Spanish Lessons

[Peter Klein]

This gentleman has been a fixture at Seattle's Green Lake for years. I happened upon him giving a lesson on a beautiful Saturday afternoon last week, when I had my camera with me.
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/12Spanish.jpg
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/14Spanish.jpg

Then I took his portrait, shadow side because the sunlight would have bleached out those marvelous features:
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/15Spanish.jpg

M6TTL, 50mm Summicron, BW400CN. Comments welcome.

--Peter

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Interesting slice of life, Peter... I liked his portrait the best. Is this the same lake where there's a theater near the lake, in the middle of a very nice neighborhood? I used to visit Seattle fairly often when my wife worked in Tacoma.

Great coffee and excellent food... Never saw this gentleman, though, but that was about 10 years ago.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I like them, Peter. Since you're welcoming comments, I only have two: I'd add more contrast, and the last one, I would have closed in on him a bit more, since you've already cropped his legs out, and you obviously had the opportunity (most of the time there are one-time chances).

I think most people would run away from me here in stoic Minnesota if I were to have a vest with such a big ad on my chest. Perhaps in 40 years from now, when I have the senior charm?

 

[Peter Klein]

Interesting slice of life, Peter... I liked his portrait the best. Is this the same lake where there's a theater near the lake, in the middle of a very nice neighborhood? I used to visit Seattle fairly often when my wife worked in Tacoma.

Great coffee and excellent food... Never saw this gentleman, though, but that was about 10 years ago.

Solares: Yes, Green Lake has the former Bathouse Theatre, which has since been renamed but is still there and still does theatre.

Gabriel: I tried adding a bit more contrast, but it didn't look natural, so I backed off to what you see. The C41 B&W films have a nice long tonal range, but they tend to get grainy in the shadows. As it is, I already pulled the dark tones down a bit, boosted the midtones so his face was well-textured, and did a "local contrast" enhancement to get more detail in the face. Any more and the dark tones started to look grainy and posterized, the face looked pasty and the highlights were in danger of blowing.

The portait made a great letter-sized print.

--Peter

 

[Peter Klein]

. . .And then I took another look, and *did* indeed add some contrast and a little dodging, just differently than I had the first time. The results were indeed better.

New versions:
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/12Spanish.jpg
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/14Spanish.jpg
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/15Spanish.jpg

Originals for comparison:

http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/12Spanish0.jpg
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/14Spanish0.jpg
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/15Spanish0.jpg

Thanks for the tip, Gabrielma. Sometimes when you've been staring at something for half the evening, it doesn't quite register right away.

--Peter