spoli

You have a healthy sense of humor (no matter the photographic equipment): great candid photo.

About ten years ago, in the same place, I took some pictures with my first digital camera - a Canon PowerShot G1. They had very little artistic value, but I was so happy!

I see this photographer with a serious DSLR and I cannot stop thinking how much the digital photography change the way we see the world.

Your capture rises a problem: what can you do about the high dynamic range that you have to deal with? If you look at the histogram you will realize that most of the pixels are concentrated in the extremes indicating a contrast difficult to handle by the camera. One way is to go with the HDR photography methods problematic here because the subject can move while you take the multiple AEB shots. Another way is to go RAW mode and use some post-processing to recover some of the shadows and deal with the overblown highlights.

However, this image has a lot of appeal in B/W where the high contrast and lighting can work in your advantage. It is like pen drawing with a powerful stroke without looking at the fine details. Another advantage of going B/W: the blueish reflection in front of your subject (were you behind a windshield maybe?) will dissipate somewhat becoming less distractive.

The final result will let us concentrate more on your subject, lighting and the contrasts of the scene. A title change after this treatment may sound like "Catching the Light" or "Searching for the Light at the End of the Tunnel".

What do you think?

Thanks for sharing.

Considering the weather, you couldn't have done too much differently in one shot. It would have been nice to get a better exposure of the background but preserving the exposure of the people in the foreground. There are few methods to achieve this:

• Shooting RAW for the highlights and work in post processing to balance the lighting before the JPEG conversion - i.e. use the whole dynamic range of your sensor (usually 12 or 14 bits in place of 8).
• Use a gradient ND filter to balance the luminosity of the whole scene at the time of shooting.
• Use a polarizing filter to reduce the haze in the background - this will also help balancing the light a little bit.
• Find a more "artistic" way to use the image as it is; for example, a conversion to B/W may help (see my attachment).

If you have the RAW file, you can try the first method (assuming the highlights are recoverable). I would also recommend sharpening the image (it looks way too soft, even in foreground - a focus issue maybe?)

Otherwise, a well composed capture of a crowd looking for something we just guess (a water fall maybe?).

Thank you for sharing.

Having fun with water. At the time this photo was taken, digital

photography was just a curiosity for the computer geeks and no

photographer took it seriously. Camera used: Praktica L (Pentacon) -

fully manual with a 135 mm prime lens.

Comments are welcome. Thank you.

You are right John, I probably misinterpreted your work. Does it matter that much?

How many of us really understand Picasso or Dali (and others as well)? This doesn't mean we have to ignore their work and look for something we think we understand. In the end, the story that develop in our minds is more important than the real story behind the photo: a good photo artist (or a painter) make us stop, watch and think. And this is good.

On the other hand, don't let your ego get in the way of communicating with people in a real way. We may not get it right, but we don't ignore your work for sure. As a photographer (not necessarily as an artist) I'm grateful when someone stops for few moments and criticize my work (even when I think I exposed what I had best). I feel much worse when no one gives a damn...

From what you said in this discussion, I can see that you love this capture. For others things may look entirely different. For me your photo was a trigger to my imagination -- just being that trigger in a world of millions of images is probably some minor accomplishment anyway.

I hope you will continue sharing your work with us. No matter what others may say, your images are anything but boring: I really enjoy trying to figure out the stories behind your captures even if they (i.e. the stories) are wrong.

Maria, this is a very good one: a perfect combination between old and new that makes the viewer stop and scratch his/her head. Architectural photos have more of a documentary value if the photographer doesn't look for that special think that suddenly communicates a message more than a dull information.

This photo conveys a message: it is the contrast between two ages, a century apart, reunited almost absurdly in a confined place for reasons hard to decipher for an outsider. Thousands of people ignore this image every day just passing by: framing it like this will help some to view it for the first time from your own perspective. And this is what a photographer should do.

Good work and keep looking for those things that express your feelings and your point of view.

Excellent capture of this autumnal scene that has everything in it that makes the fall our most beloved season for landscape photography: a broad range of colors, mysterious foggy atmosphere, delicate lighting and relatively easy to find subjects for meditation and reflection.

The framing is perfect: it completes the whole work helping the composition with charm and taste.

Very well done.

This is in your long tradition of real street photos. I like her unusual posture - it doesn't look like she is there to exercise. Her profile suggests that she got bored or disappointed waiting for someone and decided to stretch a bit...

I also like the whole composition: very well thought for a street capture. I'm not sure you had the time to think or it was just your instinct and long life experience.

A great candid shot that reminds me of the good old days of B/W film. Just because of this, I would reduce the contrast and flatten the tones to make it look more like "newspaper" photo. Maybe not to your taste or... on the contrary! I attached my minimalistic alteration for your review. I'd like to know your opinion.

Like with other of your photos, my first intention was to keep looking for something else to spend few moments. But there is something in your real life captures that attracts me and makes me stay longer imagining a story or at least a reason to happen...

Thank you for sharing...

There is very little to say about this photo. It was just a test of my

first DSLR in 2005. The camera survived the test leaving behind some

usable pictures.

Thank you for stopping by.

Just a Canada Goose taking off. You can find them all over the place

in my area but only sometimes I got so lucky to capture this very moment.

Thanks for visiting.

Very good portrait. It reminds me of Gregory Peck. Excellent choice of toning - sepia works very well here - in line with the whole atmosphere of the portrait.

Once again, very well done!

I've seen the other photos of the same event: they are very well done.

However, this one is less flattering for your subject. And the main reason is the light that is too harsh and unnatural. It is like the subject was actually "photoshopped" i.e. cut from an indoor photo and placed on this sunset scene. Post-processing here is not a great option but you can try to balance the light a bit and soften the whole image (see my attachment - results could be much better if processing RAW and not JPEG).

A slightly softer light and less focused on the subject would have been better. And a secondary lower intensity light on the right (to soften the shadow of her hand on the face) would have been perfect.I know that you will say that the conditions did not allow a complex lighting scheme - I imagine three people in the water with camera, fill flash and diffusing umbrellas... Not an easy task.

But you managed the light with more skill in the other settings and the results are better.

Please take my comments with a grain of salt: I'm not a professional photographer and even less a wedding one. So, my opinion is from a viewer perspective nevertheless subjective.

By the way, your portfolio is very well rounded and impressive. I like a lot and I will keep an eye on you new additions.

Thanks for sharing.

A really perfect mirror and such nice colors. There is very little to criticize here...

But if I push it, I would say that the image requires a bit more punch on the color and contrast - especially for the screen version. I'm convinced that the photo, the way it is, is perfect on paper.

But the monitors, being more transparent, sometimes tend to fade the colors a bit. And I'm actually watching it on a well calibrated IPS monitor with extended gamut (almost Adobe 1998) that has a tendency to saturate colors a bit more (despite the calibration). On a regular sRGB monitor (a cheap one) it looks a bit faded.

I attached another version that looks much better on the cheap monitor. You will be the judge.

Thank you for sharing such a beautiful photo.

Beautiful atmosphere. I like the haze that seems almost impossible on such a sunny day; but I have seen something similar few times after a cold rain on the heated asphalt followed by a powerful sun. I'm not sure this was the situation here but the final result is definitely pleasant.

The colors are great and the perspective compression works very well with the whole composition. The bicycle seems to come right from the light at the end of the tunnel -- really nice touch.

Thank you for sharing.

Really nice! A good day for the photographer indeed. Excellent composition and colors. Very well executed. Congrats.

Thank you very much Alf. I appreciate.

This is an innovative way to use your head! I'm sure other surfers

tried this before but this guy was skillful and tenacious. What do you

think? Have fun and leave a comment. Thank you.

Man, I know you had fun with this dog! What kind of fridge you have? One with a back door?

Excellent shot!

I don't have a dog yet, but I will keep in mind the peanut butter trick. It may come handy one day :-)

Really funny and well done. Thank you for making me smile today.

I found B/W even more interesting. It is all about light and reflections now.

I like the DOF and the idea but I can understand the critiques regarding the white reflections as well - they are somewhat distracting.

For a moment I was tempted to agree with the previous two comments and move ahead. But I think you can use this image as a starting point for simple digital alterations with some interesting results.

I would call the first one a form of pop art, easily obtained by playing with contrast, color channels and finally reducing the color depth (posterization). You can let your imagination fly and try more of the same...

What do you think?

(The second one in the next comment)

I wonder what triggered the reaction of these people... I tried to study the image carefully to find out more than their obvious attitude. And, yes, this includes the fourth person, the girl in the background with a hand covering her mouth.

I know I'm inventing a story here. It seems that the girl that looks into your camera was aware of the moment, she looked prepared, confident and almost assisting you in the capture. Her friend seems totally overwhelmed by what she heard or saw, she cannot take it with a straight face. The third either looks at her phone or tries to avoid expressing anything else other than "I didn't hear/see this". And the girl in the background is like saying "Oops!". Everybody else in the restaurant seems to be out of the game (they are not even spectators) which makes me think that the trigger for the reactions was supposed to be confined to this particular booth. Did you (or someone else) send them something on their phones? Was this the trigger? Hm... But this does not explain the girl in the background...

This is a photo where the technicalities (like exposure, lighting, etc) matter less. It is the story that develops in our minds that captures the viewer's attention. I must admit that I was tempted to skip it, but the questions "What triggered their reaction?" and "What were they thinking?" kept me longer and caught me in the game.

I must admit, I like this capture even more now at the end of my comment after letting my imagination fly for 20 minutes.

Very good life capture. Intriguing and asking for second thoughts. It made me willing to know your work more (I just flipped through some of the photos in your portfolio -- impressive!)

Thank you for sharing.

See attachment and have fun!

The story of this capture is simple: people like to take photos where

there is something to remind them where they spent their vacation.

Obviously, I was behind the scene :-)

The "I am" red fragment can be found in one place only. I'll give you

a hint with another photo taken in the same place (see my addition in

the comment section).

Enjoy!