Jose Cartas  


Market Vendor by Jose Cartas

May 2022 - Market Vendor

May 2022 - Jose Cartas

Original

May 2022 - Jose Cartas

Original 2

About the Image(s)

This photo has some flaws, but I still like it a lot. It was taken in the central market of Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Among the many options of people and products, I caught this lady waiting for customers. The photo presented for comments is a heavy crop (more than half) of the original, where I fully concentrated on her. Another option is to go for an environmental portrait and show the products she was selling (First Crop). Technical specifications: 120mm. lens, 1/30 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 400, handheld.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted




Bob Benson   Bob Benson
I actually prefer Original and Original 2 more, both for different reasons. The image suffers from softness. I am not sure if you have used any of the new AI focus plugins like Topaz Focus AI, but they sometimes can work miracles on images like this. Even in the low res version here, it brought back a lot of sharpness, and I suspect it would work much better on the original. If you do not have it, this would be a good test subject to try, using the free trial version.   Posted: 05/03/2022 20:34:55
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Mervyn Hurwitz   Mervyn Hurwitz
Yes I also prefer original 2. This shows more of the environment making it a PJ image rather than a straight portrait.
The image lacks sharpness overall, and can be improved in Topaz, which I use often.   Posted: 05/13/2022 10:27:40



Anges van der Logt   Anges van der Logt
Agree with other comments. Also like original 2 better (more of environment). I also use Topaz on my wildlife pics, and it can do wonders sometimes ;)   Posted: 05/14/2022 22:15:44



Tony Au Yeong   Tony Au Yeong
I like the original 2, this environmental portrait tells a story. The sharpening made by Bob is amazing, I have not used the Topaz Focus AI before. I think you have tried to eliminate the distracting blue basket by cropping the image but at the same time the elbow is cut. The presence of the goods on the ground in original 2 makes the blue basket more agreeable visually.
  Posted: 05/20/2022 11:11:33



 
Three different images, 3 entirely different subjects! The 2 originals show more environment--more of a story. But, your final image is a great portrait on its own with a very different message. Of course there is the sharpness issue as others have said (and I am sure that is at least one thing you meant about the image having problems). Certainly using Topaz or similar software can be helpful, but another approach might be to embrace that softness. Make it look like it was intentional...maybe add fog, or a pattern of some sort. I played briefly and added a fair amount of monochromatic noise in my sample image. I did it on your final image, but of course it could be done on any of them. Might even play with varying alterations on the originals, such that the main subject (the woman in the final iamge) gets a different treatment than the environment.   Posted: 05/21/2022 13:59:03
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Ann Nissen
I like the version 2 because of the story the image conveys. I have read the previous comments and agree with them about the sharpening of the images. I love the moment of capture and the items around the vender anchoring it in the narrative   Posted: 05/24/2022 15:56:50