Modern man

[ionian]

for C&C. It's not quite clicking for me at the moment - I think it's because my subject is facing out of the frame. All suggestions welcome.

[Shadowman]

I think you are creating limitations or blocks when you rely on compositional edicts. Look at the image as a whole and see if the elements work, do you have enough, too many, none at all? Nice capture, I like the shapes and lines, the guy is just a prop in an image that personifies structure, growth, overcrowding.

[Sergio M.]

I agree with John; it's a good image. It typifies man in his modern environment which of course always seems to include a cell phone.

There are a lot of elements in here to work with. You could try different angles, perspective, time of day, dof, etc. The reflective nature of the building is difficult, but you handled it well.

You obviously have something in mind. Work on that concept.

Sergio

[ionian]

Thanks Sergio and John - I was clearly having a crisis of confidence. Fresh eyes have gone for light and dark diagonals in the composition, and some work to ensure my modern man stands out from the background.

[Geoff F]

The verticals are slightly slanted but that isn't really a major problem. The second version certainly avoids the rather 'dull grey' look of the previous image where there were too many areas of similar tonal values.

[Mike Buckley]

For me, this is a very nice photo about modern architecture; the subject is the modern building so nicely lit by natural light.

So, the title of the thread threw me off by leading me to believe the subject is the person. If the person is your intended subject, the image doesn't work for me. If the building is the subject, the title of your thread doesn't work for me.

[ionian]

If the person is your intended subject, the image doesn't work for me. If the building is the subject, the title of your thread doesn't work for me.

I think I'm just going through a HCB wannabe stage, where I want every image to be full of meaning about the human journey. I'm not HCB, I'm more JCB, but I'll keep plugging away!

I wanted the image to be about the man, walking away from the modern buildings surrounded by architecture and light but engrossed in his phone. This goes back to my original point - to make this work, I needed him to be further up the path walking into the image and/or have other observers of the building who were clearly more aware of the surroundings. It's one of those that worked in my mind, but not so well in execution. On the other hand, I have a decent architectural photo, and maybe should have concentrated on that element of it; although this is a building I have many opportunities to see and I'm sure I can do better at documenting it in a more interesting way.

[TonyW]

I like the lines and the architecture. The man is also a nice feature but I want him just a bit further down the road and correspondingly closer and relatively larger so that he stands out more.

[mugge]

Maybe if the man was closer to the buildings and thus overwhelmed by them. That is however another theme. I transgress but it was just a thought.
Cheers Ole

[ionian]

Thanks Ole and Tony - I agree about the man's positioning, it sounds like we all had roughly the same thoughts.

[IzzieK]

Simon, sorry but to make that man into the subject, the building shouldn't be the focus of attention. As our eyes are naturally drawn to brighter objects, the man is not consider a subject here. The building is. You got a beautiful structure there behind that man. I do not know how this would work apart from that man having one of modern nuances of society of today, a cellphone. I hope you follow my thoughts here but I do not know what HCB or JCB means either.