Man and Accordian - What could I have done better? C&C Requested

[TheBigE]

Hello,

I am just going through my photos and working on them from my cruise in the Baltic.

Once place we stopped was Helsinki Finland. A fun little city, but as with most touring you are out in mid day - strong harsh overhead sunlight.

As we were walking down a street to the local market, I spotted this friendly chap. I tossed 1.5 Euros in his coffer and pointed to my camera. He gladly accepted.

So without much time to prepare, this is what I ended up with....



Some thoughts -

I could have come back in a few minutes with my Speedlight to add some fill light on the subject,
Gone in closer on the face (at the expense of loosing the accordian)

Maybe gone a bit wider and lower to capture him from "below"

I am not saying this photo is totally lost, but I feel there was something here and give the situation just trying to learn for next time what I could have done better. Any input is appreciated.

[Manfred M]

Erik - a nice image, given the shooting conditions. Yes, fill flash would have been a nice touch, but often impractical in street photography. A few centimeters more at the bottom (no amputated feet) would have been good as well.

The real question is "does the image work", and here the answer is clearly YES!

[RBSinTo]

Hello,

I am just going through my photos and working on them from my cruise in the Baltic.

Once place we stopped was Helsinki Finland. A fun little city, but as with most touring you are out in mid day - strong harsh overhead sunlight.

As we were walking down a street to the local market, I spotted this friendly chap. I tossed 1.5 Euros in his coffer and pointed to my camera. He gladly accepted.

So without much time to prepare, this is what I ended up with....



Some thoughts -

I could have come back in a few minutes with my Speedlight to add some fill light on the subject,
Gone in closer on the face (at the expense of loosing the accordian)

Maybe gone a bit wider and lower to capture him from "below"

I am not saying this photo is totally lost, but I feel there was something here and give the situation just trying to learn for next time what I could have done better. Any input is appreciated.

Erik,
in addition to Manfred's good suggestions, you might have changed the shot by showing a bit more of the musician's surroundings (such as the coffer you mentioned) which would have made this more of an environmental portrait.
Knowing how difficult it is to get really good pictures in harsh, contrasty light, but for the aforementioned cropping of his feet, I think you did well.
Robert

[Mike Buckley]

I also think the photo works well, especially considering the circumstances. I might have taken this photo as you did with the plan to crop at the bottom a little below the hat. You can still do that, which will eliminate the feeling that all of the feet should have been included.

[Shadowman]

Capture the entire body.

[IzzieK]

+1 to Robert's suggestion and comments.

[rpcrowe]

First and foremost: I try always to have my camera equipped with a hotshoe flash for occasions like this.

I have two Canon hotshoe flash units which are quite nice for street photography because they are both small and light weight. The relatively new Canon 270EX ii and the oldie but goodie Canon 420EX. The 270EX ii is really tiny but will pump out enough light to help the shadows in relatively close shots like this while the 420EX is a bit bigger but still the smallest and lightest of Canon full size hotshoe flashes (no manual flash for these units but TTL works fine for this type of shooting) Both of these flashes have HSS capability.

Neither of these units will add enough weight to my kit to make the uncomfortable to carry.

In this case, holding the camera in the vertical (portrait) position, with the flash on my left (subject's right) side, might have toned down the image left shadows a bit. Obviously, if the shadows had been on the subject's right (image left) side, holding the camera with the flash on my right might have worked.

When I donate to a street musician or other street performer, I will take advantage of "hiring" the person and I will shoot a series of shots from different angles and distances and with different focal lengths. Usually, after the contribution, the subject is willing to allow me to do that.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Erik, I like the image. Mike's crop suggestion and some PP work like reducing the highlights and lifting the shadows on the man's face might work.He seems to be a man who gets happy with little things in life and doesn't want more . I think the look on his face makes the photo

[TheBigE]

Erik - a nice image, given the shooting conditions. Yes, fill flash would have been a nice touch, but often impractical in street photography. A few centimeters more at the bottom (no amputated feet) would have been good as well.

The real question is "does the image work", and here the answer is clearly YES!

Thanks Manfred - It does work and I am happy with the image...I think it would have been good to pull back a bit more and get the entire feet.

Erik,
in addition to Manfred's good suggestions, you might have changed the shot by showing a bit more of the musician's surroundings (such as the coffer you mentioned) which would have made this more of an environmental portrait.
Knowing how difficult it is to get really good pictures in harsh, contrasty light, but for the aforementioned cropping of his feet, I think you did well.
Robert

Robert - Thanks for the comments. The coffer would have added a bit more, I had the room to move back but there were crowds of people (I successfully managed to avoid them in the photo) walking up the street.

I also think the photo works well, especially considering the circumstances. I might have taken this photo as you did with the plan to crop at the bottom a little below the hat. You can still do that, which will eliminate the feeling that all of the feet should have been included.

Thanks Mike - I am going to play around with the crop a bit and see what comes about....maybe even go higher on the body just to see.

Capture the entire body.

Thanks John - Seems to be the consensus - one thing I have learned and still fall short is to really take a moment and review the entire frame before clicking the shutter button. I have a few photos that with about 5 seconds more of review in the VF I could have significantly increased the composition in a positive way.

+1 to Robert's suggestion and comments.

Thanks Izzy for the feedback!

First and foremost: I try always to have my camera equipped with a hotshoe flash for occasions like this.

I have two Canon hotshoe flash units which are quite nice for street photography because they are both small and light weight. The relatively new Canon 270EX ii and the oldie but goodie Canon 420EX. The 270EX ii is really tiny but will pump out enough light to help the shadows in relatively close shots like this while the 420EX is a bit bigger but still the smallest and lightest of Canon full size hotshoe flashes (no manual flash for these units but TTL works fine for this type of shooting) Both of these flashes have HSS capability.

Neither of these units will add enough weight to my kit to make the uncomfortable to carry.

In this case, holding the camera in the vertical (portrait) position, with the flash on my left (subject's right) side, might have toned down the image left shadows a bit. Obviously, if the shadows had been on the subject's right (image left) side, holding the camera with the flash on my right might have worked.

When I donate to a street musician or other street performer, I will take advantage of "hiring" the person and I will shoot a series of shots from different angles and distances and with different focal lengths. Usually, after the contribution, the subject is willing to allow me to do that.

Richard - Thanks for the feedback. In fact I had my HotShoe flash in my backpack with me...for the most part it stayed in my backpack on the trip. This is a strong lesson learned, as i am already carrying the weight (camera and backpack) just put it on the dang camera. It really does not add that much more when using a sling, maybe just is a bit more cumbersome at times.

This was my first go around with "hiring" someone and it worked out quite well for me. Given that I was with family (who are very supportive with my photography) I had a bit more time to explore some other options and just should have done it...you only live once. The chap was more than happy to pose and model.

Hi Erik, I like the image. Mike's crop suggestion and some PP work like reducing the highlights and lifting the shadows on the man's face might work.He seems to be a man who gets happy with little things in life and doesn't want more . I think the look on his face makes the photo

Thanks Binnur - I have already pulled out most of the highlights in PP and lifted the shadows...maybe a touch more with a brush would help on the face. He was a very enjoyable person and I am glad the photos shows what I saw in that he was someone happy with life and enjoying playing his accordion.

[TheBigE]

So a touch more PP with a focus on his face and a tighter overall crop...



Gives a stronger focus on the individual...still trying to decided if I like him chopped off at the knees.

[bnnrcn]

After seeing the crop , IMO uncropped composition works better Erik.IMO the stool and the umbrella (?) behind the stool on the ground add to the scene . I think his face looks better and might need a little desaturation to match the skin color of his hands

[jcuknz]

Is this better? without compositional changes.



Using an adjustment layer/curves I dragged the centre point downwards and to the right which darkens the image [softening the dark areas and adding contrast to the lighter shades] and then I selected his face and used the 'Fill Flash' tool in PSP to lighten the hard shadow on the face.
With careful use of 'fill flash' tool one doesn't need flash
Not sure which version of PSP it arrived with but I have had it since X4 or version 14. Older versions of PSP can be quite reasonably priced on Amazon ... sometimes not depending on demand

[IzzieK]

John, even though this is a nice edit, I think #3 image is more stronger than all of them. I think what the others are saying is the compositional environment could be better.

Is this better? without compositional changes.



Using an adjustment layer/curves I dragged the centre point downwards and to the right which darkens the image [softening the dark areas and adding contrast to the lighter shades] and then I selected his face and used the 'Fill Flash' tool in PSP to lighten the hard shadow on the face.
With careful use of 'fill flash' tool one doesn't need flash
Not sure which version of PSP it arrived with but I have had it since X4 or version 14. Older versions of PSP can be quite reasonably priced on Amazon ... sometimes not depending on demand

[TheBigE]

Thanks for the feedback John, Binnur and Izzie. While this photo is not lost completely and some PP work could be done to enhance the photo, it was really lost when I pressed the shutter button.

For me it is a good example of taking 1 extra second and looking around the view finder and asking is the composition correct? A single step back (to include his feet and coffer) would have made a large positive change in the overall composition, and really would not have been that difficult.

Frustrating to come back and look at it on the computer and realizes that something was left on the table.

Good learning experiences and thanks for the feedback everyone.