First time feedback

Asher, in another thread, suggested that I take a stab getting feedback on my photographs here. He cautioned that the feedback would be of greater utility if I explained my intent with the image. Following his suggestion let me proceed in two parts… first, my general photographic intent and second, a specific question about the posted photo.

My photography is almost exclusively of people in public places (including but certainly not limited to streets). I am interested the mundane everyday aspects of life… catching people doing what makes up their lives. I photograph for my own pleasure. I have no plans to market my work although I have sold some pictures. I would at some point like to show a small series of photos on a common theme. My biggest concern (or quest for better understanding) involves improving the composition of my pictures.

I should add that I crop about 90% of my shots. I find that I just don’t see things in a 3:2 or 16:9 ratio. For me, each picture wants its own aspect ratio. I find that I work from 1:1 to 3:1 depending on the shot. I suspect that some of the cropping is a function for my very rapid shooting on the street where there often is insufficient time for me to compose… I’m clearly no Gary Winogrand.

This leads me to the specific post here. The color image is the complete image taken with a 35mm prime on a D300. The B&W image is closer to what I was visualizing when I took the shot. I accept that it would be a fair comment to suggest that I change my position to get a better shot but lets just deal with the shot at hand.

I would appreciate your comments about the image as taken, my crop, the b&w conversion, or anything else you think would provide me with some insights on how it could be improved in your eyes. Nothing is off base.

Thanks for your time

Mike

Hi Mike,

I don't see the pictures, how did you link them?

http://MikeGuthman.smugmug.com/gallery/4975749_Aq8Ak#298010340_8rHM8

http://MikeGuthman.smugmug.com/gallery/4975749_Aq8Ak#298010528_rJUur

Hi Mike,

Your images were not showing so I took the liberty of fixing the links to them, I hope you don't mind .

I'll come back with some C&C later.

Interesting shot and subjects, but the light is so uniform the photo goes blah. Try shooting between 5 and 8 PM in the summer time, or between 5 and 8 AM or in situations where the light is broken up by structure, or on an overcast day, etc.

Mike Guthman said:

my general photographic intent and second, a specific question about the posted photo.

My photography is almost exclusively of people in public places (including but certainly not limited to streets). I am interested the mundane everyday aspects of life… catching people doing what makes up their lives. I photograph for my own pleasure. I have no plans to market my work although I have sold some pictures. I would at some point like to show a small series of photos on a common theme. My biggest concern (or quest for better understanding) involves improving the composition of my pictures.

Click to expand...

Mike,

Thanks for entering you images for feedback! We can try to give relevant feedback. Re Composition, this becomes increasingly important with the decrease in an images meaning, still composition can help a picture, but shouldn't be the ruler by which your picture of people should be measured. The picture may be prize winning with less than stellar composition.

Mike Guthman said:

I should add that I crop about 90% of my shots. I find that I just don’t see things in a 3:2 or 16:9 ratio. For me, each picture wants its own aspect ratio. I find that I work from 1:1 to 3:1 depending on the shot. I suspect that some of the cropping is a function for my very rapid shooting on the street where there often is insufficient time for me to compose… I’m clearly no Gary Winogrand.

Click to expand...

If you were a Winograd, then his pictures would now lose value. We do not need another guy like that.

We need a Guthman when he is ready!

Mike Guthman said:

This leads me to the specific post here. The color image is the complete image taken with a 35mm prime on a D300. The B&W image is closer to what I was visualizing when I took the shot. I accept that it would be a fair comment to suggest that I change my position to get a better shot but lets just deal with the shot at hand.

Click to expand...

Are you implying that someone might object to changing your position?

Mike Guthman said:

I would appreciate your comments about the image as taken, my crop, the b&w conversion, or anything else you think would provide me with some insights on how it could be improved in your eyes. Nothing is off base.

Click to expand...

First thanks for your openness and providing a context in which we can work with your pictures.

Here the subject consists of but a small portion of the original frame and to those who would object, I say that's no bother to me at all. You shoot with what you have. If you were closer, you would have perhaps distorted the perspective that you now are happy with.

Not everyone has on them the right lens or a zoom lens to frame perfectly.



The first thoughts I have is that this picture is one of rest and calm. The horizontal placement of the two figures is perfect in this respect. However the frame itself is vertical. Maybe an horizontal composition would add more. However, this is not a deal breaker, not by a long shot.

This photograph lends itself to a series in which you might show the first picture as is, then in B&W cropped a little more horizontal, and final your picture you now have finished with.




I like the opposites: white man, black woman, likely with no social connections and remarkable they point in opposite directions. So this is a picture of the silliness of what we see as different aspects of people. Resting, as they are, we only see their shared humanity.

Now I'd suggest you can take things one step further! I'd consider adding to this separate horizontal pictures of each figure. This would allow us to zoom in on each person's world without reference to the other person, but this will be a struggle since we have already seen them together. The struggle is what is important in this picture, to my way of thinking.

The first would include as an anchor the element the lower half only of the back of the seat on the left. The upper, female, figure might include the upper two horizontal bars of the back of the chair and the bird oabove that to and even perhaps the leg of a table on the right.

In this way, people can take your own journey. You will first provide the facts, the wide view, the "factive picture" which establishes the milieu and the whole stroy as near as possible, indeed the truth.

With each successive crop, if you do that, you will bring in an imaginary fictitious emphasis on each character that will change their value and meaning compared to being just two more figures.

So that's my idea for the moment.

The tonality of the B&W I have not addressed nor the sharpness or it's distribution as that can come later.

Thanks for sharing, I am really interested in seeing more work with this picture. BTW, does this picture have siblings?

Asher

Cem, thanks for fixing the links. Can you tell me what I did wrong with posting the images. I inserted the link between .

Asher, thanks for the comments. I'll play with your suggestions and hopefully I'll have better luck posting the revisions.

Mike

Hi Mike,

It was the correct thing to do that you've included the image between IMG tags.
But the URLs you have included were not referring to the image itself but to the web page that displays the image. You have used an URL, as Asher also noted above:
http://mikeguthman.smugmug.com/gallery/4975749_Aq8Ak#298010340_8rHM8

What you should have done is to click on the image in smugmug, and then right click on the image to see it's own URL. It will be something like:
http://mikeguthman.smugmug.com/photos/298010340_8rHM8-L.jpg

If this is not yet clear, please don't hesitate to ask further

Hi, Mike,

Mike Guthman said:

I would appreciate your comments about the image as taken, my crop, the b&w conversion, or anything else you think would provide me with some insights on how it could be improved in your eyes.

Click to expand...

Strangely enough, here I think I like the original composition the best. The context is part of the "story". The crop and B&W conversion is nice, but somehow it seems a little cliché (something I would expect to find in a "coffee table book").

Hi Mike,

I really like the spirit of this picture, and I can see why your eye was drawn to it. It has a bit of the vernacular in it, and doesn't take itself too seriously. There's also some lighthearted mystery: who are the two figures laying down? How did they get there? Why are they laying down like that? Tired? Drunk? What is the event they are at?

In terms of composition, I also prefer the vertical shot - although I wish the chair on the left edge of the frame wasn't there. It's one of the first things my eye is drawn to. I prefer your monochrome conversion to color in this case; what I'd go for is a vertical crop in b&w.

Thanks for sharing this image with us, Mike.

Chris