Praying Monk - Liker Monastery

[Manfred M]

Another redo image from 2017.

This one, of a Tibetan Buddhist monk at prayer at the Liker Monastery in Ladakh, India. I used a relatively slow shutter speed and shot wide open at ISO 6400 to get this shot. I did my raw conversion with DxO PhotoLab 3 and used the Prime noise reduction algorithm.

The room was small and very dark, with a splash of light entering from the camera right. There are some issues with exposure (high dynamic range image, even in raw) where I had pure blacks and pure whites. In my view, that is part of why the image is effective and almost three-dimensional. The light is reflecting off the writings and acting as a fill light for his face.

[Manfred M]

This is the image that came out of DxO Photolab 3 before I spent a few hours dodging and burning...

[lunarbo]

I´m always interested to see the before and after pic to see what can be done

The elements you wanted to emphasise are now nicely drawing you in and the distractions (coffee mug, orange curtain etc) recede, whilst the extra lighting on hand and face give meaning.

Well worth the time spent I'd say .

You lose half a point for the woolly hat and leather coat, not really monk-like but i guess that's not your fault!

[Manfred M]

Thanks Barbara - your comment reminds me of something I saw on a business trip to Rome about 15 years ago.

I was at a workshop that happened to be a few hundred metres from St Peters, so I obviously wandered up the street to have a loot. I still clearly remember some sort of church official in rather traditional looking clothing and hat, sitting on the steps leading up to St Peters, pounding away on his laptop. That too seemed a bit out of place.

[pschlute]

I like it. The reflected sunlight has really made the image.

[FootLoose]

Very nice image, Manfred. Dodging and burning has really directed the viewer to the subject's face before exploring the shapes and tones in his robe.

It appears you have introduced some hard edges though - eg. on his beard line, the yellow fabric on the left frame, and the green mat you made.

I also wonder about the light under his left arm. In the original it seems some light is being reflected up off the yellow mat. While you have toned down the colour of the mat you haven't altered the light on the red robe. This has also made it a high contrast area which pulls the eye away from the more interesting areas above.

It is a rich image with plenty to hold the viewer's attention. Nice work.

[Manfred M]

Very nice image, Manfred. Dodging and burning has really directed the viewer to the subject's face before exploring the shapes and tones in his robe.

It appears you have introduced some hard edges though - eg. on his beard line, the yellow fabric on the left frame, and the green mat you made.

I also wonder about the light under his left arm. In the original it seems some light is being reflected up off the yellow mat. While you have toned down the colour of the mat you haven't altered the light on the red robe. This has also made it a high contrast area which pulls the eye away from the more interesting areas above.

It is a rich image with plenty to hold the viewer's attention. Nice work.

Thanks for the great comments Greg. I am definitely still refining this image and have incorporated or will be incorporating some of these ideas into the final image.

I generally post my images here where I feel it is 80% - 90% complete and look at the comments others have made as I continue to put the finishing touches on the image. The problem with the final 10% - 20% is that those will take as long, if not longer than the work that has already gone into the image,

Thanks again!