Market shopping

[mugge]

I liked the interaction between the buyer and seller but I wanted a more grungy look. C&C welcome

[Manfred M]

The window in the background is so bright and overpowering that it is a very significant distraction. My eyes go straight there and miss the rest of the image.

I also have a problem with the contrast; this image consists mainly of extreme highlights and extreme shadows with very limited mid-tones. Have a look at the histogram; images with extreme profiles like this generally don't work well.

[Shadowman]

It is very grungy, I think I asked you before was this taken with a camera preset filter or did you process this way? When I used to shoot with a preset I'd almost always get an exposure like this.

[mugge]

This was the slightly edited original. It looks too boring for me.

[Manfred M]

This was the slightly edited original. It looks too boring for me.

That would suggest that the composition is not working all that well for you. Using a "brute force" post-processing approach is not going to fix a content problem for you. You need to get a strong capture that works for you and then fine tune that in post-processing to create a strong image.

[lunarbo]

That would suggest that the composition is not working all that well for you.

For me....just my POV of course.................. this picture is all about the interaction between dark jumper lady and the seller

Ms Striped jumper and her bag take up 40% of prime central space and do not contribute to the story

[billtils]

Full marks for trying something different to create an image that you prefer to the original, Ole, and that's what your post is all about.

Manfred's comments are correct in the context of accepted perspectives but from what you say, that is not where you wanted to go. I'm not so sure about Barbara's "Ms striped jumper" - she's there and engaged in the possible transaction, but the amount of real estate that she occupies probably does get in the way of the dialogue between the other two.

Overall the image doesn't really work for me, but I'd certainly stop and look at the "grunge" version long before the original, and at the end of the day it's your story, not mine.

[DanK]

I'm afraid that my reaction was the same as Manfred's.

It's possible that you could take this in a totally different direction, bringing out the reflection rather than obliterating it, to make something more interesting, but it would take a good bit of work and might not work anyway.

[mugge]

I'm afraid that my reaction was the same as Manfred's.

It's possible that you could take this in a totally different direction, bringing out the reflection rather than obliterating it, to make something more interesting, but it would take a good bit of work and might not work anyway.

That was exactly what I was trying to do by increasing exposure on the top of the mirror, that is merging it with the light coming from behind.

[Manfred M]

Let me expand my thoughts on this shot a bit Ole.

In general, the backs of people do not make for particularly interesting subjects, although there are exceptions. There is Yousef Karsh's well known image of cellist Pablo Casals that is just that.



https://karsh.org/photographs/pablo-casals/

A more general use of showing people from the back in an image is to help guide the viewer's eye towards the subject and we see this done fairly successfully in images.

In this shot, the viewer's eye falls on the back of the woman in the striped sweater, as Barbara has already pointed out. Giving her that much space in the image suggests that she is the subject of the image.

In my view, the interesting part of this image is the interaction between the vendor (and her holding the mirror) and the woman on the right. I think that this could have been a very interesting shot had the woman in the middle not been there breaking up the visual flow. There would still have been the issue of the visually distracting area in the back, but that part is fairly easy to fix.

Your last few images have been interesting and show that you are thinking about how you are composing and framing your shots, but you are still not picking up what the distracting elements are. This shot looks more like a grab shot than something that you considered and framed. Try slowing down and analyzing the elements in what you are seeing before you take the shot. I generally find that women who are shopping for something will tend to spend some time in interesting positions so you should have some time to analyze and frame your shot if you slow down and think about what you would like to do with the scene.

As an aside, I don't have an issue with the grungy treatment that you tried in the original image. My issue with it is that you seem to be trying to treat the wrong issue with the image. The original shot does not have a contrast issue but rather a composition issue and no amount of treatment (other than perhaps a crop) will fix that.

Not a 100% solution, but there is some interesting material in this shot.

[Geoff F]

Just a thought, Ole. Reduce the amount of uninteresting back in this scene. Crop the bottom to just show the arm of that right side figure and a little from the side to give something like a 3 x 2 ratio image?

[mugge]

I liked Geoff's idea. So here is

[billtils]

I liked Geoff's idea. So here is

I like it too. Nice diagonal alignment of the heads and is true to your "Market shopping" concept.

Well done Geoff for the suggestion and you for he implementation.

[Manfred M]

Sorry Ole, this image is still not working particularly well for me. All of the issues that have been identified as being issues are still apparent in this image. The tighter crop simplifies the image (which is generally a good thing) but introduces new issues by introducing new distractions near the bottom of the frame that draw the viewer's attention out of the image. The awkward crop of the camera right womnan's arm, for example.

[DanK]

I started playing with it, but I didn't end up with anything that works well. I did this:

--leveled the image

--cropped from both sides

--darkened the window in the background

--lightened the saleswoman

--lightened and added a lot of contrast to the customers.

Maybe these are directions worth going, but these quick edits aren't great.