Evening Smoke

[polloloco81]

I recently took this photograph of this homeless fellow having a cigarette. After taking this shot, I sat down and talked with him for a while and learned that his name is Jeff. I made the photograph sepia because I thought it would connect the lonely figure better with the audience and emphasize much more on the emotions. Please give me any critiques or comments.

http://www.willowbendstudios.com/dd/jeff1small.jpg

[eland]

You have done a fine job on this image.

I must admit that reading your text while the image was
loading, I had a very different mental picture of the homeless person.
He looks very clean and well dressed. Even clean shaven. Also looks well educated.
And is that your cell phone next to him or his ????

Thanks for sharing the photo. The care you took preparing the image was time well spent.

regards
eland

[polloloco81]

Oh, that's my cell phone and keys. I considered cropping it out but I decided to leave it in just to add more questions and interest to the photograph. Yeah, as far as the figure is concerned, I did not think he was homeless either until I started talking to him.

P.S. He was wearing a Pink Floyd: The Wall T-shirt by the way :)

[eland]

Interesting story. Well you have part of his story now
so you know how come a cleancut guy like that was on the skids.
One thinks of drugs or shattered romance.

A good thought-provoking picture.

PS You could remove the phone without cropping it off.
Still as you say, it adds to the picture.

Again, well done.

eland

[eland]

Polloloco, (Mad Chicken ??)

Your picture is so good that aside from the story of this guy,
you have a great image cropped as shown that has nothing
to do with his real life story.

It could have the title "Waiting" or is strong enough
to be excellent even with no title.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/dee333/jeff.jpg

eland

[Leighow]

Well the story does not come thru -- especially given the cell phone !

I agree with the cropping, but would like to see the full bottom-right-hand corner.

[Don Ellis]

Excellent photo, whatever the viewer may take away from it -- although homelessness won't be the normal takeaway.

In any case, I would clone out the light spots above the roof and in the upper-right corner. Too distracting and lightens what is a dark mood.

Personally, I would rather see it without the cell phone -- it always draws your attention away from the man but for not enough reason -- but that's not as important as the bright spots.

Did I say this was an opinion? :) Good.

Don

[new girl on the bloc]

great photo, but please do not remove the building behind the subject.

[simmonsrandal]

what is sepia?

[eland]

Sepia is doing the finished photo in Brown and White instead of Black and White.

The idea originally comes from looking at old photographs that have turned brown with age.

(Usually due to chemical residue not washed off properly at the time of processing, and also from fading.)

The brown & white looks attractive so now one can do it
purposely either in the wet darkroom or on the computer.
It is often softer and pleasanter than black & white.

Origin of the word:
Sepia is the brown pigment obtained from the Ink-Bags
of cuttlefish and octopus. Artists used to use it as a brown toned water color.

eland

[henkbos]

I like the shot, but would:
- get rid of the highlights on top of the building
- get rid of the phone/keys
It seems that the right side of the shot is blurred? Can't imagine that that is DOF. It starts too sudden and conflicts with the smoke.