Critique #76 *Open Theme* 5 Participants

Hi. Here are my comments. Sorry it took a while.

Jon

I like this for the colours and the fact that as someone else pointed out I think, that it fits well within a strong theme you have been developing.

I think there is a little too much space on the left hand side. I would at least crop off the extreme left edge which has the slightly distracting details of the next store.

iml

I really like this shot. The expression on the man's face really makes it interesting. Was he surprised at turning and having his picture taken? Did you shout at him from behind to get his attention etc etc...?

Would a square crop improve the image? Not sure. I feel that the figures on the left are a little redundant whereas a square crop with the man in the centre would be nicely balanced by the two figures either side of him.

JL

I love this sort of shot. I think you have got a great composition here. It's really beautiful and nicely exposed. I don't like to see figures in this kind of shot and would keep it just the way it is as a strong graphic composition.

If I had a very minor niggle it would be to straighten up the shot (the right hand pillar is very slightly tilted inwards). If you were using a view camera then this would have been easy to fix at the time, but if you print it digitally this can also be fixed in photoshop.

Formal

This is a nice street shot. Is that the Irish equivalent of the Big Issue she's selling? The magazine for homeless people? She has a great expression and is nicely framed by the metal poles in the background.

Again a minor improvement, but I think in an ideal world you could have delayed the shot a tad until the two figures in the background about to cross the road were a little further to the right. Making a nice diagonal for the eye following the figures across the road to the person on the far right. Of course on the street this is not easy on the spur of the moment. Maybe for me there is a little too much going on on the right hand side of the frame and the seller is too far over to the left.

All in all a nice set of pictures.
 
Thank you everybody. That was most helpful.

I'd like to go back and photograph The Dream Snack Bar Again, and do it better. But it's changed ownership and the new people have cleaned it up on the outside and gor rid of the French impressionist prints inside too.
 
Thanks for the Comments

Thanks for the Comments

I like all your suggestions. I have seen this lady many times around Dublin and I hope to get more pictures in the future.

Yes JL, this was taken from waist level. Normally my waist level shots are very poor, so sometimes I stand against a wall and waited for someone to approach me. This time I was very pleased with the result.

I also did two scans (one for the background and one for her face) and merged them in Photoshop.

David
 
Thanks for the comments. I agree with everyone about how my picture would benefit from better framing and a less distracting background. It was taken very instinctively, I was framing a shot of the man because I liked his face, and then as soon as he made eye contact I knew I had to shoot straight away. I'm not yet nearly as fast as Winogrand 🙂

Ian
 
Thanks for all the comments.

Jon
I would have made the shot more white, but I liked the texture of the wall and this version stood out better from that point of view. Of course it was much whiter in Greece!

Ian
I think you make a good point about looking for alternative interpretations by getting closer. This was a 645 neg so I guess I could experiment with different crops.

David and JL
Unfortunately the spring was not actually working so there was no running water. The island we were on was very dry so I guess the springs were all turned off. I didn't find one which was actually working.
 
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