I would like to hear what others think of this.
Interesting belt one has. I wonder if it is really bullets or just a fake show. As for the people involved, it is not for me.
What makes this image for me is the story. We have a tender moment between the people, but with the piercing, belt and facial expression it becomes somewhat alarming. It's an interesting study in contrast. I think I'd like to see the guy's other hand. The car and white door (?) in the upper right is distracting because it's so bright.
The left arm was blocked by a seat back. I will darken the white panel tonite.
Maybe I'll crop it out.
Thanks Art
As it is its a street snap shot that actually shows a nice tender moment.
If it was mine i would first all simplify it. The table thing cutting across the shot does not work so I would crop above the table and in from the right through the guys elbow. That leaves a close up of the two faces almost.
Black and white suits street photography and would certainly suit this.
I tried cropping the table. Without the bullet belt the feel of the photo was lost .
aaciolkowski wrote:
Cropped
Much better Now try B/W conversion
One image per thread please. If you would like to make some changes and repost, please start a new thread.
aaciolkowski wrote:
I would like to hear what others think of this.
Hello aaciolkowski, There is a lot of irrelevant stuff here that reduces the impact of this picture. I would crop the bottom, as Billy suggests, to remove the table, then I would crop from the right to a point just short of the fingers of the hand. I know this leaves them looking out of frame but they do have a wistful gaze so it is not necessary to know what they are gazing at. Cropping this way also brings the eyes of the guy in the baseball cap nicely onto the top right 1/3rds intersection, this guy is the stronger face, perhaps because it has a slight element of mystery by being partially obscured. When I look at the picture I find my eyes hooking onto his face. Cropping in the way I suggested does throw up another problem, the picture was taken with, by today's standards, a fairly low resolution camera with the ISO set at 1000 so the image quality starts to fall off severely.
The B&W suggestion is a good one.
Graham
mcveed
Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)
This is a classic case of a 'picture within a picture'. The faces are the story here. I can understand your wish to keep the young man's belt in the picture but it is too far away from the 'story' and entails keeping in a lot of irrelevant stuff. The belt, by the way, is nothing special. It is made up of empty cases from the 7.62 short bullet, which is the most common bullet in the world, being the one used in the Russian AK-47, the most common weapon in the world. The belts are not rare. When this is cropped to focus on the faces and converted to black and white it is very powerful. I can PM you my humble attempt if you wish.
aaciolkowski wrote:
I would like to hear what others think of this.
I think that you have very strong elements in this photo. The relationship is utmost, but also the attitude - the way they are sitting and their clothing. I agree that the belt is essential to the photo. It's part of their statement to the world.
My own ideas about improving the photo would be:
a) if you can make the photo sharper, perhaps with more contrast
b) if you could delete the yellow from the table. Now, the yellow is too bold a statement and not the subject of the photo. Can you select it and turn it into black-and-white?
c) if you could delete or dilute some distracting elements in the background, such as the car and whatever the other reflections are
I like this photo very much. Congratulations on a good portrait.
aaciolkowski wrote:
I would like to hear what others think of this.
I'm going to look at this as a street, rather than a staged photo. The subjects are interesting, in that there is a hardness projected by their attire and appearance, but within that you've captured a moment of tenderness. There is also a look of facing an unknown future with less than adequate means to confront it.
Compositionally, I like the position of the individuals faces. They are looking towards the centre of the photo, but also towards that unknown future.
I think the lighting is a bit too bright. I'd like to see a bit darker image with a bit more contrast.
--Bob
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