street vendor

[cosmogirl]

Shot at my local market a few weeks ago. C&C welcome!



Unlike many other people at the market, he didn't object to being photographed and even gave me his email so I could send him the photos. Unfortunately, I lost it, otherwise I would've sent him this one.

[Daisy Mae]

It is a nice clear shot Irina but I would love to have seen more of the background, to put him in context with his wares..the hussle and bustle of the market life..

[Andy in Mendip]

Hi Irina

I think it captures the essence of him as a trader, I hope this is what you were trying to achieve ? A good idea to offer a picture back by email.

A good simple shot of a market trader, I can think of a huge amount that would say no to a photo.

B&W adds to the shot I think

Andy

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Irina,

Welcome to the CiC forums from me.

If mine; I would correct the under exposure in PP (Post Processing), which would help Sharon see more background too.

I think I'd also crop a little, just 5%, off the right side, there a bit too much white wall and the little metal bracket in lower right corner distracts me.

Hope that helps,

[cosmogirl]

Thank you all for the helpful comments!

I realize (yet again...) that my screen is not calibrated properly (the shot doesn't look underexposed). Probably need to do something with it.
I agree it would be more interesting to capture also his merchandise, it was a bit difficult to do since it was behind a dirty glass. I guess I had to find a better angle. Next time.

[Dave Humphries]

I realize (yet again...) that my screen is not calibrated properly (the shot doesn't look underexposed). Probably need to do something with it.

Hi Irina,

You could try adjusting the brightness and contrast of your screen by reference to some "known good" content, typically a test chart, have a look at the "ADJUSTING BRIGHTNESS & CONTRAST" section in this tutorial here at CiC. All screens and monitors are delivered set way too bright.

The only word of caution is if you are using a laptop, the vertical viewing angle makes a vast difference to these things, so you must be careful to always sit with the screen angled correctly to your eyes, this should be perpendicular (right angles) - if a shiny screen and you face is lit, so you can see your reflection - which raises one other thing; ambient light; if you have a shiny screen, you don't want your face to be unduly lit by anything, it is better to view in a room with subdued light levels.

Even if you don't do any of that, a quick look at the histogram (in your image editing program) will show the image's brightness and allow you to avoid posting images with a large blank area on the right like this;



Cheers,

[cosmogirl]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the detailed explanation, I forgot to look at the histogram...
I'll definitely work through the tutorial!

Cheers,
Irina