Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: N80 on September 21, 2016, 09:47:39 pm
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This is another shot from New Orleans that I took on a recent trip down through the Mississippi Delta. Criticism welcomed.
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Self indulgent bump. 70 views and no comments. I think indifference is worse than criticism but that may be all I need to know about this shot. Now I would like to know what makes it so mediocre. I will say that on my monitor here at work (Dell, Windows 7) it looks muddy and flat.
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To me, the tree and beads looks as if they were bleached in processing. The light for the street people is poor. The dark horizontals divide it.
Bruce
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To me, the tree and beads looks as if they were bleached in processing.
They were to a certain extent. That plus darkening the green in the tree behind it. Point well taken, thanks. Will tone that down a bit.
The light for the street people is poor. The dark horizontals divide it.
Bruce
That is the way it looks on my monitor at work too but not on my monitor at home or on the print. Will work on it.
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Nothing really grabs me as remarkable about it. The processing just seems blah. I don't feel any connection to the people or their connection to the tree.
Nothing to hate about it but nothing to love either.
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I suspect that's the consensus. It is funny how an image can strike us (the photographer) as having some particular appeal and no one else sees it. My wife kind of shrugged this one off too. But it is good to hear other's people's take. Which is why I like this particular forum so much.
I struggled with the processing and have probably over processed it into a muddy mess.
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MattBurt expressed my own thoughts very well.
But don't despair: I certainly have lots of shots that meant a lot to me but didn't seem to move anybody else, and I expect most folks on the LuLa Forum would say the same, if they weren't ashamed to admit it.
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Hi George, One problem is that street people are too easy. They're just there, and most of the people going by with cameras are shooting them. They've become clichés.
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Hi George, One problem is that street people are too easy. They're just there, and most of the people going by with cameras are shooting them. They've become clichés.
Agreed. And its not really my cup of tea...but when in New Orleans...
Aside from the issues with this image, one of the things I found interesting about these street people (and what drove me to take this shot) is that they were pretty well outfitted. In other words, warm cloths, nice back packs and sleeping bags, you can see some of them have guitars and drums. They do not appear to be alcoholics. Most are young. They look fairly clean, well fed and healthy. Maybe there is a difference between street people and homeless people? In any case, this bunch was very different from the ones I'd call homeless, sleeping on grates, poor nutrition, in poor health etc.
I liked the contrast of the festive Mardi Gras beads with their apparent (but possibly not actual) poverty. There may have been better ways to get this shot but as is typical with street photography you don't get a lot of chances. Plus, I'm very self conscious about taking stranger's pictures so it was a one shot deal for me. Makes me appreciate the value of a good street shot.
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Here's a bunch from St. Augustine, Florida. They're all over the place at St. Aug in the winter. This was April, 2006, but groups like this are there every time I go over. I finally stopped shooting them. Wasn't worth the trouble. These guys are pretending they're stranded and are begging.