Candid shot

[crevest]

Hi everyone,

Two men chat in Morocco. Using the shade to protect themselves from the heat:



I hope you like it.

Cedric

 

[The_Traveler]

I think that the foreground is so bright that it removes any attention from the men talking.
They are really too dark and OOF to have any impact.

You could cut away 80% of the existing image, get the men to be more prominent and remove a lot of the tension-draining grey and brightness.

 

[crevest]

I think that the foreground is so bright that it removes any attention from the men talking.
They are really too dark and OOF to have any impact.

You could cut away 80% of the existing image, get the men to be more prominent and remove a lot of the tension-draining grey and brightness.

View attachment 65854

Thank you for the comment. I have tried cropping it as suggested but we lose the feeling of "oppression" I find in the first one. The men are in the middle of nowhere, protected by the shade of a wall.
If I get in too close, we might think that they have another shelter just a couple of meters away.

Cedric

 

[sashbar]

I think both Lew and OP have valid points, to me this image is difficult to pull out because of the light. Both guys and the wall are in the shade, so in a wide frame they blend with the wall, and you want to zoom. Once you have zoomed, you loose this feeling of space...

 

[The_Traveler]

I understand what the OP wants to show but, if you can't make out the centers of interest enough to understand what is going on, then the picture fails right away.
This would be more 'oppressive' if there was space on either side, showing them isolated. TBH, I didn't get the oppression part because they could have been against a doorway on the closely cropped side.

 

[Bossy]

I wouldn't crop, the expanse of wall is saying just as much as the two men.
The conversion reads a bit muddy though.

this would also be neat to see from the other perspective, shooting down the wall and you can really see the way the men are squishing into that sliver of shade.

 

[crevest]

I don't have the color version here but here is an uncropped version.



I originally cropped it in order to focus more on the men without losing the sense of oppression.

Cedric

 

[Designer]

I like the uncropped version, but instead of thinking this as a "candid", why not simply think of it as "street"? Moroccan street. IMO, the two figures are not defined as well as in a good candid.

 

[KelSS90]

I actually prefer the I cropped image showing the top of the wall. For me, something about it helps balance the foreground and it gives a bit more context to the picture. I like it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[crevest]

Thank you ! I thought the viewer would not "get" what I wanted to show without cropping. Quoting the quotation )) from the_traveler "but giving the viewer the necessary reference points so that they "naturally" see what you see"

Cedric

 

[AlanKlein]

I also like the uncropped version better. The curved tops of the wall, back lighting along its edges and trees in the background add interest and context of location. Now it looks like Morocco. Too bad a camel wasn't strolling in from the right in the sun. Then it would be perfect! One other thing. Your name and logo on the photo detracts from the image by additionally pulling the viewer's eyes away from the subject. Better if you left it off.

 

[sashbar]

I like the uncropped better too.

 

[Derrel]

I think cropping 80% of the image in this instance is not the best course of action. The whole concept is two men, seen seeking refuge in the shade, surrounded by oppressive sun, in a place that looks HOT. For me, the idea would be to emphasize the look of hot, bright weather in the sunlighted areas, and maybe make the shadowed, shaded areas a bit darker, since there is not enough good detail to make the two men visually rewarding. I think as shown, the shaded area is too light, tool gray, in tonal value...the scene needs a very stark, crisp, black and white rendering.