Street entertaining...

A snapshot taken, while out and about shopping with my wife in Leeds...and shooting, (why not)...

I like the contrasting patterns and the one against the shadows is cool. Nice capture !

I'd open up the shadows in the foreground and darken the highlights in teh background to reduce contrast and make the image more homogeneous.

to show image, TIFs do not show, just jpg or png!

Like this:

Thanks, James...

Hey Alain, nice to see you here...I was liking those light bars radiating down in unison over the two persons patterned clothing, signifying and highlighting them. It's in part why I took the shot...a little bit of light captured lifting the shot I guess...

I really wanted to see what you had done with the image but it's not here...

Do you see the shadow highlight dialog box next to your photo? That's all I did.

Alain,

I posted your edited version of Paul's image as a jpg, to appear, so the quality might not be as good as you prepared. tifs have to be converted to jpg or png to show!

Asher

I prefer Paul's original. I like contrast..sometimes too much!!

If anything, I would have decreased the highlights in the sunlit areas only; a little.

Lifting the shadows..not on this one imho.

Alain, I don't understand your reason for doing this on a shot of this type, because I don't see any problem with the contrast in the shot. As for homogeneity, it looks too unnatural to me.
I had balanced the highlights on the crowd of people to a certain degree, they're not being any clipped highlights neither...

Different taste. It's all good!

I like the original post the second one looks kind of like HDR . Just my $ 0.02

Paul Abbott said:

A snapshot taken, while out and about shopping with my wife in Leeds...and shooting, (why not)...

Click to expand...

Paul,

I found no issue with your picture here. The thee important layers of features, foreground, the performer and the crowd in the b.g. work together. We're used to creating distance from the flat picture as we know from the sizes of the people where they'd be placed.

In real life, tof course, the slightest movement of our heads relative to the scene undoes all doubts, rounding corners and making everything fully realistic and related to each other in 3D space.

Alain has brashly taken advantage of other clues we can give the brain. These are used in his version.


I had no discomfort with these severe alterations, except for the fact that he didn't win you over and that's the deal-breaker! I do like the idea of alternate ways of processing an image. Our lenses compress space, Alain likes to invest craft in undoing that. Opening up the shadows in the lady's headscarf, bringing her closer to us and away from the performer. So we get a dramatic sense of "watching." However I'd have added density to the crowd in the b.g, to add "pressure" to the performer. So there's a learning benefit, perhaps, from this exercise for others, (who don't comment), in processing their own photographs.

Each photographer has at his or her disposal many choices for processing including everything from microcontrast and shading slopes to distribution of light and detail. These and the subject matter approached by the photographer provide a signature. Paul you likes to sign his pictures your way, defining your body of work.

Asher

Asher, I had no problems with what Alain had prescribed either. It was interesting to see...
I just like to see a pretty decent tonal range in my B&W photographs, from pure white to full black that's all it comes down to really.
When I look at both these scenes it is true to say that the woman's head appears closer to us in Alain's treatment but her shoulder looks like it's almost on the same plane as the performer due to the same light tones, whereas in my version the mid-tone at her shoulder separates her and brings her forward...
Surely having contrast in a scene is what helps to define space...Although, i'm in the Hockney camp in regard to photographs and depth.

Paul Abbott said:

Asher, I had no problems with what Alain had prescribed either. It was interesting to see...
I just like to see a pretty decent tonal range in my B&W photographs, from pure white to full black that's all it comes down to really.

Click to expand...

I too look for that, or I feel the medium is wasted in most circumstances.

The fault in the processing of the picture is not the lightening of the hair, but the application of global changes that alter each part of the image, ignoring local context. I take pains to allocate interest and significance by assigning tonalities, contrast and detail, (or loss of the same) to different components. Hardly ever do we merely need to make changes that alter the entire picture in one direction or another, except in fun snapshots sent by one's phone.

The careful ranking of elements is to me the work of the picture once one arrives home and should be considered 75% of one's creative effort. The exception is the carefully preplanned image with detailed studio lighting and apt character lens-choice, to perfectly build one's image beforehand.

A good photograph being worked on doesn't lie there anesthetized, passively accepting our smart-assed manipulations! On the contrary, even nascent art is alert to the balance of things in its domain. I think of a picture being processed as "protecting its life force, meaning and essential character" and being able to counter one's quick moves with reaction to neutralize any improvements with some other effect which degrades the work and so humbles us So I'd take Alain's alteration of her headscarf as just an early aggressive move in a chess game between him and the picture, in which the picture then put his queen in check. It's now Alain's move to rescue her.

Asher