Taken with Canon 20D with Canon 70-200mm f4 lens @200mm, 1/400sec f4 ISO 400. This was shot from the top deck of the New York hop on hop off bus. While stopped I drew the connection of the signage with the gentleman’s style of living.
Starting with a RAW file I have cropped severely from the original version to get rid of all distractions and then applied a guassian blur filter to soften the overall mood and get that ‘warm place in the sun’ feel. Also added a vignette using photoshop raw converter filter as a subtle finishing touch after which I converted to mono by creating a new fill adjustment layer and selecting SOLID COLOR (black) and COLOR blending mode on 100% opacity. From there made some levels & curves adjustment to get desirable contrast & density. I have attached the original unaltered file so you can see my starting point.
This round’s discussion is now closed! 6 comments posted
Stuart Ord
I think you've made a great improvement in the original image, which was probably grabbed in a hurry. The final framing is perfect I think. A good opportunistic capture.
I'm less sure about Gaussian blurring, but that's your artistic style, not mine! I'm sure many would like it. I suppose I would sometimes blur the area around the figure in a shot like this, as blurring via reduced depth of field wasn't possible. But I like my subjects to be sharp, except perhaps pretty girls in dreamy settings.
I would also attend to the lighter areas in the final version - in front of his face, across the picture in the window, and the building on the left of the frame - to reduce their distraction.
Posted: 11/05/2023 05:59:58
John Roach
Chris, I think you created an interesting story here. The crop works and you post work seems to create a sound image with good balance. I'd like to see the reflection of light removed just beside the man's face. Posted: 11/18/2023 12:21:11
Don York
I like the subject in the image, but find the lettering to be distracting? Posted: 11/21/2023 15:33:15
Stuart Ord
Someone said to me (a judge, I think) that lettering that completes full words and is readable isn't usually a problem, it's when when the viewer has to spend time figuring out what it is that is a distraction. These words locate the scene, to me. Posted: 11/30/2023 15:14:37
Jerry Snyder
You did a good job recovering the details from the shadows. The subject is an interesting mix of casual and dressy. He is dressed casually above the waist with the open collar shirt, no tie, sweater, and stocking cap. Below the waist he is more dressy with the pressed pants and polished shoes. I don't know if this is typical of Manhattan but he makes and interesting subject. The composition is squared and framed nicely. Posted: 11/22/2023 14:57:54
Stan Bormann
I am seeing a lot of images I would never dream of taking, but I very much appreciate what you all are doing. I like this image and I like the guassian blur softening, but I think I would mask it off his face. I agree with the comment to take the reflection off in front of his face. I consider the Manhattan Living sign a critically important part of the image to get the story across. Your processing from that original is amazing. Perhaps the blurring was important to tone down the resulting noise. Posted: 11/25/2023 20:12:12
