Great photography, and I admire your dedication and courage in approaching people.
I hope my honesty is not unwelcome when I say that I think you should go easier on the clarity slider or sharpening or whatever local contrast enhancement you use. Some faces look ghostly and there are halos in some pictures, like the second one in post no. 72. - does the sheet metal wall in the middle really get lighter in tone towards the edges?
Honesty is always welcome -- my ego can certainly take it and I appreciate the feedback. Years ago I had a teacher in undergrad (Dave Heath) who'd make many a student cry in his class, so I think I've been well-seasoned in the art of critique.
Yeah that wall actually does get lighter -- there's an overhang that's out of the picture which casts a shadow into that corner behind José, so as the corrugated metal wall goes to the right it's getting brighter.
I've always been pretty conscious of those clarity/structure sliders (in Silver Efex Pro there are actually five of them), so I don't think I go crazy (I like the 'less is more' approach). And yes I do recognize the whole 'halo' thing -- whether going overboard with the clarity (I use PhotoShop and Silver Efex Pro, BTW) or by going in reverse with the soft contrast adjuster. Another potential issue is that Newton Ring effect that can pop up in cloudless skies by going too far with either the clarity or the dynamic brightness in Silver Efex. I don't think I see any haloing or the Newton Ring in any of my shots -- many times I'm actually going into negative clarity, which makes haloing even less likely. Plus that phenomenon does not jump out at me at all when I print (if it ever did, I'd definitely make adjustments and reprint). I think I'm pretty attuned to that - at least I hope I am after all these years! If you can point to specific halos in any of my photos, I'd love to know which ones. I could see how someone might think the skies, for example, are exaggerated, but if you've spent any time at all in the West, you'll know that they do get very dramatic and amazing skies, and storms can often been seen from miles away and never come your way. You'd think, for example, if I went clarity crazy with the Evening Baling photo in post #66, the haloing would stick out like a sore thumb in that sky, but there isn't any there. In another photo, Into the Storm, Jay was walking out to check the alfalfa in preparation to bale hay later that evening, and that intense storm was way off in the north, but I don't think it ever came to us (got a few sprinkles, but nothing like what was being unleashed miles away). And that sky was like that.
In some of the shots - like the one of Carson in post #66, it's the middle of the day and everyone is wearing baseball hats. So from the nose up, every person's face disappears into darkness. In that particular shot, I isolated the shadow area of his face and adjusted it so that you could actually see that vacant expression of his hidden under the brim of his cap (I could see, however, that perhaps I overcompensated on that one image). However in the photo of Raimundo in post #65, I chose to let the shadow on his face stay as-is (and ironically that was in the early morning).
Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of shooting only at times of the day out there that photographically suit me (early morning and late in the day like most of us prefer), as I have to defer to their schedule of events (things do often take place in the middle of the day which is, as you know, probably the worst time to take photos). And I'm certainly not about to ask people to take their hats off in that New Mexico sunshine, so I have to work within those parameters and roll with it. I'm just honoured to be allowed into their world and to be trusted that I'll depict them in a respectful manner.
Actually I was wrong -- there is one photo here that has a halo -- a gigantic one, in fact. The last shot in post #65
🙂
