Street Portrait for C+C

BlastedGlute

I hate doing this, I get all fuzzy and nervous. Anyway, here's a photo I took yesterday and yes I did post process but I'm primarily a traditional and digital artist so I can't help but drag my photos through photoshop to.

Thanks for looking

donegal2011

Nice and good shot...

OP, It's a pretty good image. I assume he knew you were taking it? Dunno if you bumped up the contrast a lot or what post processing you did, but it looks really well. Fair play.

daycent

I really like it. The only negative for me is the text on the right which is a bit distracting.

bullpost

Good image - Looks a wee bit dark on my monitor though.

donegal2011

ok now

kelly1

Nice one.

BlastedGlute

I was buying some doughnuts from him as he's a street vendor in galway(unreal doughnuts by the way, freshly made in front of you, buy them by the dozen as they keep really well for days, if you can keep them for that long!!)

Anyway, the darkness/brightness of the photo is something I'm trying to address lately. I use my monitor when I'm gaming at it's stock gamma setting which is around 1.07 on nVidias dashboard. But any images I've done, especially paintings, look total crud on the majority of monitors people are using out there. Mainly due to people using laptops more than desktops these days, not being gamers or photographers/graphic designers, and therefore not really addressing their monitor settings and just using them out of the box. So when I go to process images now I jack my gamma settings up to around 1.31 on the nvidia dash to compensate for the majority of people who will be viewing this stuff. Whats annoying is that the iPhone 4 and iPad have perfect settings out of the box for the stuff I've done. Anyone else have this kind of experience. You look at something on your monitor and your really happy with it, and then you see it on a different screen and your horrified that you had submitted it in the first place?

magicbastarder

i use a 22" trinitron, and it's nice and dark, and i like the shot. it *is* dark on my screen, but the highlights on the cheek work well.

Tallon

Excellent!

BlastedGlute

BlastedGlute wrote: »

I was buying some doughnuts from him as he's a street vendor in galway(unreal doughnuts by the way, freshly made in front of you, buy them by the dozen as they keep really well for days, if you can keep them for that long!!)

Anyway, the darkness/brightness of the photo is something I'm trying to address lately. I use my monitor when I'm gaming at it's stock gamma setting which is around 1.07 on nVidias dashboard. But any images I've done, especially paintings, look total crud on the majority of monitors people are using out there. Mainly due to people using laptops more than desktops these days, not being gamers or photographers/graphic designers, and therefore not really addressing their monitor settings and just using them out of the box. So when I go to process images now I jack my gamma settings up to around 1.31 on the nvidia dash to compensate for the majority of people who will be viewing this stuff. Whats annoying is that the iPhone 4 and iPad have perfect settings out of the box for the stuff I've done. Anyone else have this kind of experience. You look at something on your monitor and your really happy with it, and then you see it on a different screen and your horrified that you had submitted it in the first place?

Personally, I haven't a clue about any of that sorta stuff. When I print stuff; if the print matches the monitor (which it always has) then I'm a happy camper.

That said, my photos do tend to look better on my desktop than on my laptop. Though I couldn't be bothered adjusting the laptop as I don't know how, and rarely ever use it in the first place, anyway.

gbee

Deleted User wrote: »

Though I couldn't be bothered adjusting the laptop .

There usually isn't any significant adjustments that can be done on a laptop anyway.

On the road I send in pic from the laptop and only adjust the contrast and sharpen, if I do any co9lour correction it's with the eyedropper if anything suitable is in the image, otherwise you can't really judge from the lappie screen.

gbee

IMO the image is a tad on the darkside, but the highlights are just holding so it looks ok.

It has a monochromatic feel and mood to it, I'm just looking for the cigar smoke and the saxophone to appear.

AnCatDubh

a good effort imho. i'm not totally convinced of the need to process quite so much (accepting your narrative earlier). Principally, and only imho, the processing appears too sharp on the face and there is something weird / unnatural with the eyes (colour, processing mainly). The desaturation gives an unnatural look too. However, if this is what you were looking for well then that's fine too.

dazftw

I like it. I know how you feel about being nervous. Try and stop a random stranger walking down the street

The only thing is I think that could be different is its a bit too close! A head/shoulders shot like you have is very personal. I really only think you need to do that when your specifically asked. This person isn't a model.

I usually go for a full body shot. It I'm not saying your doing it wrong, you're not. Its just different ways of doing it. I suppose its just I feel full body, you'll get more about the person but then anyone one could say'll you'll get more with how you did it.

Its just different styles I suppose.

pullandbang

It's wicked dark on my monitor but then that could just be me. I need to calibrate it badly.
Again to me, it's over processed - weird sharpening and highlights on his cheeks and lack of detail in his eyes. There's also a green tinge to it but again that could be my monitor - it went funny tonight! (anyone fancy calibrating my monitor for me?)

As a street (environmental) portrait it doesn't work. I wouldn't know he sold doughnuts at a market unless you told us. Step back a bit and get his stall in the shot too to give us some idea of what he does.

BlastedGlute

I understand what people are saying about the framing. But it really is a portrait in the sense of a bust/headshot. His work area is quant and might be worth going back for another, but to me he's the most interesting thing that was in the area. Once I spotted his silver tooth I knew I had to have it in shot.

Maybe it would be worth a return visit, I'll have to see about the direction I go, with what is going to be a set of Galway city's local grassroots culture and occupants, I already know who the next 4 people are that I want to photograph so I'll see how the idea evolves and what style comes out in my processing. It is surely processed, but if this was someone else's work I wouldn't think over processed as my first thought,but compared to most photography I've seen it most definitely is. I'm primarily an painter or digital artist(as of late the latter is least invasive to my shared occupancy), I only bought a camera a few months ago in feburary for my birthday, so I'm trying to maintain a mix on my mediums, keeping the photographic elements but enhancing the artistic ones, as though it were a painting. I'm sure I'll find a tapered style, or maybe I won't, I really have no idea what I'm at right now.

pullandbang

There's no doubt he is an interesting character and his silver tooth is class.
I took a shot of him last year on a photowalk - it's not great but I was messing with a borrowed ultrawide 8mm lens.


That little market is full of gems

I knew he had a silver tooth but again it's difficult to see in your shot because of the PP. I'm now at my work monitor and it still looks dark and green tinged, but then maybe that's what you want.

Best of luck with your next 4 and make sure to post them here for us all to see.

gbee

OP, the shot has a style, that is fine. Rodger your ongoing evaluation, but if we all take the same shots, photography would get boring, even quicker.

I think you've got a little too harsh criticism, it'll look great in a show.

MontanaMax23

donegal2011 wrote: »

Nice and good shot...

yep.....incredible design.... amazing

:-)

BlastedGlute

Thanks for all the props you guys. i dont mind the critique to be honest. But a lot of the points your raise about what is wrong with it conflict with what I was trying to achieve. It might make sense when the whole set is done, we'll see. Or maybe it wont make sense haha and thats ok to! I think I should have done the whole set in the first place so that you guys could get a sense for the direction of the work carried. Ah well, I 'm sure I'll be done with it soon!

Thanks again guys!

dinneenp

Wow, that's the same guy as in Pullandband's shot!
He looks totally different in the 'first' shot', almost dark skin

BlastedGlute

I'm starting to think that I should be posting in the digital art forums instead.....

sineadw

I like it a lot I don't mind the tones at all if it's going to be part of a set. I do think the face is a little dark though - pulls your eyes to the background. If it were my shot, I'd pull back a bit on the contrast..

I'd also like to see it without the green cast, as a comparison

BlastedGlute

Well there's no green contrast but it may be due to channel saturation of red. I can't remember