Uncle can you mend my shoes

[Snappy99]

Saw this cobbler mending shoe . This sight/trade have been getting lesser and lesser. Took a shot so as to keep for memory . Remind me of old time . Hope our next generation can still see this sight .

Like to comment of composition and the feel of the photo. Thanks

 

[nigel84]

The first question in my mind was, why was this pic so clean? My opinion would be PP some noise in it. But nevertheless its a gd pic.

 

[eikin]

Snappy99, I think before you go on to add more effects, you might want to revisit the original picture before you turn it into black and white.

There are a good amount of tools on the floor, something that you might want to play up to add details to the photograph, and enrich the content of the photograph. The black and white processing removed much details in them.

The deliberate pseudo vignetting effect you've applied on the picture (probably an attempt to focus viewers' attention on the human subject) has resulted in a grey veil over the picture, making it look unnecessarily under exposed. The unclean execution of this processing has also resulted in an artificial halo largely focusing on the blank wall.

The original shot might have been a simple shot of the cobbler, but some things are best expressed simply. You might want to post the original picture as well for everyone to view.

 

[Yapster]

Nice moment captured on the cobbler's concentration on his work . :thumbsup:

Composition wise, i would say it is very clean and neat.

But i would prefer a wider version though.

If i am not wrong, you cropped from a wider shot right? or maybe you purposely blurred it? Seems a bit OOF throughout the shot.

So, feel=:thumbsup::thumbsup:, composition=:thumbsup:

 

[Snappy99]

All point taken ...below is the original photo only PP done is desaturate a bit,sharpen and add some noise . How does this look compare to the B/W one

I was struggling to post it in colour or B/W too , as i feel the colour one have nice colour of the tool...but in the end chose the B/W .

Anyway here is the colour version

 

[eikin]

Pardon me for editing your picture to illustrate some points.

The under exposure doesn't quite do any justice to the picture, so you might want to bump up the exposure by adjusting the curve for a start. The image quality is a little low, and might have affected the colours, so I've also pushed the saturation to make the little objects more visible. There's no need to worry that this will result in a lack of focus in the picture as in terms of proportion, the cobbler is undeniably the dominant subject in the frame, making his tools more visible adds more stories to your picture as it's not just about a cobbler at work, but also the state of the things he uses. Here's a quick edit:

If you insist on doing a black and white version, you might want to consider adding a little tint of colour to the picture to warm it up a little instead of sticking to the usual grey, which can be quite cold. It's entirely a personal preference so you might want to take some time to experiment a little.

When you do the black and white conversion, try to use a method that best preserves the details in the picture as well, so that you do not end up with patches of shadows with little information to read.

As to the feel of the picture, I personally think there's no need to deliberately create an old look for street portraits, simple depictions usually work better as viewers are allowed to read into the details themselves rather than imposing a nostalgic feel. However, if you're keen on creating the old washed-out photograph look, it's not wrong in itself, though it usually run into problems of unnecessary nostalgia and authenticity with stricter critics. I believe some members here are quite skilled in that area of post processing, they might be able to help

 

[Snappy99]

eikin.

thanks for the pointer ,will take note .

btw , wat is your opinion on b/w photo .. wat kinda photo suit best for b/w?

 

[eikin]

eikin.

thanks for the pointer ,will take note .

btw , wat is your opinion on b/w photo .. wat kinda photo suit best for b/w?

Rather than just asking what kind of photograph suits black and white, you need to ask yourself whether a black and white is going to help you express better. You can process any colour photograph into a black and white photograph, but if that processing is going to take away important details or mood of the picture seen only in colour, you'll have to think twice whether that works for you. Effects are just effects, and they are tools to your picture making, not ends.