"New Year's"

This is the black and white version of the photo 'New Year's', taken on

this year's first day. Your ratings, critiques and good faith remarks are

invited and most welcome. [blurs due to uncommonly long shutter

speed and not Photoshopped out -- your advice is sought in that

regard]. If you rate harshly or very critically, or if you wish to submit a

remark, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please

share your photographic knowledge to help improve mine. Thanks!

Enjoy! John

I don't have a constructive comment, I just like this.

Thank you so much for telling me.

john

John (Crosley)

...this is a monument. I love.

An interesting scene! And an interesting statics and dynamics in this shot!

Thank you also so very much -- a 'monument' - created in just a few moments.

It's a monument to 'being there' on the street.

Thank you so much, again.  Your viewership and approval mean very much to me.

john

John (Crosley)

I agree with you -- a capture that delights me continually, unlike some of mine.

(New Year's Day evening, Maidan, outside Metro)

The wheelchair guy sent this guy to me; I make friends on the street -- it pays off sometimes in unusual and rewarding ways.

Best to you in -12 C. temperature -- Spring's around the corner.

john

John (Crosley)

very good, john

 

BB

I saw that movie.  ['Eyes Wide Shut']

My then and now long-ago seaside neighbors from coastal California, Tom and Nicole, were stars in it. 

It was more than strange. 

(They had no idea I existed -- and I never attempted to photograph them or wished to know them or be known by them.  Live and let live.   I have a 'I don't shoot celebrities' policy.)

I did find the movie VERY WEIRD and am not sure I liked it at all. 

It seemed like it spelled the end of their marriage too.

So your comment to me stirs some mixed personal feelings, but I do understand it, know it is a compliment, and take it as such.

Now I count the guy in the wheelchair as an acquaintance and am the richer for it! 

I'm not snooty about my acquaintances when I'm out photographing; it sometimes brings great treasure for the 'street photographer' in me. 

Wheelchair guy deserves partial thanks for this photo's exitence.

Thanks so much, Boris.

john

John (Crosley)

Now this is a real street image in my humble opinion, this is well executed in the shutter speed to capture some movement and at the same time to capture detail I think this is worrty of praise in that it was so well executed... MJ

This was posted once before. The exact same image as I recall.

Great moment on youngs street life! Lat me suggest that you can increase the dramatic effect increasing the contrast! Bravo!

I can buy the lens that took this shot, a V.R,. at Adorama for $329.00, free shipping, on special.

Yet, somehow, though replaced by a new version, sharper with higher. fixed aperture, it did the job of holding the scene together despite the 1/3 second exposure time (hand held).

This truly is an anomaly, and one I hardly expected, but am truly grateful for.

For those who rate by 'taking off points for *defects*' and seeing this is unphotoshopped to remove the blurs, this never will rate high.

I rate in a gestaltist sense -- overall impact, with originality and even (like Olympics) difficulty.  For me, of all my work, this comes out shining.

I very much appreciate the kind words.

Please note that it also is posted in color where it is a very copascetic post as well, with fine. complementary colors.  Members had urged me to post also in B&W which is why it is here.  I do double posts seldom, but this photo was worthy, I think.

Thanks for taking the trouble of letting me know your thoughts, M. J.

john

John (Crosley)

 

Increasing the contrast for this high ISO shot runs a grave difficulty of running into severe noise problems, already an issue.

Why not let me see your version so I can judge?

I await seeing your efforts.

Thanks for weighing in.

I usually try such things, but often technical difficulties keep me from such presentations.  Some captures will only take so much sharpness, contrast, blackness, whiteness, and so forth . . . . and the ones 'on the margin' such as this are the most difficult to work with.

I'll enjoy seeing your efforts.

john

John (Crosley)

That's a very good picture, but I'm not sure for BW managing either. IMO, would ndde some burning in the upper left and lower right corners, and maybe some more contrast. Considering the mood of the picture, it could probably stand some noise/grain.

Yours

Excellent image. I am very entertained by it. Good capture, composition, and processing. Great, striking and fun.

For my work, I consider this natively such an 'important' photo (of mine) that I posted it basically not photoshopped other than some contrast/brightness and no cloning/burning/dodging, and especially not the addition of artificiality such as grain.

It may well be that this photo can be improved greatly, and your suggestions seem a pro pos, and may well be the best suggestions, but I'd like to hear from a number of members and maybe experts and then maybe seek some photoshoppers' work on this photo before I decide which way it should go (leave as is, with blurs unresolved, clone in the images obscured by blows, matbe using 'content aware fill' or some such from Photoshop CS5? or whatever?  Then I'd like to compare.

This, to my mind, is not a photo to denigrate when it does so well, just as it is, with almost nothing done to it; and with potential prospects of screwing it up by messing with it.

I had posted a photo of Richard Nixon in a crowd, close up, early in my Photo.net career and got several suggestions for working the photo up -- negative had been lost and it was reproduced from a scan of a very high quality but very contrasty print.

One member who impressed me the most for that highly-rated photo quoted a rock group member as saying about offered improvements 'Don't Mess With the Ju-Ju', and that has stuck with me.

When something's pretty good, even (or especially) with very obvious defects, don't asssume 'taking away the defects' (if that is what they truly are) is going to improve it.

(my most viewed photo, closing in on one-quarter million views, is 95% blurry, and obviously so, but there's no hint of trying to 'sharpen it, and my latest analysis suggests the blurriness in the main part may help focus in on the one small area (its most important) that is NOt blurry).

I almost didn't post it because it was so blurry!

Go figure!

So, keeping 'Don't Mess With the Ju-Ju' and the other lesson in mind, I'd like to see some more image editing suggestions and maybe a workup or two. 

This file is pretty good size as posted, too, even if only 72 dpi -- it is not  heavily compressed (at least the file as posted was not heavily compressed -- I haven't measured what this service has done to it.).

Best to you Philipe, and thanks for a helpful suggestion, it is most welcome.

john

John (Crosley)

Eight compliments in 17 words.

That must be some sort of record.

I am most grateful you enjoy this so much; you are the sort of person I shoot for; my intended audience is for those who 'ENJOY with capitals, like you.

john

John (Crosley)

For a photographer, as for a cook, you have to know when to stop. I've ruined many a good meal and many a good photograph by messing around with it too much and ending up with an over-worked, bland, mish-mash of a dish. The power of this picture comes from its raw immediacy The comparative sharpness of that terrifying masked figure jumps out from the blurred haziness of the background; it's like suddenly drawing notice from a demon in a dream

This had excellent colors, so I posted the color version almost as soon as I took it, right after January 1st, this year.  I asked for suggestions on improving or working it up -- image editing -- but frankly got none, despite some interest in the photo.

I also got suggestions to post it in B&W, and realized that although it was really a good photo in color because of some wonderful color coordination, it belonged as a B&W photo, plus I have a strength in B&W that is well known and respected anyway, so I figured I would follow the suggestion and post the B&W version today.

Again, I got almost no editing suggestions, despite its obvious 'rawness (on a service full of members who are punctilious for 'jneatness and sharpness' yet) though there was one a request for working it up in B&W and then I made the 'don't mess with the Ju-Ju'  comment and thanks to the member who made it to me originally on the Nixon photo.

It seems to have struck a chord with you, and in part because of what I have learned since joining PN, the lack of suggestions (there was one) and your comment, I am inclined to leave it mostly raw and as it is, or clone out the head passing through the group of people as a flesh-colored blur (color version) and tackle nothing else.

I think that would be the maximum, color or B&W, and in black and white that would be a rather simple job -- color a more difficult one because of the colors involved and the cloning process.

I'd probably have a pro do it, as I'd want to exhibit it, (not on Photo.net).

You guys would never see anything I didn't photoshop myself. (terms of service require that.)

Your comment was most instructive, and very helping in setting my mind on a certain course.  Others still can influence me, and my mind still is open on the issue of whether and/or how much to Photoshop this image.

Other opinions are solicited and most welcome.  More the better.

This is 'open swim'.

Thanks so much for your helpful comment, Jack.

john

John (Crosley)

A full of intentions image. Regards John.

 Thanks for commenting.

 

However, 'full of intentions image' does not convey any decipherable meaning to me in English -- perhaps you used a translator, or it's an idiomatic expression that doesn't translate well.

 

However, I think I can presuppose it was meant as s compliment, take it as such, and thank you for leaving me your good thoughts.

 

john 

 

John (Crosley)