Jay liked this photo because it did such a good job of isolating the subject and showing gesture—which brings me to how Jay thinks about photographs.
According to Jay, photographs are usually about three elements—light, color (or lack of color) and gesture. It is the job of the photographer to determine which element is most important to the photograph and then select the angle, cropping and composition that supports the selected element. Before I went to the workshop, I believed that my most successful (i.e., the photographs that I liked best) were ones that I saw something within a scene and then successfully showcased that element within my image. The workshop did two things for me—it confirmed this fuzzy idea that I had haphazardly followed and it made me really focus on asking and answering a very basic question about a shot before I took it—what am I trying to project in this photo.
By making us (the workshop participants) shoot in jpeg and show “right out of the camera”, he forced us to make the decision about what the photo is about before we took the shot and he made us eliminate all distracting elements in order to distill what we wanted the photo to represent.
This photo was taken of a woman buying some ice cream at an out-door vendor. To me, the subject is not the transaction (her face and the money in her hand), but it is the intensity of her face. The money merely supports and gives context to that intensity. I originally took the photo at f/11 which made both her face and the money in focus, but as I looked at it on the back of my camera I thought that I did not get what I wanted—there seemed to be some confusion about what was the subject, the woman, the money or the transaction. I quickly changed my f-stop to f/5.6, focused on her right eye and retook the photo. Whether anyone likes the photo is not important. To me, what is important is that I saw something—the intensity of her look—and was able to capture it as I saw it in my mind.
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 1,400, f/5.6 and 1/180th of a second.
Post Processing: NONE!
Nice sharp focus on the eye. Good control of DOF; certainly helped by shooting at the long end of the lens. I think you accomplished your goal.
ReplyDeleteNice job, Larry. I also took Jay's class in NYC- in October 2010. Your comments above are right on. I always start with my aperture wide-open- and I really prefer close-ups. And I also use the 28x300 lens. Reading daily your postings brought back many fine memories.
ReplyDeleteI love her expression and how you captured it. In addition all the out of focus shirts in the background makes it seem like you right in the middle of a mass of people. This adds life to the photo. Would love to take Jay's class.
ReplyDeleteSidney
You said that you consider this to be a successful photo. I like some of your other photos more. Why is it a success?
ReplyDeleteAlan
Would this be a better image if you cropped out the sunglasses and back of her head? Seems like you would get down to the most important aspect of the photo.
ReplyDeletePerssey