krabovsky

artist portrait

your thoughts, please

Very unique and accelerating.  Nicely composed.

Extraordinary creation, remind me to those marvelous novels of Julio Verne.

Chapeau

thank you victor!

also...Sweid Sideris  thank you..that is one of the biggest compliments i've gotten for a long time. cheers mate

glad you like it

7 for this amazing shot!

thank you!

Unique done extremely well.  Excellent work, Norbert.

Love it. So cool. Congrats.

I like this shot because, not only do I think it captures a unique perspective, it makes me wonder what story lies behind the gazes of each of the men. The one of the left looks like he had a rough day, and perhaps is wondering how he'll manage to get through another. The middle looks rather perturbed at having his privacy violated by the photographer? And the man on the right seems to be indifferent to everything around him, simply taking another routine ride on the train.

Bill, I get your point about the image's story line. However, in my opinion, that's trumped by oversaturated skin tones, bizarre lighting, and weird eyebrows.

Michael,

I'm not seeing on my monitor what you're seeing, or perhaps I'm just not perceiving it the same way. The colors all look fine to me, and the lighting is probably not something Norbert could control, though I don't find it objectionable at all.

I also like the sense of movement in this photograph, and how the obvious movement of the train contrasts to the complete stillness of the men, as if they are in two different time spectrums. Of course, the photographer probably had none of this in mind, and merely thought he was taking a cool shot. Those who interpret art often read much more into it than was ever intended, I imagine.

Granted, Bill - the image definitely displays movement. Indeed, our monitors may account for different perceptions.

I stand by my previous comments, though. The faces are mid- to deep over-the-top orange, especially the man on the left. All of the men have white necks and white eyebrows. The guy on the left almost has a clownish appearance because of these aberrations.

I don't see them as aberrations, Michael. I see them as a function of the effect of long exposure on colors. Incandescent light actually does have a yellow glow which the camera usually exaggerates. One can correct for white balance or in post processing if they want, but lots of people leave that yellow/orange artificial light look for effect. Not saying you should like it. That's a matter of taste, of course, but I think the white highlights and color of the skin is photographically understandable and somewhat expected here. The whole thing has a buzz to it, IMO. Not sure how the photo itself was all accomplished. It was a 3-second exposure and the figures and clothing are awfully sharp for being in a moving car. Maybe the photographer is in a car in front moving at the same speed, which is why the walls seem to be in motion and the car seems stationary. Or maybe a lot was done in post processing. Not really my cup of tea, but interesting to dissect on a technical level.

Point well taken, Fred. Your explanation about white balance makes sense. There probably would have been a different result had Norbert made a white balance adjustment before taking the shot. I'm going to experiment with the image a bit just for my own edification.

Followup . . . indeed, a white balance issue.

I think this is a very striking photo, notwithstanding the incomprehensible title. I don't really understand how it was taken as the passengers in the car seem to have coordinated a flash as the photographer is taking the shot that illuminates them as if from a dashboard. Very neat. The feeling of movement is quite thrilling. White balance has not been adjusted, but I think if it were it may not improve the picture at all. The "weird eyebrows" are a result of the flash - they don't worry me. In fact the extra kick of light on the front passengers helps to make the shot. Having looked up "Krabovsky", I see they are a rock band. This, therefore, I take to be a promo shot. It also explains the flash - it was coordinated. Very good it is too.

The motion blur, hypersaturation and overall vibe suit the apparent intended purpose as a promo photo for a musical group. It's a very good photo and I can't say "I've seen this before." That's a rare thing in music promotional photos, which tend to be formulaic and cliched.

The "dashboard light on faces" technique works well here. The only technical nit I'd pick is that the low angled flash seems too bright on the arms and laps. It appears the fellow at far left was holding the remotely triggered flash. It's just a little bit distracting from their faces. A flag to control spill might have kept the light on their torsos, hands, etc., a bit less hot. But you don't want to go overboard into "Captain Kirk is ready for his closeup" type of excessive lighting control.

just found this

thank you for your comments, glad you like it.

yes it is a promotional shot for this band.
yes in this version the whitebalance is off, not so in the version to be seen on nat.geo.com.
the colours in this version have to be that way as it is the photo beeing printed in the album.
the band wanted the orange to fit the cover art as close as possible.

the glow however comes from the streetlamps.
this is a three second long exposure and i would have had to flash them from above.
which then gave too much light to the envoironment and does produce a look i did not like here..
therefore i put the flash in one of the guys hand and simply gave him a sign when he had to trigger it, almost rear curtain sync :)

i wasnt able to adjust the flash every time.
the exposures varied between 15 and 1 seconds and the flash stayed at the same, only got changed three times as we all got out and looked at the shots we already got.
i then adjusted the flash for the light to come and we started again.

of course this changed rapidly.

i was more cocnerened about surrunding light and did not care about a bit of overexposure on their hands every now and then.

a flag would have been a possibility, better yet, some sort of grid.
i set it higher, changed av alot also time. flash stayed the same.
i chose to set the flash a bit too strong as it had to fight the light spill, which can be annoying.
burn some detail in order to get definition how you want it where you need it.

this actually is one of those shots where a completely different lightning situation was expected and i changed fast, but not fast enough. this is one shot out of the process, the 3rd and last.

thanks for your time, hope i could tell you what was going on here. sorry that i am late to the game.

cheers, norbert