'A Tip of the Hat'

A workman removes his hat during a break in street work.

Sometimes 'street' photos can depict the ordinary and it may seem

slightly 'surreal' or just a little bizarre. How does this man's photo strike

you? Your ratings, comments and remarks are invited and most

welcome. If you rate harshly, very critically or would like to make an

observation, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; thank

you in advance for sharing your photographic knowledge to help me

improve my photography. Enjoy! John

There is one thing about street photography, one can't control the lighting. One can only do the best one can. You have the exposure of the man right on but the sky is blown out and the building highlights are blocked. Still ,this adds to the over all raw feel of street photography.

Yours is a very helpful comment.

You are mostly correct about this photo's lighting -- and as it's worked up, you are absolutely correct.

What I do very little of is 'manipulation' including dodging and burning -- I'm leery of both, as the marks can show if you're too vigorous, and it's easy for them not to show in a 'large' version but to show as big transitions where you dodged or burned when a smaller version is viewed -- it's very strange sounding, but the larger the size of exposition, improper or hasty or just too much dodging and/or burning often is best detected in a very small size -- that's why I try not to use either when I can.

So, I post lots of stuff that hasn't been worked over too much.  I use 'raw' and sliders in Photoshop to get the exposures and brightness just right, then often the best thing in Photoshop CS anything that has it, is shadow/highlight filter, using the full menu, not the truncated one (check the box and you'll get it, the small version opens by default until you do that).

Then further adjust brightness and shadows, 'to taste' as I think the French might say.  Maybe you know better about 'to taste' than I?

In any case, I probably should have used a huge selection, then adjusted what seems like a 'blown area', and I bet, if one opened the 'raw' version without adjustments off normal default, then 'adjusted' those, I bet those highlights that seem 'blown' are not really, though very much overexposed.  There probably was digital info on that 'blown area' if I were better skilled in Photoshop, but I have trouble handling a mouse, too, so I just 'make do' and hire a Photoshop pro when really wonderful work is called for (In Ukraine they're not so expensive and work on their own, though their personalities can be 'tricky' I've found.

I post only my own work, though, so never fear.

If this had been worked up by a pro, it might look tons better, as they'd know how to handle the 'blown' area, background, especially if there is sky info (there's building info for sure.  The problem is digital noise if dealing with a real flimsy amount of data and trying to 'bring it out'.

In any case, this guy's photo on the camera screen kept stopping me though there were many more attractive photos -- this one just kept coming to my eye over and over. It's somehow magnetic to me.

Also, he's pretty photogenic in a 'character' sort of way,  thin, gaunt, face with pretty good features, and not overblown, but full of character in photos (and he loves to be photographed by a 'nice guy', and we made friends, he and his work crew friends, real fast.

I'll probably see him again and take more photos, just a few minutes will yield a hundred photos with the large crew he works with and at least one will be super!

Others will be pretty darned good, too.

I often don't shoot in full sunlight like this, so maybe I can learn how to work with 'highlight areas' like this in my exposures (not in framing, as this was a spontaneous gesture, caught, in fact, mid gesture.  One of the reasons I like it so much is that one would never 'see' this gesture except for a flash, midway through his movement.

Thanks for the help; the 'rawness' of street does capture something, but I want MORE when I take a photo, even street.  Here the gesture's the thing, but I also want great composition, great geometry and so forth.

But in the end it's 'The Photo', out of focus, badly composed, and everything that can go 'bad' with a photos sometimes will produce outstanding results, I was mentored, and now I am a believer.

My mentor said 'Go with THE PHOTO', and nothing else really matters if it's a photo.

He's right, I think, and I've become much more adventuresome in  my postings, sometimes with disastrous ratings and once or twice with highest-viewed and highest rated photo(s).

You don't know until you post.

Thanks, James.

john

John (Crosley)

Certainly a prize face for a street portrait. GJ

Very good moment of natural hand movements. Interesting street character!

If this were film, I know that if you looked at the negative you would see a black mass in the upper right with the building detail on it, sort of like a drawing on black paper with a black magic marker, "blocked highlights". With the film, you could "burn in" that section to get the detail on the photo paper but you would also have a gray mass there, very unattractive.

 

I am no wiz when it comes to Photoshop or digital. I'm sure the highlight detail is there and could be brought out without compromising the integrity of the rest of the photo. "Expose for the highlights and correct for the shadows in Photoshop" is the wisdom that I often hear with digital. Expose the highlights as far to the right as possible on the histogram without clipping then then adjust for the shadows in Photoshop. Good advice if one is shooting scenics but who has time to check histograms on the street when a sudden and fleeting photo opportunity occurs?

 

Keep up the good work.

This fellow does have a prize face, a really rather good, expressive face, without 'fat' to hide his crevices and his numerous expressions.

I asked him his name at first, to loosen him up, then stopped, and said (in the most basic Russian, No, I understand (know), it's Bond, James Bond.'

That broke up the workers and I good cooperation and had lots of work with my camera. The work is so hard and the space to do physical labor, down a huge hole in the center of a street. so deep that only a couple of a large crew can work hard at once.

And when they work, they work hard, but they are full of life, especially during breaks and can be fun.

I'm sure I'll see them again, and I'll remind this fellow he's 'Bond, James Bond!'

And every one will laugh, then I'll have a big group of happy subjects, letting me have access.

;~))

There's many ways to get things done on the street.

john

John (Crosley)

You are entirely right about the hands and the face - this guy's a photographer's prize.  If he had acting talent, he could be accepted in movies as a 'character actor' I'm sure, because of his looks, and he is, what we call in America, a 'ham' (showoff).

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Svetlana.

john

John (Crosley)

'The photo's the thing, is what I have been mentored, and a fleeting moment, lke this is a good example.  It's 'all wrong' in many technical factors, but the expression is the thing, and it's extremely fleeting -- maybe less than 1/4 of one second.

His friends would enjoy this if they saw it; I'm happy to say.

And although he might be a little embarrassed, he's got so much character and 'ham' in him that I'm sure he'd mainly be flattered.

Street is a special place -- you can take 1,000 photos and get one good to great photo at times and other days you'll take a lot of them.

It's a great crap shoot.

I play to win.

Thanks for the additional coment; James.

john

John (Crosley)