Duck Man, LiJiang, Yunnan Provence, China

From a new series still in production. One of my fav's so far. What

do you think.

shot in the classical way. Good use of light and space, nice work on colors, thank you, G.

PDE

There is indeed a lot to look at but that is just the power of the shot. It is well exposed and the composition is fascinating. Thumbs up. Kurt

Hello Michael,

 

Great shot. Low key with a great number of unfortunate ducks hanging to dry and ready for culinary preparation...

 

Like your composition and framing. And the many interesing details around the chef.

An image to savour and digest..And enjoy.

 

Congrats.

 

All the best

 

Peter

I love this shot. The pride is evident in his eyes or maybe that was because you slipped him a few Yuan. Whatever... it's a great shot.

Wow, this is just "great". Excellent shot 7/7 ;-)

Interesting, another way of life so different from the west. very well composed, lighted, and especially tells a story.

Weird. But fascinating.

Great capture here

this is about critique, right? so i have to find something to critizise... hmm, i don't like the border (everything else is a masterpiece!).

simply strong, alot of details to discover, beautifully lit and composed. i love his youthful pose, too. at iso 160? i find it the most eyecatching of this folder.

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Seemingly a very busy scene with lots of elements, but I think all the vertical lines (and the diagonal ones) make it seem very ordered and interesting. Good pose by the chef. Good colours and composition. I think the largest detractor by far to the image is the frame around the photo. I think it would be infintely prettier without it. Good job, though :-)

Well one certainly can't say that the composition doesn't direct the eye of the viewer to the main subject - it does that in spades, er, ducks, that is! "Triangulated, even!" - Limpy the Lion. lol Killer photo!

This is a photograph that ought to be very good. This is a great scene--a cook standing in the middle of a lot of dead ducks. All the elements are there for a masterpiece.

And it is awful.

I have tried to see as not awful but great and I couldn't. So what's wrong?

The frame is an ugly distraction; but that is not the problem. There are multiple problems.

The sepia tones and low contrast don't work. They're flat. Flat and monotonous. There seems to be an over-sharpening of the entire image. It looks unnatural. The angle is wrong. The upper and middle of the right side is dead space. No dead ducks. No dead ducks equals not interesting.

The cook's bland attitude ought to be a charming irony. Instead it is not. The cook is boring.

And the dead ducks are not all that interesting either.

I wish this photograph could be a success.

 

This is really a well done environmental portrait. I like the composition & subject a great deal. Does it tell a story? You bet. The processing is very good, as well. It's not overly done. I like the hanging ducks "Pointing" to the subject. It helps lead the viewer's eye to the cook. I wouldn't add more contrast or saturation. I think the frame fails. It's a bit heavy handed

There is so much to like here, detail, light, expression..the tilt of the cap and the scene as a whole. Its magic.

My reaction is not as bad as Alex, but I agree with many of the points. The upper left space is distracting dead space. The image seems tilted. I don't find the cook's pose, expression or tilted hat charming, I find it seemingly too posed and artificial. But most importantly, the dead tones and sepia treatment kill what should be a dramatic element that provides balance and contrast to the figure of the cook: those tables or drums to his lower left are covered with blood, but you can hardly tell that since the red color has been washed out.

overall the photo is quite appealing. the composition is very good as well. my problem is with the post processing. it appears dirty somewhat gritty. for me a kitchen one displayed in a restaurant setting should come across as pristine almost sterile. however perhaps the photographers intent was to come across as leaving us with a more gritty feel? also as far as detail is concerned yes some parts are very detailed however others not. the hanging ducks are not defined enough and there is a blackened area to the right hand lower corner of the photo. for me still one of the best and more interesting moments picked by the elves and that counts for a whole lot... all the best Micheal and congrats on being chosen for P.O.W,,,SAM

I like the picture. It's composition and the subject's pose is not perfect but it has a quality of truthfulness directness in the story telling. I think the cocked hat is the hook that elevates the shot to more than just a pure document. The diffuse lighting works well with the muted color treatment to give a good sense of the greasy condition of that space. The digital frame was a poor choice and takes away precious space that could have been used to make the image larger.
Assuming the photographer is not friends with the cook, I applaud his verve in getting in there and capturing this unique slice of Chinese working life.

First of all, I really don't think I could find any particular fault with this image on the whole. The composition is well done and I don't really find any dead spots as some have suggested. I think the use of line in the upper left does pull us back into the image and yet offers a little bit of relief from an otherwise "full" image. The use of line, and implied line, focuses our attention on the individual while giving us a lot of detail and context to what is an exotic or strange environment to many. The image, overall, is a pretty static scene and the chef's (?) demeanor adds to this sense although certainly there are indications that things are not always this calm or static.

As we should expect from someone with Michael's experience, this is a beautifully rendered image and a well done use of this post processing technique.

If I saw this image in a gallery or in a magazine where the body of images were all done with this technique, I would probably not think much more about it and find the image a nice rendering of this place. But, this is the POW, so I do have some further comments in light of the nature of this thread. My comments that follow are not criticisms but rather observations.

Aside from my comments above as to how successful this image is, I do find it a little flat with a little less "life" to it than one might see in person. In photography, we have two types of contrast that work in our images if we are shooting color--tonal and color. Of course, in monochromatic images, we only have tonal contrast.

The technique that I believe was used here pushes us a bit away from color and more towards the monochromatic. A little desaturation of the image and then the overlay of the sepia diminishes the subtle color contrasts that were in the original scene. I believe that these not only flatten the contrast but also diminish the sense of depth within the image as well.

For my own edification, I made a quick modification in ACR to eliminate the "technique" and put the image back closer to a natural color rendering. This did reintroduce more color contrast and did increase the sense of depth, IMO. (-17 on the temperature slider and a bump in the saturation)

With these changes, the yellow skin of the uncooked ducks along the back wall separate more from the now gray wall whereas the technique pushed these two closer color-wise, losing some of the inherent contrast. The reddish skin of the cooked birds in the foreground becomes a bit more rich and losing some the sepia in the floor help them pop out without detracting. The pots on the floor also become a bit more lively and the chef himself, with cooler clothing, pops a bit more away from the remaining warmth of the background. Subtle variations of color that were lost with the desaturation and overlay of sepia are reintroduced throughout the entire scene and that, along with the resultant "blue" tint in the windows, add to the depth of the image (and also adds dimension is local areas).

The only other change I introduced in my exploration here was a subtle lightening of the chef's face--still natural but a bit more separation from the background. This is something I think could help the image regardless and something I do with almost every portrait I make in natural light these days (spending an hour or so doing this with my own images, keeping it natural but adding a bit of more emphasis--of course, that is my intent and not Michael's).

(While I noted the dark area others mentioned in the lower right, I do think there are compromises that have to be made shooting in real situations, opening up this area in the exposure may have ruined other more important highlights-like on the face--with disastrous results. Yes, it would be nice if it were a bit more open but not if it was at the expense of the highlights. It is a fairly insignificant area.)

Does any of what I found make the image better? That is always the question and I think it just makes it different and renders the image with a bit more life but might not blend in with a series where this technique was used. Any given technique will affect different images in different ways, but consistency is also important when presenting a body of work. Possibly, working these areas that were flattened could be done and maybe they couldn't, I am sure Michael has rendered the image as he intended. Although I have played around with this technique, my exploration was something I did to see if my reading of how this technique affected a scene I am familiar with had any merit.

So, yes I do think the image is well done as it is presented. I don't mind the fact that the structure of the image is static as I do think most can infer how this is different than what is otherwise implied by the environment. There is a nice subtle irony in the image because of this.

JOHN I THINK THAT BY INCREASING THE ISO HE WOULD HAVE INCREASED THE LIGHT TO THE SHADED AREAS WITHOUT REMOVING ANY OF THE OTHER IMPORTANT HIGHLIGHTS IMHO... THANKS SAM

Sam, don't need to shout! But, first of all, he is shooting film. Second, you can't open one area and not affect another. Also, with digital, increasing ISO also decreases the dynamic range of the sensor, a second detriment in an already contrasty scene.

Beautiful lifestyle portrait, thanks for sharing. Keep up the good work.

~Bryant