Russ,
I almost didnt put up the first one because I shoot people very seldom. What I like particulary about this picture is the guy at the very left wich is so intensely staring, I think it was a very good moment.
The overblown back its not bothering me too much. I dont shy away to let parts of the image blowing if subject demands it, through Im trying to avoid that. If I printed it I would probably revise that to see if it gets better with non-blown background. Wont do this now because the image is too old. Its done.
When you say you dont like the light on his face, is it just the light, or the colors? I guess you mean the colors. These come from a grey version, mapped greenish in the lights and blueish in the darks. They are meant to depict the general, overall mood in this part of the city. But then I believe this works only, or at least better in a series, so I can understand how it might look strange. I'll put the others up if theres interesnt. So, IF I will print this one big and as a single picture, its very possible I might change the toning, thanks for pointing that out.
The second picture, I wrote already that it isnt snow, but just the post work. I dont know what you mean exactly with sharpening artifacts. Undoubtely this file is really pushed right to its limit, but also has a lot of cut off highlight range so that might be it as well. To be honest I dont care here, it looks ok in print.
3: Very interesting you mention exactly the same doubt I had with this one: Even if it looks good, there is no obvious point to the light inside and outside. That was nagging me all the time. I couldnt make work what I had in mind with this one, so I eventually left it at this point, totally unhappy. Very possible that I will make another version of this. But nontheless, over the time slowly liked it more and more, despite that undeniable weakness.
4: Haha, thanks for the compliments! I feel humbled Think I made a quite good job here... if I could only repeat it more often My original fascination is how the steel rods are forming a second frame, and I tried to get that. That you dont know what it is add to this I think, and that also shows in the series. It became clear very soon that it works quite good as B/W.
5: I throught too that apart from the color and the framing the mist is really the only thing wich makes a difference, wich is somehow a bit scaring, meaning there is nothing special about the own ability, it was just the right weather... ...well I guess Im being negative here... it really means "dont waste your time with bad weather days" And this day was superb.
6 was done on the same day as 5, and no, I didnt push saturation too much. The colors where like this, it was just the perfect autumn day.
7: As said, I reworked this one to a much better v2, but Im not yet done. Many thanks for pointing out the bad light and that the grass really is the key, I was not fully aware of that. Thats exactly what I was hoping for when I posted here. The answer how to shot it better turned out to be easy, I just took another shot wich was exposed one stop less and this works (after some PS-massaging).
Im at a point now where I feel it now makes more sense to invest more care and time when shooting. But then there comes the difficulty that sometimes (not always) the more care I invest, the worse the image gets, and I get unsure with framing, as if Im loosing it when Im trying to be especially good. Has anyone encountered that? Can I do anything about that?
Sorry this got really long, hope I didnt bore you all to much, originally wanted to keep it short but it kept growing and growing
Christian