The Bluebird Cafe-6091b-bw-med

Long telephoto view south along Main Street in Logan, Utah; Late Autumn. This is my

first exploration of intentional "street" photography, so technical/aesthetic comments

humbly requested. Please also see color version. Thank you.

I think you did well with the strong lighting, your tones are excellent and it has a vintage look... Mike

Just for fun and not to say it's any better, I've brought out more detail in the darks for your consideration.  No other changes were made... Mike

Mike, thank you very much for the input. I also played with a lower-contrast development, but decided I liked the higher-contrast version presented here, at least in B&W. The color version is definitely lighter in the shadows, so as to preserve the colors there. I really appreciate your feedback. Thanks again, David.

Excellent lighting and shadows, well captured.

I like good work with light and shadow and I think this type of lighting could provide a good backdrop for a street photo but I would want to see the street storytelling aspect of things develop more. The light, shadow, and contrast alone won't do it, for me. I prefer the color version of this because there is more detail and would prefer the black and white with a bit more detail, but the detail would have to reveal some aspect of street life that I care about, so as I say the story has to be there. Even the red pole in the foreground plays a much more important role in the color version, as a foreground stake as it were, an entré to the picture. A different conversion method to black and white could allow that pole to stand out more since the red channel could be emphasized and the pole would get a bit more presence. Overall, the combination of the feel from the telephoto lens and your crouching down in a long shot of the street makes it feel like you're hiding from the street or the scene rather than involving me with it.

Fred, thank you for your insightful feedback. It is appreciated. Please consider the following:

1. I used the B&W conversion in Lightroom, so as to preserve the color channels. What do you suggest in lieu?
2. The camera was mounted on a good tripod at full eye height, and rotated to vertical using an "L" bracket and RRS clamp. There is a marked rise in the terrain which may give the impression of a lower point of view.
3. My intent was to capture and convey the near-emptiness of what is normally a very vibrant commercial district. The telephoto compression was used to consolidate a three-block area into a single subject. I would be interested to see other examples for comparison that convey the involvement you mention.

Again, your interest and input are appreciated. I plan to play more with the shadows and the red color channel. I look forward to hearing more from you. David.

I use Adobe's RAW converter and it gives me slider bars where I can adjust each of eight color channels. I try not to push any of the sliders too much unless I'm after some sort of extreme effect, but subtle adjustments can make a big difference and in this case I'd lean a bit on the red channel until the pole stood out the way I wanted it to. Of course, since there's a lot of red in the rest of the scene, I'd be watching for the right balance. I'd want it to stay realistic. I imagine Lightroom has something similar. I think opening up the shadows would be the most important, but wouldn't go quite as far as Mike did if you want to maintain the bit of mystery which would seem important to what you're after.

It's probably not so much how low the point of view seems to me as much as the fact that you're quite a distance from the man and you've placed yourself (the camera) behind that red pole that seems to keep you (and me as viewer) separated from the scene. There's some sense in that if you're trying to convey the emptiness of the street at this particular time, so you might actually want to work more with that concept. I think, in that case, the lone man in the shadow is a good metaphor for what you're trying to convey so he needs to not get too lost in the shadow and we need to feel his quietude and isolation. I often use the analogy of a stage whisper. Stage whispers have to be exaggerated in order to be heard in the audience (especially up in the balcony). An actor can't actually whisper as he would in real life or no one will hear him. The man in shadow has to be handled a bit like a stage whisper. Made enough of to be noticed and engaged with but not too much to where he loses his "shadowy-ness." He needs more presence here. He's getting lost and feels more like a throwaway than the presence he might otherwise have in the photo, lost in his newspaper. And, though you're capturing a reality of the quietness of the street, it has to make a photo you will care about and/or people will want to look at. Does a man in a shadow reading a newspaper make for an interesting photo? He's not particularly interesting, is my point. What does he offer me?

We're looking straight down the center of the street, and that also feels somewhat uninteresting to me. Since you're relying on the street's relative emptiness for the feel of the photo, the street itself needs something to draw us in and I don't think the composition is helping much. Though this is a daytime scene, it could have elements of film noir and that emptiness you mention needs to be felt and palapable. If you had set the camera closer to the buildings, we'd feel as if we were peering out from the shadows and that might have created an interesting mood and sense of our involvement in the scene. It also might have emphasized the street light on the right hand side which could be a key element of design in the photo, also serving as a symbol that would make us feel something, especially the way the light is reflecting off its glass which has the possibility of strong dynamics against the shadow.

One of my favorite street photographers is Brassai (LINK), who often expresses the quietness of the street (often, though, at night) and who utilizes empty streets well also. HERE, he has no people and isn't showing a long view, yet I get a sense of the quietness of the street from even this very partial view of things and I feel placed within the scene rather than as an outside observer.

How is high contrast helping to convey emptiness. High contrast is effective when it expresses something about the content and not just when it's used for the sake of "a high contrast photo." To me, emptiness here might better be conveyed by concentrating more on the darkness within the shadows than by contrasting them with the brightness of the street. High contrast gives almost the opposite kind of energy to emptiness, though I think high contrast could be an effective conveyer of emptiness if used well. Consider Moriyama's use of it HERE and HERE. Consider, especially, in the second link, how biased the camera is toward the left side and how much of a dynamic role the buildings play in the composition.

OK, here is another iteration of The Bluebird Cafe, in response to Fred's detailed comments. The red channel slider has been used to pop the orange pylon in the foreground just a little bit, the burn/dodge tool has been applied to punch up the walker with his paper, and the exposure and clarity sliders have been adjusted to add more texture in the sidewalk and detail in the shadows. Black clipping occurs only in a very, very small area on the right edge of the image, and now whites show no clipping at all. I believe this iteration presents a broader, smoother range of tonality, and addresses Fred's comments in regards the subject at the center of the frame, as well as the relationship of the viewer to the image. Please share your thoughts. Is this more engaging/communicative, or less? Thank you, David.

The b/w tones work for me.  Is he really green or is it this wacky iPad? ;-)... Mike

David, it's a better iteration, yes, and the man with newspaper has more presence. For me, honestly, it's about the original shot more than the post processing and I'd work on composition, gesture/expression, and storytelling and allow the post processing to play a supporting role to your eye for a good story, a good moment, and a good angle from which to show it. As this is your beginning exploration of street work, I think the concentration might well go into your shooting and more experience out there on the street and seeing what works and what speaks to you in what you bring home at the end of the day. I think then the post processing will fall into place and will always be worth fine tuning as well.

Just a tad sharpening and tiny more contrast to Mike's try. The color image does seems to say a a lot. G

Mike, it's green/blue on my monitor as well. You're not crazy and it's not your iPad!

I have no clue why he turned green. This is from a B&W development in Lightroom. I'll go back to the beginning and see if I can figure this out. Weird...

Thank you, again, to all of you who have commented and provided feedback. This has been a very interesting and instructive exercise for me. I also think I figured out the green face thing. Just an oops on my part. Feliz 2016!