convert event photography into more artistic form

[nas-matko]

Hi,
recently I was covering one church event and among others I took this picture:

Light was out of my control, so I had to work with whatever was there. I kind of liked this particular picture, but it felt flat, doesn't matter what edits I tried.
Eventually I cropped it tighter and went for B&W and I think it helped to come closer to my idea of atmospheric picture.

What else would you try or recommend in post to create more dramatic, more story telling picture?

Thanks for your opinions.
P.S. Canon R7, Lens Model: EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM, Exposure Time: 1/200, Flash: No Flash, FNumber: 4, Focal Length: 75

 

[cgw129 155]

Strong image. Much prefer the b&w version. Try to tame the whites. A histogram would help locate possible remedies. I'm partial to higher contrast and "structure" boost recipes to add some impact to available light shots. Bury the blacks a bit, too. Wondering if the horizontal background lines(paneling?)could be muted. Anything done to emphasize the incense smoke from the censer would be wonderful.

 

[webestang6421]

Strong image. Much prefer the b&w version. Try to tame the whites.

Agreed. I also would lighten the left hand and chain area a bit to me seems to dark.

 

[AlanKlein94 10]

I;m not too sure a disassembled arm sticking into the picture like that appeals to me. I wonder how it would look in BW with both people? Aren't both people important in the shot? After all, you included them initially. Including cgw's comments would help too.

 

[nas-matko]

Strong image. Much prefer the b&w version. Try to tame the whites. A histogram would help locate possible remedies. I'm partial to higher contrast and "structure" boost recipes to add some impact to available light shots. Bury the blacks a bit, too. Wondering if the horizontal background lines(paneling?)could be muted. Anything done to emphasize the incense smoke from the censer would be wonderful.

Thank you for your valuable feedback.

I am not sure what you mean by tame whites. In coversion to achieve maximum constrast I usually go with white and black slider as high respectively as low as I start loosing some details in small percentage of whole picture.

These horizontal lines in the background I tried to darken, lessen the contrast and apply lens blur but they are still visible, plus it diminishes the smoke too, which is not good. Not sure how to workaround this.

 

[nas-matko]

I;m not too sure a disassembled arm sticking into the picture like that appeals to me.

Yes you are right, its disturbing me as well, I’ll try to do something about it.

Aren't both people important in the shot?

Initially I thought so too.
But after several trails and erros I realised that main subject is the bishop and atmosphere created by incens and it felt to me better cropped. But this is probably personal preference rather than rule.

 

[cgw129 155]

Thank you for your valuable feedback.

I am not sure what you mean by tame whites. In coversion to achieve maximum constrast I usually go with white and black slider as high respectively as low as I start loosing some details in small percentage of whole picture.

These horizontal lines in the background I tried to darken, lessen the contrast and apply lens blur but they are still visible, plus it diminishes the smoke too, which is not good. Not sure how to workaround this.

The whites are borderline blown-out. Suspect a histogram would show that. Detail in the priest's chasuble might be recoverable. Midtone adjustment might help, too.
No problem with the right and bottom crop but I'd restore the original scene to include both figures.

 

[AlanKlein94 10]

Yes you are right, its disturbing me as well, I’ll try to do something about it.


Initially I thought so too.
But after several trails and erros I realised that main subject is the bishop and atmosphere created by incens and it felt to me better cropped. But this is probably personal preference rather than rule.

The problem with the person on the left is that he is bigger in the picture than the main subject because he's closer to the camera. So if you leave both persons in the picture, your eye goes to the less important subject when you're trying to draw our view to the priest's spiritual activity, the main point of the photo. This probably calls for a different angle shot altogether, maybe one from behind the second person. This is an example to those who argue you that you can correct things in Photoshop wont work, such as by cropping. The angle of a shot has to be set in the camera when shooting. This is just a reminder that photography isn't so simple as it seems. Sorry, but you may have to go back to do it again.

 

[nas-matko]

The problem with the person on the left is that he is bigger in the picture than the main subject because he's closer to the camera. So if you leave both persons in the picture, your eye goes to the less important subject

I think you nailed it. This is probably the major problem of the composition.

Sorry, but you may have to go back to do it again.

How many times did I tell this to myself But this kind of photo is one shot only and if I screw it up, no second chance.

 

[nas-matko]

Ok I tried to fix it according all (most) of your comments, here is the black and white version including both persons.

And I tried an experiment and enlarged bishop so he is not significantly smaller than the other person. Does it work?

And for your information this is the BW histogram

and this is the original picture histogram

 

[webestang6421]

I like the first one with the as shot distance between the two. Very nice shot.

 

[cgw129 155]

Agree. #1

 

[greybeard47 19]

(imho) there just isn't enough contrast and texture to make a great B&W image. I like the original one in color much better with a little aspect adjustment to make the characters the same size and a bit of tweaking the color.

 

[40737016 1]

I liked the initial picture. Thought the gold things on the right were a wee bit of a distraction so cropped them out.
Added a bit of smoke from a preset brush (separate pixel layer) and reduced the opacity to make it blend in a bit more.
Applied a slight hint of tone mapping to bring out the skin textures.

Voila!!

Hope you like it.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[PhotoHobbyist128 154]

Using Rawtherapee, I added some vignette and soft light.
The vignette darkens around the edges effectively putting a spotlight on the priest.