'Bazaar Seller'

This photo of a weathered 'bazaar seller' taken in Ukraine tends to

show best as a 'color only' capture and seems to lack character

when converted to black and white. Your ratings, critiques and

observations 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

John, the color really is nice in this one. The lady's eyes, lips, skin tones and clothing all work together to tell the story of a kind soul. Beautiful portrait!

Thank you.

I was drawn to take this in large part because of the color coordination that I saw.

Later I saw that the woman's coat, scarf, headgear and even her eyes were carefully coordinated, and that even a woman of advancing age can choose her winter gear carefully. 

Her skin color further complemented the composition as well as some post processing for this 1/15th sec., after dark exposure.

I appreciate that you took the time to write me your impression -- and am grateful.

john

John (Crosley)

While the focus is poor here I must tell you that I really like this portrait very much ... You caught her life experience across the serenity of her look ... the colors are really nice and the crop is perefct IMO. Nice work, John ... the kind of pictures that become hard to forget. Regards

You seem to be right on all counts, including (alas) the focus issue as this photo was taken with a tele at 1/15th of a second and it was NOT a V.R. edition. 

This photo may be a triumph of post processing, but it is a triumph.  I kept it around for many years, encouraged by its colors and her serenity, but it needed a crop (right) and some sharpening and contrast adjustment to make it work correctly which is a significant departure for me, the no-Photoshop guy.

However, on occasion, with time and a good enough capture, I'll make an effort, and it looks as though the capture was well worth the effort in saving it here.  Her look is transcendent, I think, as you have noted, and that seems to justify all -- and I wonder if the capture had not required work whether it would have ended up as good as it did?

Thank you for helpful feedback.

john

John (Crosley)

This certainly has to be in color. As others have said, the crop is perfect. Her eyes and expression communicate and connect with the empathetic viewer. While the focus is off, the processing is fine - my opinion - and judicious. There are tons of close-up portraits around (also on PN) where over-processing has only succeeded in imparting cruel harshness to the person photographed. But all said and done a great deal of credit for the success (as I see it) of this photograph must vest with her - the expression. I'm certainly not implying that little credit is due to the photographer...

Did you ever take a good photo of someone but it was ruined by soft focus?

Maybe potentially a great photo, if only if were 'fixed' a little, with a little crop to eliminate framing of too much negative space (to the right) and too much whiteness (of the skin)?

Well, that happened here, and with NEF (Nikon's raw) capture, I was finally, after years, able to tackle the job as I reviewed some old photos that had mostly been posted, except this one and a few others, with each non posted one having a 'fatal flat'.  I've named the 'fatal flaws' of this one, and finally, after ten years here, set about trying to correct those flaws, and fortunately patience and my minimal skills with Photoshop (and a naturally good eye), have aided me.

As it stands, soft focus does not kill a photo for me; my most viewed photo with over 1/4 million viewers has 'soft focus' almost everywhere from camera movement (rotation I think) and a slow exposure aided by having V.R. turned off (inadvertently).

I go with overall impressions, as those who follow me must know, and don't throw away babies with bathwater.  I take chances too.  I've taken hundreds of chances only to be turned down by raters who've told me 'you didn't make it with this one - your instincts were bad'.

But I keep watching, waiting, and learning plus I never delete a photo . . . almost never.

I have hundreds of thousands on hard drives including more failures than any one man has a right to accumulate which keeps me more than humble -- I'm the king of failed shots.

The price of all that failure is one good one, salvaged from a bad one, like this.

Thank for the endorsement.

john

John (Crosley)

If you saw the raw or jpeg version of this that I started with, you've have passed it over, despite its charms.

I did for about seven years.

Finally, I got a bug up my a** the other day and just (damnit) started working on it.

More than once my computer said 'out of memory' and shut down on me but with Photoshop CC it kept resurrecting on restart with a saved version of this shot, ready to start again, and more than once I worked on it, and each time became more skillful, and the processing more subtle.

The changes are somewhat major, but the major essence is there, and the eyes, which were fuzzy at first, have been sharpened so they appear acceptable to the viewership here of skilled amateurs. 

It was a three (or more) stage operation, involving NEF processing, Unsharp Mask, selecting eyes and applying shadow/highlight filter (and contrast adjustment as part of that), and much, much more, with emphasis on the eyes which (with their color and sympathetic look) I saw as the key to this entire exposure, due to their matching her collar, her coat (the visible, colored portion), and even matching or blending with her skin and lipstick.

I NEVER go to so much trouble, but this photo just is one that has dogged me for many years, and once set aside as 'worthy' or 'potentially worthy' despite thousands or tens of thousands of subsequent 'worthy shots' since, I felt this was a personal challenge.

It looks like I have prevailed, but in the future, It'll just be me with minimal photoshopping.  I really am not cut out for Photo image editing (Photoshopping -- that's for the photo nerds, and I'm a photographer who TAKES photos, not manipulates them).  I think you'd have liked the original capture, and if I'd have taken it 'in focus' entirely, I might not have worked it up so well as to be as good as it is now -- funny how things work out.

Thanks for the vote of appreciation and confidence.

john

John (Crosley)

I've been through galleries and many or most of the world's most major museum, many of which have featured Medieval or Renaissance art, and in particular, portraits of women from major 'art' periods. 

What struck me particularly about this woman whom I captured on the 'street' was the timeless quality of her look.  It was less about her 'in focus' quality than the 'look' of her eyes, and the color coordination of her eyes with her clothing.her facial features and slight makeup.

In a way, and especially with the very dark background, this reminded me of a portrait (retrato) that might have been painted by some Medieval or Renaissance artist of a contemporary, or at least her look suggested that quality, and I went in post processing to try to achieve that through additional 'work' as her face was far too light -- it was 'overexposed' for the capture, and so I had to darken it considerably.

I used post processing to try to achieve the look I saw inchoate in the capture, concentrating specifically and foremost on her eyes, believing that if the eyes appeared 'in focus' with their wonderful bluish color and their color coordination with the clothes plus the incompete circular composition of her collar and her headgear, the composition would make itself work, and viewers would not demand 'in focus perfection'. 

In fact, 'perfect focus' is not always perfection, though it may be hard to persuade a young bride of that about her wedding photos.  In the world of 'art' and from Medieval to Impressionist movements, 'lack of clear focus' in painting and drawing at least signifies something quite different.

This photo transcends, I think, simple photography, and that was my challenge:  To take a work that suggested 'art', but was a photograph, define it as a photograph to photographic standards by making somewhat blurry eyes sharp enough to pass a test of photographic viewability, then let the rest fall where it may . . . . all in hopes of achieving a certain artistic 'look' consonant with 'art' of a different sort.

I think I have achieved that sought and desired goal -- one that a year ago I would have been unable to even attempt.

Sometimes raters do know best even if I could not at first put my finger on why this particular 'photo' worked so well in their eyes when I posted it.

Just when you think you have figured out what I'll post next, I'll post something entirely different ;~)))

john

John (Crosley)