Good points, Julie.

I don't like this picture. Unlike the last POW, the lines of this scene do not to add focus direction or power. They just make it busy looking without adding real graphic value. I'm often a fan of digital processing when used to help describe or enhance the subject or theme. That is not the case here. The garish post treatment is quite a distraction. I think a pure B&W rendition would help this scene.

I know that candid street portraits are not easy so I tend to give wide berth to those that make the attempt. But it's still a portrait and as such begs for a less busy background that could have been helped, if not by position or timing, then by less depth of focus.

Still, the subject is an interesting looking character and I like the contrast of the younger, slimmer couple walking by. I think simplifying the picture by reducing some of the visual noise, via depth of focus control and conversion to B&W, would elevate this scene for me.

Julie, Handers, Louis, first of all thanks for your critiques that can help me to improve my work! On my intention I don't want to show it as a simple shot in color or B&W, but something between picture and painting. The result could be satisfied or not it's up your evaluation. Best regards Sergio

Painting, while often a documentary effort, very seldom approaches reality. When it does we go "Wow, that looks so lifelike!" and are amazed at the painter's skill and effort. Here we have the opposite, a digital image manipulated in Photoshop, to make it less lifelike, more like a painting (or magazine illustration, which this reminds me of). I typically find this treatment tedious, but in this case I think it works and works well. Sergio has a number of images in his gallery that utilize this technique as well as a great body of traditional work which is most excellent. This guy does so much, and so much *well* that I think the pn elves could have closed their eyes and picked any of his photos at random for POTW. The guy is good, and this is a delightful image as presented and created.

To begin, I am impressed by the angle from which the photograph was taken. This, plus the tilt, really helps to accentuate the features of the shirtless man.

I have seen and admired at least a few of Sergio's abstract images. This one is too overprocessed for my taste. Although I understand his intent to create a painterly effect, the resulting extremes in contrast and saturation defeat the purpose. I do give Sergio quite a lot of credit for his creativity; it just didn't pan out this time.

Oversaturated photos with overdone HDR (or whatever this processing is called) have never appealed to me. This one's no exception. It gives me a headache just looking at it. The processing negates any artistic merit the subject or the overall composition might have had for me. And the green sky? No...just no.

It's cartoon-like, unattractive, and says nothing to me.

The processing gives me a sense of exploitation of the main gentleman, by turning him (and everything else) into a caricature. I did not get that same exploitive feeling from the original file Sergio posted in the thread.

The original doesn't suggest much to me, is rather ordinary and not compelling, so trying to make something of it with this sort of processing, IMO, is that much more a failure.

It's more a scene, a beach scene, than a portrait, IMO, though what we label it doesn't matter all that much. Though there is a main character, I see him as part of a scene, not the focus of interest.

If there were more interesting content, the perspective and the angle of the shot would appeal to me.

Thanks Sergio for your contribution and especially for showing the original shot, which I find great. Trying to make something painterly out of it, has not been a success in my eyes and is seldomly succeeded by others either, so don't feel bad about it.
Now, that you have shown the original, I must say, that I like the scene. The attitude of the central guy in all his self-confident mighty, is gorgeous. He seems more at ease with himself than the young slim couple behind. I also appreciate, that you have kept the tilt, which has the effect of somewhat detach the persons from the less interesting physical context which, by its zigzag lines, serve as an almost abstract scene for the spectacle.
Jim, sometimes skies have been represented in green, in paintings, and with mastery results - as here.

Jim, I never hear anyone else explain the effect of HDR, like I do. Something about

overdone HDR makes my stomach upset, and I am not sure why.

This photo reminds me of what should have been a fairly simple, straightforward and satisfying meal that was so over-seasoned it's almost inedible. It's chicken fried steak, inexplicably slathered in chocolate and red chili sauce. I like all of those things, individually and in the right context. But slapped together it's unappetizing.

The basic photo isn't a portrait so much as a hip shot that happens to touch on some familiar and appealing sensibilities - a dash of Winogrand's wonky framing, a dollop of Gilden's celebration of the Coney Island grotesque. Maybe even a dash of David Alan Harvey's "Based on a True Story" color approach to an eye catching sidelong glimpse of uninhibited humanity. In that respect it's pretty tasty, like a Nathan's hot dog and a sudsy Schlitz on a hot summer day. The tilted framing resonates nicely with the mashup of lines - diagonals in the boardwalk and bench, the rippled lines of the woman's shirt. There's just something real and appealing in a folksy way about the big fellow's ample gut and older woman's unselfconscious glare, contrasted against the younger, more reserved couple in the background, too cool to be involved in this scene.

But the cartoonish tonemapping seems misguided here. Perhaps it might work if the image were viewed as a single cartoon panel from some oddball adult graphic novel. And, looking through some of the photographer's recent work, there is some indication that perhaps it's the effect he's trying to achieve - but it's haphazard, inconsistent and lacking in a coherent theme.

There may be a unifying visual narrative in which this approach might work. But taken out of context it seems like chocolate chili dipped chicken fried steak. Call me an unimaginative diner, but I'd rather have my chicken fried steak first, perhaps with some chili on the side, and chocolate after dinner.

Check, please.

I have a question to Lex, are you avaible to taste a different dish not cooked on you standard way of cooking? or you don't taste at all? Like or dislike l respect all the opinion and accept all kind of critiques, but I'm convinced that here should be more open mind space here, for different way to approach the photography works. Thanks for your time, ciao. Sergio

When I first looked at this image yesterday morning, only Anders and Julie had commented and I was looking at it on an older laptop, which desaturates and reduces contrast on most images. Although not the type of image processing I find attractive, I couldn’t understand the problem with the color—which just seemed expressive—and I saw some nice elements in the composition.

I switched to my primary system to comment and then it was pretty clear what others had (and have been) commented on with regards to the color—and contrast. Different cooking or overcooking, that is probably a fair question—and then, depending, I suppose, on one’s computer’s interpretation, it might also be the venue it is being consumed in.

Personally, I pretty much end up, on the color and processing, where most others have here, but I do like the compositional devices used here. Primarily, I think the off-axis tilt really changed the dynamics of the image as well as the relationship between the man and the primary woman—he leans towards her rather than the other way around, which I feel adds to their connection psychologically. The crop, which is more than what was done in the “original”, adds to the effect of the imbalance caused by the canted frame to really emphasize these two people and makes the image a bit more intimate. And, of course, the fact that they are the only ones gazing at “that” place also adds to the bond between them.

So, I will probably go eat somewhere else but do find other parts of the image's structure appealing, it's just the sauce that ends up turning me away.

I'm always willing to cut over-lipsticked images some slack when it's apparent that the effect of being over-done is intentional and achieves the "goals" of the artist.

On the other hand, I also prefer the original image to the gussied-up one.

Reminds me of those "clowns on velvet" paintings. Not to my taste at all. Really can't find anything positive to say about it. Sorry, but that's the way it is. Just because you turn up all the knobs to 11 doesn't turn something that's fairly mundane into something that's attractive.

On the other hand they wouldn't paint clown on velvet if nobody bought them, so I guess there's an audience for just about anything. It's just not me.