Valerie Pohio  


Red Umbrella by Valerie Pohio

May 2019 - Red Umbrella

May 2019 - Valerie Pohio

Original

About the Image(s)

I am submitting an image called Red Umbrella which I took whilst walking home in the rain in Buenos Aires one evening. I had given up photography for the day and was trying to keep dry, but the lure of the reflections, and the umbrellas and the street/vehicle lights on the wet road etc. was too strong and this was the result.

I pushed the ISO up to 800 and the aperture was on f6.3 and was still only able to get 1/8 which I was happy with because I wanted movement, but still wanted to preserve a reasonable amount of detail albeit blurry, of the figure of the girl. As you will see, the original was quite dark which I didn’t mind, but I used to curves to highlight the girl and her reflection. I sharpened her figure and the umbrella a little, but wanted it to have a reasonably abstract effect. I removed some of the brighter lights and toned down others as they were distracting, but I still wanted a sense of place i.e. busy city, cars, buses, shops. Finally, I used to curves to darken the edges to give the feel of night and weather closing in. Oops and I desaturated the background a little to tone down any competing colour elements and allow the red umbrella to contrast with the dark of the evening.

I usually use a Canon, but for a recent trip to Sth America, I took a much lighter Sony a7iii mirrorless and a couple of excellent lenses all of which sadly, got stolen en route. However, I picked up another Sony a7iii body and a second hand lens which I am using for this image. It was a 24-240 which had the range, but was a little slow and not too sharp. It was a learning curve with the mirrorless and I guess this is the way that cameras are going. There were two of us who changed over to this camera and we did have some problems with focus and we didn’t feel the hype on its’ ability in low light situations was justified, but overall we enjoyed the lighter equipment and the fact that what you see is what you get.

If anyone is interested in seeing some of the images Jo and I took as we travelled around Sth America recently, we had a little blog which we added to here and there.You can see it at fastergrasshopper.com


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




 
Love this and the edit. The image has movement and tells a story. Ouch, on your lens being stolen. I'm a Nikon shooter and have too much invested to make the switch to Sony but I have been loving what I'm seeing with Sony and I believe they are leading technology. Looking forward to seeing what you post next month!
  Posted: 05/10/2019 17:26:42



 
Hi Valerie,
You have done a great job in bringing the image alive.The vibrant colours are superb and believable.   Posted: 05/11/2019 14:29:21



Karl Leck   Karl Leck
Hi Valerie, The image has the feeling of the rainy night venue. Thank you for showing the 'before' image. The cropping and tone handling are well done. I might desaturate the reds in the area to the right just a little more to decrease visual competition with the umbrella. I love motion images. This one successfully shows the motion. The figure crossing the street at the intersection of the street lines and vertical building lines makes an excellent composition.
I sympathize with the loss of camera gear. I had most of my gear stolen at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and survived the last few days of the event using borrowed gear from fellow photographers. Now I'm particularly diligent in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian speaking countries.
Karl   Posted: 05/15/2019 08:42:32
 
Hi Karl....yes, the desaturated version does give more emphasis to the red umbrella. Thank you for your comments and suggestion!
No, losing gear is no fun.....happens in every corner of the globe, unfortunately. Am usually extremely aware, but this team was so slick and organised. We assumed they were hotel staff as they helped with our luggage when we arrived. A quick bag switch was done right at my feet as I signed in.   Posted: 05/15/2019 15:49:04



Judith Lesnaw   Judith Lesnaw
Valerie, great crop, and composition. The blur in the building suggests that you panned the red umbrella to give the walker's eye's perspective. It might be interesting to try to lower the ISO and steady the camera to achieve the opposite effect - set the environment in focus and let the subject with that wonderful red umbrella go blurry to show her motion.

I like the amber glow of the wet pavement just beneath the subject, and the pinkish glow on the upper level windows in the original. These colors are faded in the edited version. I would try to restore them with spot editing.

While I do like your crop, I also find that distorted figure high-stepping into the lower left of the original very interesting. That is the joy of a fascinating photo--there are many ways to present and interpret it. Both versions you presented here convery that erie rainy night feeling.   Posted: 05/29/2019 13:13:48
 
Thanks for your thoughtful comments Judith. Yes, I rather liked that lower left figure too, but took it out to allow full focus on the red umbrella figure. It's always difficult to know what to do with objects on edges of photos.   Posted: 05/29/2019 15:17:13