Thoughts on this photograph

[peterm1]

My suggestions.

1 Convert to black and white. BW is made for this type of reportage shot.

2 Crop and straighten verticals - non vertical verticals are NEVER EVER acceptable except in the very few cases where its done with artistic intent - and in these cases it should be obvious that this is what you are doing.

3 Get rid of the blob on the right hand side which destroys the picture's credibility and looks amateurish.

4 Add some global contrast and some local contrast. This will add drama and the lcoal contrast will bring a few details out of the gloom.

5 Look for opportunities to dodge and burn - selectively change some parts of the photo to de-emphasise the uniimportant bits and focus attention on the important bits.

6 Add some vignetting around the edges and maybe some flare to light sources which will ditto add drama and also focus the picture on the main subject.

7 There is a lot of grain in the photo which to my eye looks like noise. Use the noise filter to smooth this out as mauch as possible without losing too much detail. Grain should look like grain and not like noise. If you do add grain artificially and it turns out to look like noise then undo that effect and stick to basics.

8 I have to say the picture would be much better without the bloke on the left in the foreground. With quite a lot of effort you might be able to clone his arm out - this interferes with the main subject - out then crop the image to get rid of the rest of him, but I honestly dont know that I would bother. I would learn from this photo and from the experience you would get by trying the above edits and go on to take more photos.

 

[sweathog]

Thanks for the feedback Peter.

Just to clarify one thing; the 'bloke' on the left is actually a girl, but that detracts nothing from your feedback.

I'm taking in what you're saying, but that feels to me to take the shot a bit far away from the shot itself. Cloning bits out? Something I will never do.
I've tried the shot in BW, but it just doesn't feel right to me.

I can understand what you mean with the various suggested edits, almost like a digital painting if you will.
The grain is down to the lab scans (I no longer have access to a scanner), but I will see what I can do about that, and have a tinker with the shot as per your suggestions, to see how it turns out.
It seems Thursday (my next day off) will be a Photoshop filled extravaganza!

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

sweathog, it's your photo, do what you like to it! If B&W doesn't work for you, keep it in color. You need to please yourself, you're the artist. I think you have a good picture there however you choose to tweak it.

I'm quite aware, Ahmed, how to spell "non sequitur." But here on the internet, I let it all hang out. grammaticlicense, anyone?

 

[sweathog]

mabelsound, personally, I like it as it is (maybe straighten the verticals), but I'll still have a go at other people's suggestions, see if I can learn anything from them.

I think Ahmed has taken his leave of this thread. Saves a lot more hassle. If he comes back it may well go boom.

 

[peterm1]

OK hopefully my suggestions helped. Incidentally, if I sounded curt (although hopefully not rude) its only because I am at work and was in a rush. I respect your choice not to clone things out but really I would not be so sensitve about this........my view is that a photographer's job is mostly not just to represent reality (thats easy!) A photographer's real job is to create a feeling (about a place, a time, a person etc.) Viewed in that light cloning out something that detracts from the image's purpose needs not be dishonest as long as its done without any representations of versimilitude as regards the image. (e.g. If this were a papparazi's image of a roack star coming home late and drunk, and cloning changed the image to represent him in a bad or untruthful light, then that IS definitely not on.) Other than that I think its fair game to create whatever you want from it. Photographers are first and foremost artists in my view.

 

[Warren T.]

hi Sweathog,

some of my impressions:

- I like it in color, I think you would lose some of the feeling/atmosphere of the shot if converted to B&W
- I like the first version (original?) more than the square crop, however, I like the fact that the blob in the right foreground (another person?) was cropped out by this version
- Unfortunately, I think the person in the left foreground spoils the shot for me. Her presence draws too much attention from the main subject, especially with her right arm position.

Thanks for posting it and for inviting comments. It's always interesting to read different opinions.

--Warren

 

[sweathog]

Hi Warren,
thanks for the feedback. The 'blob' in question, is my friend Laura. We were sheltering outside a nightclub having a cigarette. I saw the people coming and took my chance. Didn't have a chance for another, they were moving fast.

It is very interesting the varied responses people give. Great feedback on the most part, I find it very valuable having such a great resource in the RFF.

 

[Keith]

Ahmed likes to ruffle a few feathers it seems ... that will get a person nowhere around here these days. Political correctness is our new doctrine! 😛

Sweathog ... all this conjecture about your photo and how it may be changed/improved is interesting. I must admit I really like the photo and like it's atmosphere and do have a preference for the grit that black and white can provide in these situations.

Soooo ... may I be the first to take the liberty of butchering your effort with how I may have interpreted it in post? The rotation, unfortunately, has clipped a little of the sign out ... I definitely wouldn't crop it though and black and white does totally change the mood IMO.

Maybe a few others could have a go as it's interesting to see what floats other photog's boats at times!

As I said ... fine pic! 🙂

 

[Ahmed Poltroon]

Everyone has gotten the dump several times, myself included.

The best cure is to get a new girl immediately. Devote your time to finding one and make the photography secondary. Or take photos of girls to meet new ones.

 

[Warren T.]

I must retract my statement about keeping the color version. I like Keith's B&W conversion now that I see it! 🙂 It happens to minimize the obtrusiveness of both the people in the foreground. Correcting the vertical rotation also helped. That's interesting. Good job, Keith!

additional thought: now, rather than detract, the person's are seems to act more like a visual lead into the main subject.

--W

 

[ferider]

I like it. In color and all. When I saw it first, I immediately thought that this is a photo of a reunion of the woman on the left, and the family coming towards me.

I would follow Peter's suggestion on straightening the lines and cropping out the blob on the right. But that's it. Thanks for sharing.

Roland.

 

[sweathog]

Keith, no worries, I have no objection to your butchery.
The rotation helps, and your BW looks a lot better than mine did. Nonetheless, the feel of the shot. A mulling I will go.

Warren, I do see what you mean about effect the change from colour to BW has on the foreground figures.

Ahmed, if you have nothing to say regards the topic of this thread (i.e. thoughts on the photograph), instead of sticking your oar into my personal life, just butt out, if you don't mind.

 

[kbg32]

Sweathog,

In all honesty, I think this photo means more to you then what it conveys to others. Please, I am not trying to be nasty, just honest. I don't understand what the figure in front is doing. I see the couple coming towards you, and they seem to be moving quickly because of the rain. What is the fuzzy thing in the lower right hand part of the picture? We learn a lot of ourselves by the images we take, and in time, in practice, with many images having been produced, our intentions become clearer to ourselves and can say things to others.

I'd like to know why YOU like this picture and to read those reasons.

 

[sweathog]

kbg32,
as I said in the OP, this was a photograph a friend had commented on.
I take no offense, as it is your opinion, and I did ask for opinions.
However, just to clarify, the photograph has no sentimental value to me, I never gave it much thought until my friend made this comment, so I figured I'd put it up here for feedback. Now I have some, and hopefully more to come.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Hey, one thing you might consider, sweathog. I was just checking out your flickr & website and noticed that you're uploading galleries with Lightroom...some of your photos have a real lack of contrast due to underexposure...you should try adjusting exposure while holding alt, then adjusting blacks while holding alt...this way you can watch when each channel starts to clip, and you get a really nice balance of dark and light. You can always go back to low-contrast if that's the look you're after, but it's worth a try.

 

[sweathog]

Thanks for the Lightroom tip mabelsound!
I'm actually planning to completely redo my site shortly, so I will have a crack at that. Re: my flickr, most of the uploads there are straight lab scans with no editing.

 

[kbg32]

kbg32,
as I said in the OP, this was a photograph a friend had commented on.
I take no offense, as it is your opinion, and I did ask for opinions.
However, just to clarify, the photograph has no sentimental value to me, I never gave it much thought until my friend made this comment, so I figured I'd put it up here for feedback. Now I have some, and hopefully more to come.

Obviously it has some value or you would have not posted it here. Your friend made you think about this image and look at it in a way that you had not.

That has value.

 

[sweathog]

As I said, it has no sentimental value.
I guess you're right though. I have looked at it and made some decisions on the look and feel of the photograph, so I have invested some value in it.