Fun: ::..:: Everyday people ::..::

[Nathan Hayag]

Hello. First time posting my shots here in OPF. Hope y'all like my set. ;)

1) Follow the leader.



2) Arrrr!



3) Jawa and the loot.



4) Life's little pleasures.

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[Cedric MASSOULIER]

Hi,

I like very much your pictures which have very good lights and warm colors, but i think there should be a more formal link between them... Subject is not really apparent here, except everyday pictures, we can't understand why you showed them together.

Regards,

Cedric.

[Nathan Hayag]

Originally Posted by Cedric MASSOULIER

Hi,

I like very much your pictures which have very good lights and warm colors, but i think there should be a more formal link between them... Subject is not really apparent here, except everyday pictures, we can't understand why you showed them together.

Regards,

Cedric.

Hi Cedric,

Thanks for the comment. You are correct, these are everyday pictures, hence, the title "Everyday People". There aren't any link whatsoever among my pictures except the effective use of available light as a spotlight that's why I've taken time putting appropriate titles on them to help tell the story because each picture is a story in itself. :)

Cheers,

Nathan

[Nathan Hayag]

5) Teaism.

Tea is a religion of the art of life. - Okakura Kakuzō


6) He says..



7) She says..




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[Asher Kelman]

Hi Nathan,

Welcome to OPF and congrats on stepping in with images to share.

Yes, it's far easier for us to digest the images when they are related by a theme even more particular than just, "available light", unless one is showing of one's camera. Having said that, a numerous collection of pictures can eventually build up an idea of what catches your own attention and how you react to the world around you. This might be in a book with a narrative.

I prefer putting together sets of pictures that are indeed closely related in some way, perhaps showing a common feature, asking a related for example.

Asher

[Asher Kelman]

Nathan Hayag: Teaism

Hi Nathan,

Of all your pictures, I find this one picture most agreeable. They are, in general, not only immediately interesting but also pay off more when one lingers! In your very first two pictures, you use black space to great advantage. Here you're much more surgical in your framing. In this bright detailed picture of the tea-maker, you've shown atmosphere and good placement of the subject. Kudos! I can understand the tight framing around him but for this, consider, perhaps, much more negative space here too. He's powerful enough to command a far larger canvas.

Asher

Can you share the shot specifics?

[Nathan Hayag]

Thank you for welcoming me here, Asher.

I don't think we're on the same page here. The use of available light (i.e. sun, incandescent, etc.) is never about showing off one's gear. Camera phone or Leica, it is achievable. :)

Anyhow, for the Teaism shot. I used my humble Sony A300, coupled with an 18-200mm.

Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure: 1/13
Aperture: f5
Focal length: 60mm
Metering: Spot
ISO: 100

For PP:
I just added vignetting through CS4. Auto Tone/Levels/Contrast/Color/Curves. And then I further enhanced the warmth by adjusting the red, orange and yellow in Hue/Saturation, Color Balance and Vibrance. :)

[Nathan Hayag]

8 ) Chernobyl baby.



9) ¡Viva la Revolución!



10) Dilly dally.




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[Asher Kelman]

Originally Posted by Nathan Hayag

Thank you for welcoming me here, Asher.

I don't think we're on the same page here. The use of available light (i.e. sun, incandescent, etc.) is never about showing off one's gear. Camera phone or Leica, it is achievable. :)

Anyhow, for the Teaism shot. I used my humble Sony A300, coupled with an 18-200mm.

Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure: 1/13
Aperture: f5
Focal length: 60mm
Metering: Spot
ISO: 100

For PP:
I just added vignetting through CS4. Auto Tone/Levels/Contrast/Color/Curves. And then I further enhanced the warmth by adjusting the red, orange and yellow in Hue/Saturation, Color Balance and Vibrance. :)

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the details of your shot.

In a gallery, I'd just enjoy your picture since it immediately caught my attention, has a lot to explore, I like to be taken to places that are new and the picture is well done. It's an experience worth stopping for, at that spot, and just appreciating. One might like to know shot details, but for sure, the art gallery owner wouldn't have a clue! In a gallery one just enjoys and then purchases the work.

Re asking for shot details: For folks hoping to learn from your beautiful work, these seemingly superfluous details. The camera format lens and aperture govern the depth of field and how the background is drawn. One cannot get the same effect with a digicam, full frame camera, MF or LF at the same aperture. I'd argue that it's hardly true that one can get the same picture with any camera. Rather a good photographer can get a great picture with any camera.

Thanks,

Asher

[Ken Tanaka]

Hello Nathan,
These images are actually related; they're snaps of where you were. I like your general concept here. Some impressions, for what they're worth.

I find your extremely heavy-handed post-processing distracting and frustrating. I want to see more detail and context in your images. Of course it's impossible to judge an image in this format but you've reduced some of these to little more than splotches on brown/black fields. Little sense of context, which can sometimes greatly add to the image.

Also, lots of long focal length stuff here. That's pretty common for amateur/avocational snappers. But it's clear that you have no engagement with your subjects at all. They're just inanimate objects. That's fine. But in this strategy you must then make the human subjects relate in some way to their contexts and/or each other. Referring to my previous remark your post processing, and sometimes your framing, has mostly eliminated that possibility.

A personal issue of mine is avoiding capturing people on the phone. It's a real buzz-killer for images to my eye. Ditto capturing street beggars. It's just too damn easy.

Keep at it. But either get closer to your subjects or look for situations in which your human subjects become part of a wider-angle composition. (One strategy is not to carry a focal length longer than 50mm on your walks.) Either way, lighten-up on the Photoshop.

Have fun!

[Paul Abbott]

Originally Posted by Ken Tanaka

Hello Nathan,

Ditto capturing street beggars. It's just too damn easy.

Give it a go then, Ken. Then lets see what you get? I'll throw you a challenge. I hope they won't be just snaps, 'cos then that is easy.

Everything can be regarded as easy, think about it. Sunsets, flowers, animals etc. But try photographing them in a meaningful and interesting way and thats where the difficulty lies.

[Nathan Hayag]

Originally Posted by Asher Kelman

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the details of your shot.

In a gallery, I'd just enjoy your picture since it immediately caught my attention, has a lot to explore, I like to be taken to places that are new and the picture is well done. It's an experience worth stopping for, at that spot, and just appreciating. One might like to know shot details, but for sure, the art gallery owner wouldn't have a clue! In a gallery one just enjoys and then purchases the work.

Re asking for shot details: For folks hoping to learn from your beautiful work, these seemingly superfluous details. The camera format lens and aperture govern the depth of field and how the background is drawn. One cannot get the same effect with a digicam, full frame camera, MF or LF at the same aperture. I'd argue that it's hardly true that one can get the same picture with any camera. Rather a good photographer can get a great picture with any camera.

Thanks,

Asher

I totally-100%-off-the-wall agree with you that a digicam could never ever handle what a dSLR can with regards to DOF, aperture, exposure, metering, ISO, and all those stuff, BUT what I have been reiterating here is the light around us as an effective tool to isolate the subject from the surroundings. Get a digicam, point it on a crowd with small patches of light peeping through building gaps, when a face finds itself in contact with the sunlight--shoot! Wouldn't his face pop out from the crowd? Of course, it wouldn't be as good if it was shot with an SLR, but we're not talking about DOF and all that mumbo jumbo here, right? My thread is about light, light, and light. One of the main fundamentals of photography.

Sincerely,

Nathaniel

[Nathan Hayag]

Originally Posted by Ken Tanaka

Hello Nathan,
These images are actually related; they're snaps of where you were. I like your general concept here. Some impressions, for what they're worth.

I find your extremely heavy-handed post-processing distracting and frustrating. I want to see more detail and context in your images. Of course it's impossible to judge an image in this format but you've reduced some of these to little more than splotches on brown/black fields. Little sense of context, which can sometimes greatly add to the image.

Also, lots of long focal length stuff here. That's pretty common for amateur/avocational snappers. But it's clear that you have no engagement with your subjects at all. They're just inanimate objects. That's fine. But in this strategy you must then make the human subjects relate in some way to their contexts and/or each other. Referring to my previous remark your post processing, and sometimes your framing, has mostly eliminated that possibility.

A personal issue of mine is avoiding capturing people on the phone. It's a real buzz-killer for images to my eye. Ditto capturing street beggars. It's just too damn easy.

Keep at it. But either get closer to your subjects or look for situations in which your human subjects become part of a wider-angle composition. (One strategy is not to carry a focal length longer than 50mm on your walks.) Either way, lighten-up on the Photoshop.

Have fun!

Thank you so much for this very nice critique, Ken! I do use 28mm, 50mm and 100mm on certain occasions but I always tend to go back to my trusty 18-200mm lolz. I really appreciate your critique here. Will keep your advices with me once I hit the streets again. :)


Again, thanks.

Nathan

[Nathan Hayag]

Originally Posted by Paul Abbott

Give it a go then, Ken. Then lets see what you get? I'll throw you a challenge. I hope they won't be just snaps, 'cos then that is easy.

Everything can be regarded as easy, think about it. Sunsets, flowers, animals etc. But try photographing them in a meaningful and interesting way and thats where the difficulty lies.

Hi Paul. What I think Ken is trying to say here is that beggars are "too photographed" already. We should admit that almost all of us have street beggar shots. I've been following a lot of street photography contests and most of them don't allow those kind of shots.

[Nathan Hayag]

11) BFFs



12) She's got it.



13) He who sings scares away his woes.



.

[Paul Abbott]

No worries, Nathan.

I guess buildings are so damn easy too, they're everywhere! ;)

[Nathan Hayag]

Originally Posted by Paul Abbott

No worries, Nathan.

I guess buildings are so damn easy too, they're everywhere! ;)

Lolz. You have a point. :D

[Asher Kelman]

Originally Posted by Nathan Hayag

I totally-100%-off-the-wall agree with you that a digicam could never ever handle what a dSLR can with regards to DOF, aperture, exposure, metering, ISO, and all those stuff, BUT what I have been reiterating here is the light around us as an effective tool to isolate the subject from the surroundings. Get a digicam, point it on a crowd with small patches of light peeping through building gaps, when a face finds itself in contact with the sunlight--shoot! Wouldn't his face pop out from the crowd? Of course, it wouldn't be as good if it was shot with an SLR, but we're not talking about DOF and all that mumbo jumbo here, right? My thread is about light, light, and light. One of the main fundamentals of photography.

Sincerely,

Nathaniel

My point, Nathaniel, is besides the effect of the light, the picture might be far better with the digicam because of extra DOF or better or with with a plastic off-kilter Lomo due to how the periphery is delivered in a special way. I'm not saying one thing is better. I just feel that the character of the lens adds a lot and is very significant in how the image written.

Your series with light peeping through to show us glimpses of interesting subject is a great uniting theme and I'm enjoying tour work.

[Sandra Jones]

I like this style very much. I did think a few were too dark, but that's nothing, it's what makes this set work. Love the 'tea is a religion...', fantastic colours and light. I'm amused at 'He says..She says', thought that was well done. Also I like the girls in 'BFFs'.

[Wendy Thurman]

Nathan-

Welcome, and thanks for the images. Like Asher, I find Teaism to be the most arresting image in your series. Like Ken, I would echo the "get closer" sentiment he expressed. I just did a series in a marketplace that failed because I did not get closer.

Your work is interesting and I hope to see more.

Wendy

[Wendy Thurman]

Originally Posted by Paul Abbott

Give it a go then, Ken. Then lets see what you get? I'll throw you a challenge. I hope they won't be just snaps, 'cos then that is easy.

Everything can be regarded as easy, think about it. Sunsets, flowers, animals etc. But try photographing them in a meaningful and interesting way and thats where the difficulty lies.

Paul-

You are doing work with meaning and context as regards street people and I am appreciative of that work.

I do think Ken has a point. It's easy to photograph people who live a moment-to-moment life; what is not so easy is to portray that life contextually. I think you are trying to do that with your London Homeless series and you are to be applauded for that effort.

I haven't photographed beggars here in Kabul. There are thousands of them but if I can't tell their story then I shouldn't exploit them. I don't, and won't, do gratuitous shots. You have put a lot of time and effort into your project and it is one that I hope you pursue. Your work isn't self-serving but I think we need to be attuned to work that is. I don't presume to speak for Ken but he might agree with me on this one.

Don't show me a picture- tell me a story. (Which I think you are doing with your project.) This is the photojournalism forum...

Wendy

[Ken Tanaka]

Wendy has expressed my intended thoughts perfectly, above.

But back to Nathan's work here, several of his images remind me very much of a project that Philip-Lorca diCorcia did several years ago in NY. Basically for the project, titled "Heads", diCorcia used remotely triggered flashes mounted to a construction-type scaffold to light sidewalk subjects who he then photographed distantly with a big lens. diCorcia's lives (very) profitably in the art photo world which is where these arresting sidewalk portraits sold. (A book of the work is still available on the 3rd-party market.)

Footnote: diCorcia was ultimately sued by one of his subjects (hey, it's NY) but the suit was dismissed. Subjects on the street are fair game in the U.S. as long as they are not defamed, which this man wasn't.

Nathan: You should make an effort to see diCorcia's "Heads" work.

[Paul Abbott]

I didn't take Ken's point as a personal jibe, at all.

I just found it strange that Ken mentioned 'contexts', 'contrasts' and 'juxtapositions' (all that I agree with wholeheartedly) in 'street photography', but then in another sentence, went on to say that photographing vagrants was - "too damn easy".

The 'too damn easy' line is totally out of context with what Ken was saying, so why say it?

[Nathan Hayag]

Originally Posted by Sandra Jones

I like this style very much. I did think a few were too dark, but that's nothing, it's what makes this set work. Love the 'tea is a religion...', fantastic colours and light. I'm amused at 'He says..She says', thought that was well done. Also I like the girls in 'BFFs'.

Thank you so much Sandra. I really appreciate your comments. :)

[Nathan Hayag]

Originally Posted by Wendy Thurman

Nathan-

Welcome, and thanks for the images. Like Asher, I find Teaism to be the most arresting image in your series. Like Ken, I would echo the "get closer" sentiment he expressed. I just did a series in a marketplace that failed because I did not get closer.

Your work is interesting and I hope to see more.

Wendy

Yea, that's the best advice I've got so far (thanks again, Ken). I actually ventured in using a 10mm focal range a couple of months back, but I had to stop when I got my leg kicked by a Mr. Grumpy lolz. Anyhow, the distance from my shots are all part of my composition. Trying to include my light source and the 'coming-towards-me' effect to give them a more 3D look (a Daido Moriyama technique). But Ken is right, there's no story if you barely see a face or a lingering gesture.

[Nathan Hayag]

Originally Posted by Ken Tanaka

Wendy has expressed my intended thoughts perfectly, above.

But back to Nathan's work here, several of his images remind me very much of a project that Philip-Lorca diCorcia did several years ago in NY. Basically for the project, titled "Heads", diCorcia used remotely triggered flashes mounted to a construction-type scaffold to light sidewalk subjects who he then photographed distantly with a big lens. diCorcia's lives (very) profitably in the art photo world which is where these arresting sidewalk portraits sold. (A book of the work is still available on the 3rd-party market.)

Footnote: diCorcia was ultimately sued by one of his subjects (hey, it's NY) but the suit was dismissed. Subjects on the street are fair game in the U.S. as long as they are not defamed, which this man wasn't.

Nathan: You should make an effort to see diCorcia's "Heads" work.

He's my hero, Ken. ;) Most of my shots are actually DiCorcia-inspired. You'll also see a little bit of Daido Moriyama and Rarindra Prakarsa in them.

[Nathan Hayag]

14) Two-Face.



15) OmNomNom.



16) Quo Vadis?




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[Nathan Hayag]

17) Let the sun shine through.


18) The rope trick.


19) Aura power.




.

[Asher Kelman]

Originally Posted by Nathan Hayag

17) Let the sun shine through.

18) The rope trick.


19) Aura power.

Thanks for locating real persons from the masses around you. That ability to give value to a stranger is arresting and agreeable to me.

Thanks Asher

[Hans Miedema]

WOW Nathan ,I love your work

Yes some may be a little closer but it works for me this way,the composition the PP great work