An Old Woman

sashbar · Sep 1, 2014

It would be interesting to hear your opinions of this street shot. Thank you.

sashbar · Sep 2, 2014

BTW, amazingly this is the same old woman I shot more than a year ago.

tirediron · Sep 2, 2014

I like both scenes, but I think in both, as the subject, she is too deeply shadowed. Far more so in the first than the second; could you lift a bit of that in post?

limr · Sep 2, 2014

I think she's lit well enough in the second one.

But in the first one, I do find myself wishing she was in the sun. You can still see enough of her to make you want to see more. Or she could go darker to become a silhouette. But as it is, it's too light for a silhouette and too dark for enough detail.

sashbar · Sep 2, 2014

tirediron said:
I like both scenes, but I think in both, as the subject, she is too deeply shadowed. Far more so in the first than the second; could you lift a bit of that in post?

Thank you. The high contrast in the first one is intentional, I wanted to try some chiaroscuro effect in street photography. It was actually inspired by that famous Alex Webb image ( It was not an attempt to copy him, as it is quite impossible, but I like the idea of using high contrast and bright light to bring up the colors and forms)
Alex Webb Photography - Bing Images

I agree with you re the first image, her face was in the shadow and I tried to pull it a bit, but did not want to overdo it. It was actually a JPEG file, and I still have RAW, so maybe I will edit it again. Thanks for pointing to it.

sashbar · Sep 2, 2014

limr said:
I think she's lit well enough in the second one.

But in the first one, I do find myself wishing she was in the sun. You can still see enough of her to make you want to see more. Or she could go darker to become a silhouette. But as it is, it's too light for a silhouette and too dark for enough detail.

Thank you. You are probably right. My computer screen and my ipad give the dark silhuette, but my office screen is brighter, or less contasty, so here it is indeed somewhere in between. But is was intended to be a dark silhuette with just a little tiny touch of detail.