The Color Street Portrait

This is a true 'color street portrait', with richly saturated colors and a

mostly unplanned but quite interesting bokeh (appearance of out-of-

focus areas for new initiates). Because of heavy saturation, this photo

is best appreciated if viewed full frame rather than in 'thumbnail' and

specifically has not been optimized for thumbnail viewing, but for full

frame viewing, hence its 'dark' appearance. Your ratings, critiques and

remarks are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly, very

critically, or wish to make a remark, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge to

help improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

This view has been taken from the 'raw' capture, using mainly the 'contrast' slider; the saturation slider was not used at all and was set to neutral - same with all other 'color enhancement' sliders.  This is basically the photo as it appeared as shot, shown a little 'contrasty'.

john

John (Crosley)

Very good !

It isn't often I'll take a photo and post it of a busker, but this guy's colors and the bokeh (plus his blue eyes over his glasses) just bowled me over when I looked at my download.

I could hardly hold myself back from posting this.

Thank you so much, Bob.

You are an outstanding street artist, and an accolade from you is high praise indeed.

john

John (Crosley)

Judging from red around the eyes, this guy may have had a party the previous night, or just had some glare from a very, very bright summer sun.

Additionally, this photo works equally well -- maybe better in your opinion -- as a more tightly cropped photo.

I worked it up also cropping at the base of his shoulders, left and right, and raising the bottom to keep the aspect ratio, and it looks also pretty terrific, (in my opinion) with the same outstanding background bokeh.

Of course, it's my photo, so I'm prejudiced, but I like this one very much . . . . and it is not 'my usual sort of photo' in general . . . . as I'm more 'reality based' for much of my photography.

Nevertheless I simply appreciate what I consider good photography.  In this case, I love the colors.

Some people recently have pegged me as a 'black and white' photographer, but those who knew me from the start of my membership knew me as primarily a 'color photographer'. 

Actually, I try to show proficiency in both, but some photos do better as color; others better as black and white. 

This one is primarily a color photo in my opinion, but still is interesting enough to post in either mode . . . I think.

john

John (Crosley)

What a find and what an interesting character.  Love the background as it really separates the portrait.  The red eye lids really are telling aren't they.  Hope he had fun.  Becky

This guy is a busker, dressed like this for money, and I stiffed him.  He was posing with passersby, and I walked by, took a couple of shots from a distance, then kept on going.

I must remember when I see him again to tip him handsomely (maybe get a release?).

Thanks for a happy and knowledgeable comment.

john

John (Crosley)

An excellent capture John.   I really like the background too.

Kind regards, Jim

It is almost surprising to find such wonderful bokeh preserved in a final capture instead of being washed out.

This is why lenses sell for thousands of dollars instead of for a few hundred dollars -- the Nikkor 70-200 f  2.8 VR I (First Version), at 155 mm showing 'its stuff' with the bokeh at f 2.8, with a mixed background of a woman, left, city signs on a building, upper center, tree foliage, upper left, and so on.

Nothing at all recognizable and all wonderfully rendered.

It's just one reason why I tote an extremely heavy and large lens around, as opposed to say, the 18-200 mm. which has the same focal length range, but which would have made a mess of the bokeh, as it has extremely poor bokeh comparatively.

It is not always in life that one gets what one pays for, but sometimes he aphorism is true; here it is.

Demonstrably so.

This is Exhibit One.

Contrast has been 'boosted' a little on this one, which accounts in part for the strong appearance of the background, but it's not really much different than the non-boosted version, which is a little 'creamier'.

This allowed the background  reds/purples to be contrasted easier with the reds of his eyes.

(I'm always thinking.)

Thanks Jim for the comment.

john

John (Crosley)