A worker in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

[Moiz]

Street Portraits - I by M Moiz Khan, on Flickr

 

[tron]

awesome shot, i really like his expression

 

[D-B-J]

I like it, but his face is a little darker than i think it should be, making it difficult to see his expression and such. Seeing as how his face is the main focus, i don't think it should be so underexposed.

 

[tron]

i honestly think thats just because of the hat, nothing moiz could do for that. if he did meter for the face he would have lost a lot of the detail in the background. personally i dont see it underexposed, it might be a LITTLE bit dark but imo it adds to the feel.

 

[joealcantar]

Very nice shot, nice conversion as well.
-
Shoot well and thanks for sharing, Joe

 

[D-B-J]

i honestly think thats just because of the hat, nothing moiz could do for that. if he did meter for the face he would have lost a lot of the detail in the background. personally i dont see it underexposed, it might be a LITTLE bit dark but imo it adds to the feel.

Simply lighten it a little in post.

 

[Moiz]

Thank you all for your comments

As for the face, I myself think its not under-exposed because the sun was at an angle. It was 4 pm and the sun was setting in the west. I do agree with D-B-J that it could have been lightened up in post, I actually did that myself at first, but It just didn't feel right to me.

 

[kasperjd4]

Awesome shot! But I agree with the other & would pull the face a little bit.

 

[The_Traveler]

I actually did that myself at first, but It just didn't feel right to me.

There is a technical problem to lightening something that has been in the shade; it is missing the micro-texture that we expect and so it looks very flat, even discolored.
If you increase the contrast of that area and then do an area sharpen using Unsharp Mask at a high radius. This will sometimes bring back texture and make the image usable.

I have sent a rework to the OP.

LL

 

[Moiz]

re-edit by M Moiz Khan, on Flickr

Here is the adjustment, thanks The_Traveler. So what do you guys think?

 

[D-B-J]

re-edit by M Moiz Khan, on Flickr

Here is the adjustment, thanks The_Traveler. So what do you guys think?

AHHH. Much much better. Now it's a keeper.

 

[The_Traveler]

Didn't mean to make it a secret; I just forgot to include the step by step in the PM.

I made an layer in overlay mode filled with neutral grey for dodge and burn
Then I selected the face and neck on the background layer and then selected the overlay layer.
Using a 40% hardness brush (white with 10% opacity) I painted white on the D/B layer until it looked light enough.
Then I merged all the layers to a new layer on the top and selected the face and neck again in that top layer.
Increased contrast and brightness a bit.
Then used unsharp mask at about 35 radius, 0 tolerance and strength as much as looked good.

Then selected the right shoulder and did the USM routine again
Then did the same with the shawl over his left shoulder.

The technique to 'create' detail on a hazy area is called Local Contrast Enhancement and there is an excellent post on it ar Contrast Enhancement

This sounds complicated but took maybe a minute.
Working on the full-res would take longer because you would want better selections.

(all numbers in the above are flexible)

 

[Photogaz]

Very nice!

 

[Moiz]

Thanks for the post details.