ang mo in chinatown

[d2xpeter]

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
area of improvements on enhancing a b/w picture

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
The subject is the foreigner and my objective is to portrait the culture contrast with the chinatown backgrd

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
The subject's sunglasses and long hair caught my attention, especially when seen against the chinatown buildings in the backgrd.
taken around noon, at f8, 1/1600s, ISO3200 i think using a 60mm fl lens

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
The backgrd originally a bit distracting. Hv blur it to bring focus to the subject.

 

[Octarine]

If your subject / message is the contrast between foreigner and Chinatown in background then why do you blur out the background? If you need to do so then your composition is off and you're contradicting yourself.
Shoot again, select at first a spot with clean but still typical background that shows Chinatown in a very simple but clear way. Wait till one of the many tourists comes along the way.
Another thought: what's so special or unusual about a tourist in a tourist area?

 

[d2xpeter]

noted. thkq.
will scout chinatown again tomorrow.

 

[zaren]

the bright lighting at top left is distracting the viewer away from the main subject (ang mo). would prefer to apply backlight correction, selective dodging and burning to focus the lighting on the ang mo.
e.g.

 

[d2xpeter]

the bright lighting at top left is distracting the viewer away from the main subject (ang mo). would prefer to apply backlight correction, selective dodging and burning to focus the lighting on the ang mo.
e.g.

wow, this is nice. This is the effect i am trying to get! Yes!
thkq, Zaren
hv recently purchased LR4 and the nik silver efex but hv not really familiarize yet. Can dodging and burning be done using these?
hv tried very basic dodging and burning in a basic monochrome course in safra. Still a lot to learn for both analog and digital darkroom.

 

[zaren]

wow, this is nice. This is the effect i am trying to get! Yes!
thkq, Zaren
hv recently purchased LR4 and the nik silver efex but hv not really familiarize yet. Can dodging and burning be done using these?
hv tried very basic dodging and burning in a basic monochrome course in safra. Still a lot to learn for both analog and digital darkroom.

yes, you can dodge and burn using LR4.

 

[bonrya]

Hi Peter!

Out of curiosity, why did you select this shot to process? When you were taking this shot, did you just take one or a few?

The subject looks interesting to me... he has a certain look that stands out especially with the background..

However you mentioned that you wanted the subject to be contrasted against the background, but you blurred the background out because it was distracting. When shooting, you should note that there are no distractions so you can avoid this problem altogether. And also if the opportunity arises, you should pick a better background so you can really do the comparison between the subject and background. I think the intention was lost when you had to blur it out...

Just some tips on how to improve.. of cos shooting again is impossible now. :sweatsm:

thanks for sharing!

 

[dennisc]

I think it lacks direction, neither here or there just like the directions he's asking

 

[d2xpeter]

Hi Peter!

Out of curiosity, why did you select this shot to process? When you were taking this shot, did you just take one or a few?

The subject looks interesting to me... he has a certain look that stands out especially with the background..

However you mentioned that you wanted the subject to be contrasted against the background, but you blurred the background out because it was distracting. When shooting, you should note that there are no distractions so you can avoid this problem altogether. And also if the opportunity arises, you should pick a better background so you can really do the comparison between the subject and background. I think the intention was lost when you had to blur it out...

Just some tips on how to improve.. of cos shooting again is impossible now. :sweatsm:

thanks for sharing!

hi, thkq for the valuable advice.
a short burst of a few frames with my D2x with a 60mm f2.8 macro monochrome mode. The subject's sunglassess and long hair caught my attention. Blurring of backgrd was mainly to make him more in focus, while the blur is not too much to still make it recognisable. Didn't hv much time to properly set the lens aperture, i think. It was a spit second decision to capture this.