Faces of Hong Kong

[Misery]

hey all, great to see all the wonderful work being done here. figured id contribute a couple of my own. taken last june in Hong Kong.

how do you guys like the sepia tone? something ive been fooling around with..felt like i wanted something other than bnw.

[khairi]

dunno what to say...i think they look good...

[zaren]

pic 1 - prefer a tighter crop of the old woman as a street portrait.

pic 2 - excellent.... especially with the quirkiness of the string tying the two stools together.

sepia works for me.

[melnjes]

No. 1 - too much head space, agree with zaren that a tighter crop might be better. Was PS done to blur the background? Looks a bit strange, some objects that seem to be closer to the lens are blurer than objects that seem to be further. My sincere apologies if I'm mistaken.

No. 2 -

[Misery]

thanks for the comment folks!

zaren and melnjes: i did think of cropping the top down a little but felt that that would take away the context of the scene. this lady was doing her grocery shopping and had just exited the store you see in the background. so, i decided to leave the generous headspace to remind people that this isnt just a photo of someone's face, its a photo of someone going about her daily life.

melnjes: no PS work other than sepia and a little contrast/sharpening was done. photo was shot with a 50mm f2 wide open hence the shallow depth of field. i used two pillars in front of my to frame her and the shop in the background. the pillars in front of me were beyond the hyperfocal so they came out blurred nicely and the aperture ensured that the background wasnt pulled into focus to become a distracting feature.

[khairi]

no need to crop too much a little will do...too much head space or not seems to be not a prob...and your idea abt the shot is valid...so if you want to crop, just a little...it's a good street portrait to me...the person and her life in one shot.