musicians 2

[Neilmac50]

Taken at the V&A waterfront again in Cape Town, these more traditional entertainers were about 200m from the old school guys in my B&W images.Used Nik Color Efex Pro and the "Tonal Contast" effect for these, its not one I would use if I wanted to do a portrait to be flattering as it brings out all the textures. The other issue I find with this effect is when taking images with a shallow depth of field, the boundaries between out of focus subjects can look artificial. Neil

[Shadowman]

Very animated expressions, nice effort.

[IzzieK]

You are right about your background assessment...it needs a bit of smoothing. What do you use for your PP? I love your shots...the composition the mixture of colours, textures, the poses, the expressions on their faces -- they are all great if one will concentrate on the main characters. ... your background suffers a little bit there on #1, 3 and 4. So my vote goes to #2 in the overall presentation. Every thing here at least looks decent enough.

[Neilmac50]

Thanks Izzie, I use Lightroom 5 in combination with various Nik plugins. These guys were very mobile and dancing with the beat of the music, that plus members of the public walking in front of me made it a bit hit and miss.

[IzzieK]

Thanks Izzie, I use Lightroom 5 in combination with various Nik plugins. These guys were very mobile and dancing with the beat of the music, that plus members of the public walking in front of me made it a bit hit and miss.

I understand...when I went to our airport last Tuesday to view (and take shots ) of the old airplanes there, there were also a lot of people. Then the P51 landed. (It was taking rides). Dr. Gardner (a guy three hangars from ours) came behind me and asked if I had taken a shot of the airplane. I said I was looking for the best shot but everytime I thought I found it someone always decide to go in front of my camera and blocked me, I complained. Being the genial loud mouth that he is, he decided to shoo away some people because "we are taking pictures of the airplane and we do not want them in our shots." The people decided to move to the sides. Some looked at us strangely probably wondering who was that silly man ordering them around. Or who was this special lady taking pictures...

Anyway, Nik plug-ins are OK but I do not use Lightrom. I have Adobe Master Suite and it is very good. I am not in cloud ... I use Nik occasionally too. I like it...maybe someone can teach you how to smooth out those backgrounds. I like #2's background. It is not as harsh (too processed) as the others. Altogether I like your shots apart from their background...maybe a longer lens is in order for your next shot? Just guessing...

[Neilmac50]

You are right Izzie some times these 'people' can be real nuisances when you don't want them in the image, I'm not a pushy person and try not to block anyone else's view whilst I am taking photos.Perhaps we need an assistant to follow us around telling everyone to make way!