The Boners-downtime

[RBSinTo]

I work in a fresh Poultry processing plant here in Toronto that is staffed almost entirely by Chinese workers. The crew that de-bones the chicken is exclusively men and they are referred to as Boners.
When their work is unexpectedly interrupted while they wait for more chicken to arrive, many of them will congregate and gamble.
This shot was taken during one of their gambling sessions just outside the plant.
motorized Nikon FA
Vivitar 17~28 f4.0-4.5 AIS manual focus
Fuji 100 ISO colour slide
f8 @ 1/60th

[DEAN01]

Interesting commentary.

[Mike Buckley]

Such a wonderful composition! The overhead perspective works perfectly; the image displays the context of where the gambling is being done; and the one person making contact with the camera makes the image.

If you want to leave it in color, consider correcting the color cast. Otherwise, convert to monochrome using a yellow color filter and adjust the image to achieve better balance among the luminosity of the skin tones. The cards are so obvious that you don't need their color to indicate that they are cards. Personally, regardless of the reasons you might choose to convert, this makes a better monochrome than color photo for me.

Well done!

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[RBSinTo]

Such a wonderful composition! The overhead perspective works perfectly; the image displays the context of where the gambling is being done; and the one person making contact with the camera makes the image.

If you want to leave it in color, consider correcting the color cast. Otherwise, convert to monochrome using a yellow color filter and adjust the image to achieve better balance among the luminosity of the skin tones. The cards are so obvious that you don't need their color to indicate that they are cards. Personally, regardless of the reasons you might choose to convert, this makes a better monochrome than color photo for me.

Well done!

Mike,
Thanks for the detailed comments.
This was taken by pre-focusing using hyperfocus and then essentially holding the camera above my head and pointing it down over the crowd to the action below. Easy enough to do with the 17~28 and it is a technique I often use on the street to get above crowds.
I colour-corrected and de-saturated the image as you suggested, but haven't yet re-posted it.
Again the question of colour or black and white comes up. I always try it when I'm doing the Photoshop after I scan, but as with some of my other recent posts, I preferred the colour version.
I'll likely take this tomorrow night to my Evaluation Group in both versions and get some more comments.
Robert