Today's Catch - Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

[RockNGoalStar]

Hi All,

Here's a shot of a group of fisherman on the beach in Trincomalee (Trinco to you Donald ).

I watched them haul their nets in for about 4 hours in the blazing sunshine and this is the moment when they finally hauled their net ashore.

Not sure I have gone too far with the processing. I tried several techniques to bring back some detail in the fishermen and their faces. As you can see from the sun's position it was difficult to expose for their faces and keep detail in the sky, but I did my best at the time. I also added quite a strong vignette to really focus your attention on the fishermen and their catch, rather than the passers by and spectators at the sides.

I also quite like it in B&W, but am interested to hear your thoughts on all aspects of this shot. Your C&C is most gratefully received.

Nikon D90 | Nikon 18.0-105.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @18mm | f/11 | 1/640 | ISO 200





Thanks for viewing

[AB26]

Hi Tommy,
With a Nikon D90, I would have liked to see what the original looks like. My eye is now drawn to the sky instead of "Today's Catch".

[RockNGoalStar]

Hi Tommy,
With a Nikon D90, I would have liked to see what the original looks like. My eye is now drawn to the sky instead of "Today's Catch".

Hi Andre, here is the SOOC JPEG. All I have done is resized it and put it in the same frame to make comparison easier.



This is where you get to see that my photography skills suck in reality, and I have to do all the hard work in ACR and Photoshop

I did only have a matter of seconds to get in there and grab the shot(s) before the men put down the net, so I won't beat myself up too much

[RockNGoalStar]

Do you think I have gone too far with my processing?

[FrankMi]

Do you think I have gone too far with my processing?

I think it all depends on your goals, Tommy. Give the original to ten photographers and you'll get, just as in the monthly post processing contest, ten different interpretations of what it should look like.

To my vision I feel that the saturation is a little high (and I tend to like a little 'kick' in that aspect). I like the sky but feel that the man on the left’s pants has lost detail. My guess is that I would try to decrease the contrast a bit to pick up on some of the detail throughout the image.

The original is certainly worth trying the look of several approaches with and then deciding which one appeals to you most.

[Donald]

I did only have a matter of seconds to get in there and grab the shot(s) before the men put down the net, ...

And just capturing the scene as a documentary image makes it a worthwhile effort. As you say yourself, the lighting conditions were not really favourable.

I prefer the B & W because I think it focuses attention on the story. The colour version is colourful (as a colour image should be), but the effect of that is to make it more of a study about colour than a social story type of image ........ in my eyes anyway!

[Nicola]

once again
I agree with Donald. I do prefer the B&W version.
the color one is a bit too saturated and contrasted.
Anyway in the colour picture, IMHO I think that both people and sky&background are the very subject of the image. without hte ambient it could be a more common picture of fishing.
also the difference of light between the face of fishers on the center and on the border is one of the most evident a drawbacks of the PP.
In the b&w picture these issues are less visible perhaps for its vintage effect that makes it a timeless picture. I like and I agree with Donald's sentence "it focuses attention on the story".
hope it helps
good work Tommy
ciao
Nicola

PS I also think that after a very deep study of the light of the subject a flash could be of help to capture a stunning picture

[RockNGoalStar]

Frank, Donald, Nicola... ...thanks for all taking the time to offer your feedback. You have all posted really helpful comments and I am inclined to agree with them all.

I think I will try a couple of more times from scratch with the PP, although as Nicola said, I think the only way to have captured this successfully at the time would have been with the use of a flash, and probably multiple ones at that.

The more I look at the colour version the more it looks like some sort of pseudo HDR image, of which I am not particularly fond. I think you hit the nail on the head Donald re: the B&W version.

I'm pretty sure the image still has potential, I just think I need to do it justice in Photoshop. If you think differently, please speak up!

Maybe I should have used a larger aperture to decrease the DoF, thereby isolating the subject a bit better. I guess that is something I could play around with in post too

[pnodrog]

You asked if you had gone to far and for me you have. The main problem with the original is the lost of detail in the faces. If you shot in RAW you should be able to recover the faces. However your first photo indicates that you can pull some detail out of the faces. Why not just try some good old fashioned dodging as well as shadow highlight adjustment?

[Ken MT]

I had a little play with your image in Elements by reducing the midpoint in levels, then in colour curves darkened the highlights, and lightened the shadows. What do you think of this, and how does it reflect what you saw when you took the photo?

[RockNGoalStar]

Nice job, Ken. Thanks for doing that. I think just a tiny bit of contrast added to your image and we're nearly there. I'll have another play with the RAW image from scratch and aim for something like what you've achieved there.

Cheers :-)

[AB26]

Hi Tommy,
I have to agree with Frank, ten different people will interpret the scene in ten different ways. To shoot into the sun like that with dark skinned people demands use of fill flash, if you were going to put emphasis on the people. To me it does not matter if the faces can be seen, I think it is all about the heavy net filled with fish.
I like the original better, it draws more attention to the net - with PP, less is always better, to me.
Sorry for doing this. I tweaked a little on the original: