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Author Topic: Fstoppers street critique  (Read 4409 times)

32BT

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #20 on: December 30, 2018, 06:34:33 am »

An interesting question kept my mind occupied: what is the fundamental difference between the highest community rated image and the "streetart" shot?

Highest rated image:


Streetart:


I mean they both represent a similar kind of image with strong graphics in striking colors and a single individual, anonymised by size. The graphics and colors are the dominating elements which represent a typographical beauty. They are both spontaneous moments, slices of life in urban setting, captured outside the studio. Why then is it that for me (and apparently for the presenter as well) the first image does not represent street in the narrow sense of the word?

The difference is actually quite easy to demonstrate: if you imagine that first picture with a large white vase, or perhaps a white pilar instead of the person standing there, does it fundamentally change the image? For me personally, it would still be the same. In the second image however, if you remove the individual from that second image, you remove entire layers of meaning, which breaks it apart into a merely mildly interesting abstract no longer alluding to the african traditional theme that's brought together so effectively by that serendipitously appropriate individual.

In other words, in that first image, there is no interaction (neither literally, metaphorically, nor graphically) between the individual and his environment. It lacks binding of elements. You can replace the colors with different complementary colors, you can even replace the elements and it would still be a graphically striking image, but it doesn't communicate anything beyond the striking graphics, therefore it lacks a binding narrative.

Because it lacks a binding narrative, even just graphically, it no longer qualifies as street in the narrow sense of the definition.
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32BT

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #21 on: December 30, 2018, 06:46:24 am »

p.s. please note the above was written in my not so humble but otherwise totally irrelevant and especially uneducated opinion. I'm merely trying to explicate my intuition. I fully accept and appreciate that people may have different opinions and intuitions, in other words: YMMV.
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RSL

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #22 on: December 30, 2018, 07:09:31 am »

Well said, Oscar. And my opinion is sitting right there with your opinion, clinking glasses.
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Ivophoto

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Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #23 on: December 30, 2018, 07:42:31 am »

An interesting question kept my mind occupied: what is the fundamental difference between the highest community rated image and the "streetart" shot?

Highest rated image:


Streetart:


I mean they both represent a similar kind of image with strong graphics in striking colors and a single individual, anonymised by size. The graphics and colors are the dominating elements which represent a typographical beauty. They are both spontaneous moments, slices of life in urban setting, captured outside the studio. Why then is it that for me (and apparently for the presenter as well) the first image does not represent street in the narrow sense of the word?

The difference is actually quite easy to demonstrate: if you imagine that first picture with a large white vase, or perhaps a white pilar instead of the person standing there, does it fundamentally change the image? For me personally, it would still be the same. In the second image however, if you remove the individual from that second image, you remove entire layers of meaning, which breaks it apart into a merely mildly interesting abstract no longer alluding to the african traditional theme that's brought together so effectively by that serendipitously appropriate individual.

In other words, in that first image, there is no interaction (neither literally, metaphorically, nor graphically) between the individual and his environment. It lacks binding of elements. You can replace the colors with different complementary colors, you can even replace the elements and it would still be a graphically striking image, but it doesn't communicate anything beyond the striking graphics, therefore it lacks a binding narrative.

Because it lacks a binding narrative, even just graphically, it no longer qualifies as street in the narrow sense of the definition.

The two pictures are so different to me, it seems the first is coming from Venus, the second from Mars. 

I’ll try to explain.

The woman on the stairs is IMO not such a strong image (it’s still a decent color picture) It is not more than what you described.

The first, on the other hand, is from a total other caliber. The vacuum in this image is huge. The sense of distance, in terms of miles but more importantly in social terms is dramatic.
The color scheme emphasizes the visual appeal of the image, this would not work that well in black and white.

Only my five cents.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2018, 07:46:09 am by Ivophoto »
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RSL

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #24 on: December 30, 2018, 08:23:55 am »

I'm always interested to see what street in color looks like in B&W. In this case, the strength of the picture is still there. Possibly even enhanced when we remove the distraction of color.
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elliot_n

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #25 on: December 30, 2018, 08:27:18 am »

I prefer the first image. The suggestion that it would work same if the man was swapped out for a large white vase seems strange to me. Surely the image is activated by the contextualisation of this man's absorbed thoughts within the setting of a very inhuman looking city?

I like the second image too, but it seems lighter. It displays good forethought and timing, and it's neat how it riffs on the colours of national identity. But the woman seems like a pawn in the photographer's game — there's no emotional charge there. (IMO, obvs.)
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KLaban

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #26 on: December 30, 2018, 08:31:31 am »

I'm always interested to see what street in color looks like in B&W. In this case, the strength of the picture is still there. Possibly even enhanced when we remove the distraction of color.

One man's distraction is another's attraction.

;-)

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #27 on: December 30, 2018, 08:58:57 am »

I know, Keith. To you, color is everything. And you do it well. But there's another thing called graphics, and B&W can bring the power of graphics out from behind the distractions of color, especially in photography, where you don't really have control of the color. The graphics are strong in this picture, even in its color version. But I think they're stronger in B&W. I'd like to see both version full-size.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #28 on: December 30, 2018, 09:23:10 am »

I prefer the first image. The suggestion that it would work same if the man was swapped out for a large white vase seems strange to me. Surely the image is activated by the contextualisation of this man's absorbed thoughts within the setting of a very inhuman looking city?

I like the second image too, but it seems lighter. It displays good forethought and timing, and it's neat how it riffs on the colours of national identity. But the woman seems like a pawn in the photographer's game — there's no emotional charge there. (IMO, obvs.)

+1

KLaban

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #29 on: December 30, 2018, 09:27:59 am »

I know, Keith. To you, color is everything. And you do it well. But there's another thing called graphics, and B&W can bring the power of graphics out from behind the distractions of color, especially in photography, where you don't really have control of the color. The graphics are strong in this picture, even in its color version. But I think they're stronger in B&W. I'd like to see both version full-size.

Studying it, as I did at art college for a number of years, I'd like to think I understand graphics pretty well, well enough in fact not have to convert images to B&W to understand those qualities.

And, Russ, please, I'd like to think that colour is but a part of what it is I do.

rabanito

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #30 on: December 30, 2018, 09:30:13 am »

Few have the slightest idea what the illuminati think Street is...

What are the "illuminati"?
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Ivophoto

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #31 on: December 30, 2018, 09:31:47 am »

Studying it, as I did at art college for a number of years, I'd like to think I understand graphics pretty well, well enough in fact not have to convert images to B&W to understand those qualities.

And, Russ, please, I'd like to think that colour is but a part of what it is I do.

And that makes you a more complete artist / photographer, Keith. The color toolbox is a complex one, not understood by many.
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Ivophoto

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #32 on: December 30, 2018, 09:33:20 am »

What are the "illuminati"?

Those who think the spotlight shines only on their face. I guess ..... 

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KLaban

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #33 on: December 30, 2018, 09:34:01 am »

I'd add that I think the graphics are more obvious, stronger even, in the colour version of the second image than the B&W version

Ivophoto

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #34 on: December 30, 2018, 09:35:57 am »

I'd add that I think the graphics are more obvious, stronger even, in the colour version of the second image than the B&W version

Yes, I agree. The B+W version is crippled.
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #35 on: December 30, 2018, 09:39:02 am »

Yes, I agree. The B+W version is crippled.

+1

The color doesn't distract, it adds atmosphere.

Cheers,
Bart
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #36 on: December 30, 2018, 09:47:49 am »

What are the "illuminati"?

Googling is easy, but I’ll save you the trouble:

rabanito

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #37 on: December 30, 2018, 09:50:16 am »

My opinion as a lowly newbie is that there is not such a thing like B&W being better than in colour or vice versa.

It is as the artist felt and presented it.

No van Gogh changed to B&W or Gustave Dore drawings changed to colour for me.
They are how they are.

BTW, the expressive power of some opinions here impresses me much more than the pictures themselves (!)
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rabanito

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #38 on: December 30, 2018, 09:53:21 am »

Googling is easy, but I’ll save you the trouble:

THAT's friendliness Slobodan. And in the right context.
Thank you
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32BT

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Re: Fstoppers street critique
« Reply #39 on: December 30, 2018, 09:58:03 am »

I prefer the first image. The suggestion that it would work same if the man was swapped out for a large white vase seems strange to me. Surely the image is activated by the contextualisation of this man's absorbed thoughts within the setting of a very inhuman looking city?

Inhumane looking structure, because i don't see "city". A dark blue monster with orange teeth, maybe. Remember, it is not about this being a bad image, on the contrary, but it is more about this being street in the narrow sense of the word. Maybe it is clear to others, and i simply don't get it. I don't see, or perhaps more appropriate; recognise a pensive state in the first image for example, or the vacuum of anonymity in the city, if that was what Ivo meant.

I like the second image too, but it seems lighter. It displays good forethought and timing, and it's neat how it riffs on the colours of national identity. But the woman seems like a pawn in the photographer's game — there's no emotional charge there. (IMO, obvs.)

I agree, but for me that would be more important in the first image.
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