stress


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denniskee

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Oct 26, 2003
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i noticed the man sitting there for quite sometime, i cant see his face but can tell he is very troubled over something, constantly having his hands over the back of his head, abit like pulling his hair (but u can see this cause photo have to be resized to post here) always looking down.

stress.jpg


40d, iso 1600, f4, 1/15sec, 24mm TSE with lens tilted to give shallow dof.

i have taken afew shots, some with more foreground (ie the floor without anything else), some with more empty space to the left, one in portrait orientation.

but i have chosen this shot to post here cause i wanted to place him in a small corner, the street lamp highlighting him only, and the background all blurred out.

converted to b&w to bring out more contrast between him and the dark background cause i feel the color version has too much distractions from the color lights and its water reflections.

do you feel his stress?
 

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i think its too dark.
the lamp-post on the left distract ur subject
a tighter crop would be better
 

a tighter crop would be better

by this, do u mean crop the top and the right? like that left only water liao lay.

edited : oh i think u mean crop until the roof of the pubs along the boat quay? leaving out the tall office buildings in the background? i tried cropping away 20% top and right.

on one hand, the person looks bigger. but on the other hand, i looses the smallness of him in the corner.:think::think:
 

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stress ? i dun feel any from it, instead it gives me dark and slient feeling..
 

by tighter crop i mean this


stress1.jpg
 

Basically too dark. Dun see much contrast in this pic despite changing it to bnw
 

thanks exposure and wildsoyabean for elaborating what they mean.

wildsoyabean, how about if crop till the roof of the shop houses along boat quay as oppose to ur crop here, whats ur feel?

thanks yehosaphat, i removed the colors and darken the background to isolate the person. guess it doesnt work for u.

need more critics for the original version please.
 

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a tighter crop definately work
but things to improve are a lot
1) a lower perspective, more man in the photo...i know u want to isolate him, but he needs to be egh for us to see
2) the lampost on the extreme left is a super negative addition to the photo - it completely kill the photo...observe more when u shoot next time
3) the background lack contrast and doesnt really add to the photo
 

a tighter crop definately work
but things to improve are a lot
1) a lower perspective, more man in the photo...i know u want to isolate him, but he needs to be egh for us to see
2) the lampost on the extreme left is a super negative addition to the photo - it completely kill the photo...observe more when u shoot next time
3) the background lack contrast and doesnt really add to the photo

thanks wildsoyabean.

bro, IMO how if you take with low angle position?

bro, long time no see.:)

i didnt want to go low because i wanted to capture his fingers grabbing / pulling his hair, which unfortunately, in this photo may be too small to see clearly.
 

i agree with the tighter cropping part. the scenery is quite lovely hence one might be distracted by the scenery.. if u want to add the scenery in, you must change the entire concept you're trying to give to the viewers.

nice picture though :)
 

Good job. I immediately felt the man's stress even before reading your description. :thumbsup: You'd acheived what you hope to achieve with this photo.

Nothing much you can do with the lamppost i guess, the man was seated very close to it. I don't suppose you could have approached him and asked him to sit further away from the lamp post so you can frame your shot. :p
 

Good job. I immediately felt the man's stress even before reading your description. :thumbsup: You'd acheived what you hope to achieve with this photo.

Nothing much you can do with the lamppost i guess, the man was seated very close to it. I don't suppose you could have approached him and asked him to sit further away from the lamp post so you can frame your shot. :p

alamak, the poor guy already appears to be stressed over something, cannot disturb him lar.:sweat::sweat:

actually, comes to think of it, i think i use trying to do something like this which i took long ago. showing isolation.

lonely_bike_2.jpg


a lone lamp post shinning onto a single subject with darkness all round and live which i wanted to use the distant lights to represent.
 

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stress ? i dun feel any from it, instead it gives me dark and slient feeling..

I also don't feel stress.
IMHO, the composition is marginally acceptable, but not delivering the 'stress' feeling.
 

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Picture is small. Causing The main subject to be even smaller.

Looks like he or she is scratching his/her back because got mosquito.

Also, this type of scene is not suitable for monochrome. There isn;t any shades of grey or gradient of white - black. Pitch black dark no tone and contrast.

After cropping, even worst...don't even knoe where is this place taken...no details of background. Nothing. Just someone scratching back....
 

I don't really feel the stress in this. The pose is a little mild to convey the message. I would prefer if you'd show a little more of his face to give a subtle hint.
I think the photo lacks a little punch.
I'd suggest you bump up the contrast or lighten the photo a little, especially in the area of the highlights in the shirt of the man.
 

A portrait crop might work on this one - without the other side of the river it'd lose quite a bit of its meaning. A man alone on one side of the bank, and a bustling scene on the other.

As mentioned the subject is too small and too much in the corner to be noticed first - he has to be looked for. And there's far too much black in the picture because of the river, that gives the impression that the picture is too dark. So I think cropping off the right chunk may help.
 

i think its too dark.
the lamp-post on the left distract ur subject
a tighter crop would be better

A portrait crop might work on this one - without the other side of the river it'd lose quite a bit of its meaning. A man alone on one side of the bank, and a bustling scene on the other.

As mentioned the subject is too small and too much in the corner to be noticed first - he has to be looked for. And there's far too much black in the picture because of the river, that gives the impression that the picture is too dark. So I think cropping off the right chunk may help.



I also think that the photo is too dark. I can't really see the person in the photo.

There are too much unimportant details in the photo.
(i.e. the water of the river is too much as compared to the human.)

Try using a green filter when shooting black and white. Some photos may have a nice contrast.
 

I can sense some stress over him.

Since the background doesn't bring in much interesting points, perhaps you can move one step in front, and to your right to eliminate the light post, while exposing more space around him. That will give more feeling like he's left alone, preserving the background lightings.
 

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