'Hot Summer Dayz II' (Color Ed.)

This scene, taken in front of a large urban fountain, seems to

emphasize summer's heat more when the slightest glint of brown/orange

from beer containers is shown in the mens' hands as well as the

yellow/orange is shown from the scorching sun at day's end. Your

ratings, critiques and observations are invited and most welcome. If

you rate harshly, very critically, or wish to make an observation,

please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please share your

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! john

The silhouette works extremely well and the hints of colors you mentioned do help the image tell a story.  I wondered immediately what this scene would look like without the guy in the center foreground.   One one hand he adds a little depth but he seems to be crowding the other subjects a little.  In fact I would also like to see a version with the group on the right only with their shadows and the fountain.  The dynamic of the one guy in a story telling pose holding a beer bottle while the others listen has a magnetic pull for me.  The group on the left is not as interesting.  In any case this is a fine image that holds my attention and is technically well done.  Nice work.

Your critique and analysis is spot on.

There is just little to add to this except to note that if the centermost guy had been a smidgen to the right, there would have been no photo at all; he and even the slight spacing are that essential.

The guys, left, later made their own photo and by the time of that photo are MOST interesting.  Too bad they weren't so interesting at the same time this was taken.

Can you find it the photo in which they star?

It was very well received.

Yours was a very able critique.

john

John (Crosley)

The silhouettes and the amber of the beer bottles really catch the attention.I see two groups having their seperate caucus,the left one having some rather quiet discussion over the brew while the right one is visibly more animated by the presence of the the man in their middle adding some mimick  to their exchange..The man in the center walking by at a discrete distance could be a street peddler carrying his ware(maybe beer?) in that seemingly heavy shoulder bag;your timing was great to capture him in this position to enhance this nice scene and produce an excellent image.Bravo!

Salutations-Laurent

That's a very kind assessment.

Thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

This is a photo that almost wasn't.

It all depended on split-second timing and you can't imagine how many times I looked closely at the digital readout to see if there was really some space between the center walker and the leftmost guy of the rightmost group as no separation, no photo.

FYI, the group, right, is posing for a photo, which gives this photo some reflelctive quality (photo within a photo?).

This I believe is one of my top 100 ever, and now that I've worked it up in color, I'm even more convinced it's better in color because it shows the brownish beer containers so well.

Thanks for a quality analysis.

john

John (Crosley)

very nice John.

Thanks!

john

John (Crosley)

Very good....I thought what would a small crop from top do here..There are some kind of city details in the background, above the water drops, I think I would make that area darker or crop most of them, if this was mine. But if doing the crop, you would lose some of those good looking water drops.

Good thinking.

I already darkened those light areas somewhat, but cropping would destroy the favorable aspect ratio.

To do more would be too much in my opinion and destroy an indicator of depth.

You are almost always right on in your critiques for which I thank you always.

john

John (Crosley)

This is an artistic street photograph by an ever-curious photographer. This is a creative composition with effective silhouettes and brilliantly managed back-lighted colors. The active group, in the right side, and their shadows have added a dynamic character to the composition. It’s a proof of the perfect timing of the photographer. The relaxing group, in the left side, and their shadows have enhanced the story-telling character of the image. IMHO the man in the center has made the image a bit too heavy for the emotional tonality of the composition. The depth added by the man in the center (as noted by Robert Woodward ) is already created by the colored water mark from the foreground to the mid-ground where the slanted black linear element is beautifully placed. IMHO the composition without the man in the center may get a relief to depict excellent drama in real life. But in street photography the moments are not created. So, considering the next few moments when the action of the right-side-group was over, I think, John Crosley didn’t have any alternative choice. If John Crosley likes he may clone out the man in the middle in PP work.

This is truly an appreciable life-shot presented by a photographer with his admirable style.

Best regards.

Great composition for this very interesting street scene. The contrast is amazing and works very well.

Just for your own interest I don't clone out figures or any other thing. 

In street and documentary (and journalism now too) that is strictly prohibited.

So the man, center, will stay, and if the silhouette of the man, center, had touched the silhouette of the group, right, there would have been no posting.  I would not have 'created' the appearance of a silhouette by inserting some lightness.  What you see in my photos is what you get; no cloning or other fol de rol with post processing.

I am thankful for a very able analysis and for that reason will not attempt to respond otherwise or explain but let it as it is.  

Thank you for such a thorough analysis and for the attention.

If you think I just saw this and raised a camera, you are greatly mistaken though; I staked out this place for days with a 70-200 mm with tele-extender in afternoons waiting for just the perfect light and action, and then one day it occurred not once, but twice.

I was doubly rewarded with this photo and another of the guys, left, previously posted in black and white.

Thanks for the kind attention.

john

John (Crosley)

This is one of those photos that woks well in black and white and color, but here I discovered color works a tad bit better, since it shows the color of the late afternoon sun AND the the brownness of the three different beer bottles held by these youths.

Now the mystery.

How did that youth, center right, hold the beer bottle AND take a photo at the same time?  Point and shoot and wedge the bottle between his knees, steadying it with one hand?

It's anybody's guess, as I was not observing that carefully this complex scene.

;~))

john

John (Crosley)

Interesting silhouette shot!

Thank you.

john

John (Crosley)

See the three guys on the left from a different photo in which they are more interesting on their own:

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=14474192&size=lg

(cut and paste into your browser if it doesn't post as a link)

One can only imagine the strength of this photo if both scenes had occurred at the same time.

john

John (Crosley)

I asked myself John: "did the camera record such a way?" The answer is, "it did not". As Gary Cooper repeatedly said in the movie "Sargeant York", "I'm again killing"; well, I'm "again" this much 'photo shopping' and then claim "silhouettes". I'd find the unmanipulated to be more interesting.

You are invited to desaturate this and post it here to compare.

john 

John (Crosley)

Meir Samel,

Your entire analysis is full of it.

It's made up of whole cloth and is in a cocked hat -- completely specious.

This capture has almost no photoshopping.

john

John (Crosley)

That is an inapproiate reply to a critique, but never mind.

Perhaps we define photoshopping differently. I view sliding the histogram bars excessively to create very high contrast as "photoshoping".

I simply could not believe that a camera recorded a scene as posted and out of curiosity I checked; I returned the image to "normal contrast".  I'm not "out to get you".

The photo as posted is not what the camera recorded. That is all I am saying. The camera recorded all the detail. It is just a normal scene.  Returning the contrast (causes a pixelated image because data was lost) but...the boy in the middle is scratching his right ear with his left hand. He is holding what in the original shot appears to be a beer bottle. The brand of shoes on three the boys is obvious from the stipe pattern on the sides. Above the fountain are bldgs and a billboard in the upper right. The boys are recognizable as in any photo. The true drama in the photo  -in my mind- is in the way the camera recorded the scene; not in your high contrast sihouette version.  

This is basically how the camera recorded the image.

Yes, there was other information captured, and with some Photoshop work it can be made to look like a non-silhouetted photo, but the in-camera version of this photo is a silhouette.  You can work on it to make it look less silhouettish, but your theory has 'no cigar'.

End of story.

Words and tweaking exploration looking for 'info' in the pixels will not help you determine what was on my digital screen.

Sorry Charlie (oh that's Meir, not the tuna from Star-Kist).

Not good enough.

john

John (Crosley)

Meir, a prior posted photo, converted to black and white, showing the three guys on the left, cropped extensively just to show them,  was posted some short time ago, and shows similar lack of Photoshopping.

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=14474192

That photo, 'Cooling  Brewskies', also was shown here as it showed basically on my digital readout screen and on download.  Very little was done to that photo, same as this except that photo is less than half a photo/ it's a big crop from a similar photo to this from this same session (a rarity for me).

There was no need to boost the contrast as this scene was basically a black and white scene (with a little color, but not much.)

'Nuff said?

john

John (Crosley)