Just along for the ride

[Tallaslions]

I've always liked this picture for the simple things about it. Maybe its the expression of the man on the back of the motorcycle, maybe its the carefree attitude of him. No helmet, arms crossed, just along for the ride. Maybe its a combination of both.
Whatever it is, its one of the pictures that seems to have more questions than answers.

 

[Donde]

Very interesting scene and so glad it's in color as that is critical to the image. Excellent portrait of the passenger. You might crop down to eliminate the power line and create more focus on the important subjects. Shame about the bent over guy coming out of the driver's chin. I would even think about cloning him out but you got nice sharp focus on the moving bike.

 

[Tallaslions]

Thanks for the feedback!

I took out the man by the chin and cropped down a bit. Here is an updated version!

 

[Donde]

A big improvement. Very well done. Really like it.

 

[Tallaslions]

Thank you. I much prefer this version.


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[Granddad]

Good work on cloning out the guy near the driver's chin. I did a levels adjustment on it and that makes it much clearer, just levels, nothing else.

 

[Tallaslions]

Thank you Granddad. I do like the look of that!


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[texxter]

Cool capture! This feels like a photojournalism type of image that tries to capture a moment of reality with all its imperfections - the background seems as important as the main subject to tell the story of people moving about in this place - if the background didn't exist, the image would lose all the immediacy and interest that it conveys as is. The expression of detached curiosity of the passenger is the emotional center of the work and sucks in the viewer into the action, as the passenger seems to be responding to us looking at the photograph

In terms of opportunities for improvement, the image would be stronger if the capture had taken place before the motorcycle blocked the street vendor. That would also leave more room in front of the motorcycle to lead the viewer along its path, as well as avoiding the problem of the main subject intersecting people in the background. Finally, in the language of photography motion is expressed with motion blur. In this case the motorcycle is frozen and motionless and it works fine - just pointing out that whenever one photographs an object in motion one has to make a conscious decision to either show the motion or freeze it.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Tallaslions]

After seeing the edit Granddad did with the levels and watching a few tutorials on youtube, I decided to take another stab at this one and see what else I could do. As Granddad did, I adjusted just the levels and created a new layer in Photoshop and replaced the sky with a slightly more blue sky from a photo I took at the beach. By no means am I a wizard when using Photoshop, but I find it gives the sky a better look.
Also, I may now just go out and shoot some photos of plain skyline just to use for swapping when the original just doesn't have much depth or seems kind of plain.