C&C please! Your opinion does matter!

BYK · Apr 29, 2010

How's the composition? Is my PP OK (light photoshop -- white balance, curves, saturation, and b&w)?

Also, does this image DO anything for you? I know I had a specific feeling and message in my head as I took this picture -- so I want to see how well I conveyed my feelings through this picture!

Thanks!

manaheim · Apr 29, 2010

Pretty nice if you ask me. I was kinda "Ooo, pretty scene... oh wow there's a homeless person there! ack!" Which is kind of a neat trick. The tilt is a little distracting, I might suggest tweaking that.

The crop is also a -little- tight... I almost wonder if you shouldn't have angled a bit more by moving a bit to the left while turning the camera to keep the subject somewhat consistent... but I'm not sure if that would have worked. I also think zooming out a hair might have helped the crop but again may not have quite worked compositionally.

It's also very crisp and the black and white is very nicely done.

Very nice. I don't often see images on TPF that come even close to "wowing" me, and this one does on several counts.

Two thumbs up!

BYK · Apr 29, 2010

manaheim said:
Pretty nice if you ask me. I was kinda "Ooo, pretty scene... oh wow there's a homeless person there! ack!" Which is kind of a neat trick. The tilt is a little distracting, I might suggest tweaking that.

The crop is also a -little- tight... I almost wonder if you shouldn't have angled a bit more by moving a bit to the left while turning the camera to keep the subject somewhat consistent... but I'm not sure if that would have worked. I also think zooming out a hair might have helped the crop but again may not have quite worked compositionally.

It's also very crisp and the black and white is very nicely done.

Very nice. I don't often see images on TPF that come even close to "wowing" me, and this one does on several counts.

Two thumbs up!

Thanks! I was hoping to get better composition position-wise, but there was a tree to the right, and the left had a bunch of really brightly lit storefronts that totally would have ruined the picture (in my opinion at least, haha). As far as the tilt goes -- to my beginner's eye it seemed like distortion from the lens. Also, there is unfortunately not much room to crop. I take that back!

Plus, I'm a poor college student so my best low-light lens is the 50mm f1.8 at the moment -- not much I could do for zoom. Once I save up for that L glass, we'll see about that

And finally I didn't want to linger long, snapping pics of a homeless lady. Already felt creeper enough as it was :lol:

EDIT: tried that crop. How does this one treat your eye?

bazooka · Apr 29, 2010

I really like this shot! It's a nice scene to begin with... feels cheery and "Christmasy" but then you notice the lonely woman on the bench sleeping and it brings on a whole new emotion. Very powerful. I agree that the tilt was distracting. The edit is nicer.

roctez · Apr 29, 2010

Im a beginner too so from the technical side I can say that it's really nice picture. If it goes about message, I have feeling that even if neighborhood looks nice, the life doesnt have to be good.

c.cloudwalker · Apr 29, 2010

Your B&W PP is quite good but the tilt is annoying.

What bothers me most is your composition. When I first looked at the image I got the feeling you didn't dare get closer to the person. Mainly, I think because of the bench closest to us. Then I read your response to manaheim and I went yup.

You need to learn to feel easy about people if you want to get good shots of them. Take a look at Hooligan Dan's thread on his winning third place in a PJ competition. The photos are in his blog. When you look at them you get the feeling that he is comfortable with his subject and, to me, as a veteran of this type of photography, it makes the photos.

Cheers.

JasonLambert · Apr 29, 2010

Am I missing something? I don't see the tilt. I do however, see a really great shot. The crop in the repost made it look a little more intimate. Bravo!

Sbuxo · Apr 29, 2010

manaheim said:
Pretty nice if you ask me. I was kinda "Ooo, pretty scene... oh wow there's a homeless person there! ack!" Which is kind of a neat trick.

:lmao: that was my exact reaction! *_* lightssss..<eyes move down> oh, homeless person..

It's a good message imo, even if you didn't mean it.:thumbup:
I would've liked it more if you moved over to the right and taken a tiny step back, to finish off the chair there. I like the lighting, the lights from the storefronts don't bother me.

vtf · Apr 29, 2010

Well done photo imo even w/o changing anything. An emotional subject for sure and you captured it.

Jeff Colburn · Apr 29, 2010

Nice photo. I like the contrast between the Christmas-like lights and the homeless person.

Have Fun,
Jeff

BYK · Apr 29, 2010

Everyone, thanks for the C&C. Last night I thought, "what a great picture!", but now I see how important my moving eye and perspective also are, in addition to composition & PP (which actually was my main concern)!

c.cloudwalker said:
Your B&W PP is quite good but the tilt is annoying.

What bothers me most is your composition. When I first looked at the image I got the feeling you didn't dare get closer to the person. Mainly, I think because of the bench closest to us. Then I read your response to manaheim and I went yup.

You need to learn to feel easy about people if you want to get good shots of them. Take a look at Hooligan Dan's thread on his winning third place in a PJ competition. The photos are in his blog. When you look at them you get the feeling that he is comfortable with his subject and, to me, as a veteran of this type of photography, it makes the photos.

Cheers.

Sorry, I have no idea who you're talking about; can you link the entries here?

The other reasons why I didn't get so close was that:
1. I liked the framing by the 50mm at that range. If I was rocking some wide aperture, wide-angle L glass I think I would have approached the picture a lot differently, by the way.
2. I didn't move to the right due to the tree and bench blocking everything
3. I didn't move to the left and take a picture from there because I thought there were a lot of distracting objects in the background if I faced that way (and also I'd be "zoomed" in too close).

That being said, I'd love to check out the work of more experienced photographers and see how they handled their subjects. There's a lot of homeless people at the 3rd street promenade and I didn't want to be the guy who harasses them. Maybe I'll make like that one guy and hand out toothbrushes or something next time -- it'd be nice and I might make them feel more comfortable with me. Not to mention that it's my first time going out and taking pictures like this, so next time I'll remember to be a little more bold.

If only that bench hadn't been there :x

myfotoguy · Apr 29, 2010

Fantastic shot, I really like it. Thanks for sharing, I like your PP work on this too. The cropped version seems an improvement to me.

c.cloudwalker · Apr 29, 2010

Sorry about that. I rarely look at the number of post under a name so I don't always realize how new a member is...

Here's the thread. Just follow the link in it.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...self-award-winning-photojournalist-kinda.html

I agree that a 50mm, especially if you have a crop body, would not have worked very well. I was just trying to make you see a different way of looking at homeless people.

Here's another thread that might interest you.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photo-themes/169495-capture-stranger-street-style.html

Javier is probably our main street shooter here. And he is in your city... If this is a style of photo that interests you, maybe you could accompany him on one of his walks. Look at his blog too. He delivers some essentials to the homeless. They are people too is all I was saying and treating them as such is a good way to get better images.

BYK · Apr 29, 2010

Thanks for the link! I've heard of these "tent cities" and I'm impressed by the way he captured it!

Also, I've seen that thread by Javier, and I've spent many hours going through the pictures. It's what actually inspired my promenade walk! That's also where I got the idea of handing out toothbrushes -- there's so many people there who don't even see the unfortunate situation of the homeless, or even if they do rarely try to help. To be honest, Javier's photography is nice, but what I really admire him for is the way he does something to help (kinda restores your faith in humanity a little, doesnt it?)

By the way:

I took this shot while trying to make sure I metered the scene properly. As you can see it's quite a tight fit (note to self: save up for that 24-70). Maybe that will help everyone see what kind of scene I was working with?

c.cloudwalker · Apr 29, 2010

Toothbrushes? Good for you. Why not PM Javier and see if you can go on a walk with him? He seems like a very nice person.

And to be honest with you, I don't like all of his photos. But then again there are very few people whose entire body of work I like. But I like his approach and plenty enough of the shots.

Slightly OT but since you brought it up yourself and you mentioned being a poor student, there are cheaper and faster lenses than zooms. They are called primes. And you already own the poor man's zoom: your legs.