Two More for the Pot

[John 2]

Two more environmental portraits. The first is a Christmas Market stallholder from our recent break in Salzburg. The second is quite an old image but I sometimes revisit something that I like to see whether in the light of my PP skills improving, I can do a better job. It was taken on a Canon PowerShot G7 point and shoot which gives you some idea of its vintage (Pixel peepers will soon discern the difference in quality so please be kind). At the time we were sitting with a chilled glass of white wine and a tuna salad so he completed the enjoyment.

1. A Man and His Wares


2.Serenade

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts, good tonal capture on the first and good pattern capture on the second.

[Sam W]

Nice shots.

[Manfred M]

John - two fine images, but I'm not crazy about the PP of either.

Image 1 - it's just too warm. It looks like a shot taken in artificial light with the camera WB set to daylight. The scene, with all that woodwork is going to look a bit warm, I suspect. I think the whole shot needs to cool down a bit (and I do like portraits that are slightly on the warm side).

Image 2 - this shot looks a bit overexposed. I wonder if bringing down the exposure might not help and perhaps reducing the saturation a touch as well?

[John 2]

Thanks John, Sam and Manfred.

Manfred, the first image is a crop and there are areas of daylight around the stall. The camera is always set to auto and so the balance is slightly off. Having said that, I quite like the warmth mainly because of the preponderance of wood. The second image is slightly over in the mid tones and is improved as a result of pulling them back. I've adjusted both in accordance with your suggestions. See what you think.

1a. - wouldn't want to cool this one much more but feel free to have a go at PPing it.


2a.

[bnnrcn]

Hi John IMO you cooled down the first image too much, may be something in between ? (I was actually happy with the original but it is my taste that I usually prefer strong colors). The crop seems a bit too tight to me at the top , I don't know if it is deliberate. I would leave just a little bit more space at the top if possible . I would also crop the image from the bottom just under the newspaper(?) to make the FG subjects less distracting .

The re-edit of your second image looks very nice. I wouldn't decrease the exposure in the dark areas next to the left frame though as those parts look a bit too dark and distracting.

[IzzieK]

I agree with Binnur on the first about the crop and the space at the top of the guy's head...as for the other guy, I prefer the original one slightly overexposed. Not much difference though. I can only guess he is standing by a bridge-like place...there is little bit of mist (Oof) area at the left side. Don't make a big deal out of it though...as we are talking about the exposure here.