Ganges Boatsman

[Manfred M]

I caught a shot of this young boatsman who earns his living rowing tourists and pilgrims up and down the Ganges River at Varanasi. India. There are literally hundreds of boats doing this during the day. I took this picture as he rowed by our boat.

Why B&W; perhaps his brilliant purple shirt wasn't working for me...

[Dave A]

Geez Manfred your shootin some great images over there. Another beauty.

Dave

[Shadowman]

Nice capture.

[Manfred M]

Geez Manfred your shootin some great images over there. Another beauty.

Dave

Shot, actually. We were there this time last year and I've finally started to go through the many shots I've taken over the past 12 months.

[IzzieK]

Did the conversion to B/W gave those noise around his face do you think? He looks artificial around the face ... must be because of his hair or something...

[Manfred M]

Did the conversion to B/W gave those noise around his face do you think? He looks artificial around the face ... must be because of his hair or something...

Tsk, tsk. Pixel peeping again, Izzie?

The whole series on the Ganges were taken from roughly 6:00AM through to 7:00AM at this time of year and in very hazy conditions, so the lighting was quite marginal. Couple that with shooting from a moving row boat on a camera with a small (mFT) sensor and long focal lengths using a "universal" 14-140mm lens, the conditions I was working under dictated high ISO. The Panasonic GX7 (in spite of what the reviews say) needs to be shot near base ISO to minimize noise. This shot is taken at ISO 1600 and has a minor crop related to straightening the horizon.

The image went through noise reduction before sharpening, so what you see here is an improvement over what I started with, but..

The strangeness of the scene; young guy with slicked back hair wearing a mauve dress shirt looked totally out of place, and this is what caught my eye in the first place. Here's the colour version.

[kdoc856]

Hi, Manfred

I much prefer the B&W version. There are several elements of tension within it: the oarsman looking out of the frame and away from his glide path, the position of his arms and the oars crossed at 90 degrees. the other boat about to cross behind, but at the same time a very calm countenance in the midst of the action...I just don't get those elements in the colour version because I can't get my eyes off the purple shirt.
It's a really interesting shot. And... I can tolerate a lot more noise in B&W than I can in colour.

[Manfred M]

I can't get my eyes off the purple shirt.

Ditto - that is the primary reason I went to B&W. That shirt is so "in your face" that it is probably the primary reason I took the shot, but it looks so out of place and so overwhelms the scene, it just had to go.

[bnnrcn]

+1 to Kevin's comment

[IzzieK]

Tsk, tsk. Pixel peeping again, Izzie?

That wasn't my intent....honest! I just thought I'd take a closer look because of the artificial-ness of his character. I like the colour version better because my eyes understand it better but still that hair!!! looks so stiff...Maybe perhaps if you tone down the purple shirt, it will not compete with the image...at least with the coloured version the skin looks more there. I cannot describe it. Both are good if one sees the coloured version too.

The whole series on the Ganges were taken from roughly 6:00AM through to 7:00AM at this time of year and in very hazy conditions, so the lighting was quite marginal. Couple that with shooting from a moving row boat on a camera with a small (mFT) sensor and long focal lengths using a "universal" 14-140mm lens, the conditions I was working under dictated high ISO. The Panasonic GX7 (in spite of what the reviews say) needs to be shot near base ISO to minimize noise. This shot is taken at ISO 1600 and has a minor crop related to straightening the horizon.

The image went through noise reduction before sharpening, so what you see here is an improvement over what I started with, but..

The strangeness of the scene; young guy with slicked back hair wearing a mauve dress shirt looked totally out of place, and this is what caught my eye in the first place. Here's the colour version.

[mugge]

Manfred, I do not want to look at a purple shirt. A purple shirt is a purple shirt. Your B&W version is great. Me thinks that it was intuition that made you go mono. Perhaps it was also experience.
Cheers Ole

[John 2]

Mono for me as well Manfred. Noise of this type is so-o difficult to get rid of without detracting from the overall quality of the image. There is nothing worse than the plastic look. The strength of this to me is the composition with the OOF boat in the BG giving context to the subject.. It's a fine shot.