Street Shot Hoi An Please critique

[fish323]

DSCF7844 Hoi An Street 1 by William Heron, on Flickr

Be as ruthless as you like as long as it is constructive

 

[F.O.V.92 92]

DSCF7844 Hoi An Street 1 by William Heron, on Flickr

Be as ruthless as you like as long as it is constructive

A somewhat boring scene, why not crop out everything except the guy in the doorway. leave in the pillars each side. Personally I would use color..

 

[480sparky54 53]

I found it far from boring. I looked for quite a while to find something 'wrong' and couldn't. To me, it told the story of a boring night at a restaurant.

 

[fish323]

I found it far from boring. I looked for quite a while to find something 'wrong' and couldn't. To me, it told the story of a boring night at a restaurant.

Thank you. I'm not sure on the screen calibration of my laptop. How is the brightness/exposure and contrast? Thanks

 

[480sparky54 53]

Personally, I'd make the lights a bit brighter. But that's just me. If you're satisfied with it... mission accomplished.

 

[webestang6422 1]

Maybe bring out a bit more of the shadows for the tattoos on the guy sitting. Otherwise I like it a lot.

 

[cgw131 156]

Repost to the C&C Gallery. That's the place.

 

[JoeW7]

What do you want the focus of the photo to be? My eyes were drawn to the lights, then a variety of other possibilities.

I think a lot of the technical details are good here. So focus (no pun intended) on deciding what the viewer is supposed to see.

Right now, the photo is "cluttered." There is a lot of potentially good stuff but our eyes take us all over the place. You, as the composer of this art, need to direct our eyes. For instance, you could crop just the guy standing in the doorway so he's framed (and then burn out the menu so it doesn't grab our eyes). That would make a fine photo. Or, you could do the upper 1/4th of the photo--the lanterns and lights. In color that would be very nice I think. There's even a possible photo of the far left--the line of lights and the man in the kitchen seen framed by the window--it has an intimate feel to it.

Personally, I suggest going for a crop that shows the man in the doorway, the window, and the man seated. Our eyes are drawn to odd numbers, there you have 3 areas of focus (standing man in doorway, seated man, window). I'd burn the lights so they weren't so bright--white or bright naturally attracts our eyes. The point from all this is: you've got a lot of possibilities in this photo. You need to decide what the photo is about, and what you want the viewer to look at.

Last of all, you've got a decision to make--color or monochrome. If you add the color, the bright lights/glare aren't as powerful. If you stay B&W, you need to tone those down or clone them out. B/c in B&W they jump out and grab our focus.

Loved Hoi An. And I think your picture managed to grab something that captures the essence of the place (absent the hordes of tourists).