surPrise Fighter - C&C appreciated

[D L]

I recently tried my hand at some street photography.

While far from technical perfection, this got close to something like what I wanted to achieve from the outing... a portrait of a stranger.


f=44mm, 1/40s, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Image cropped

Prior to this capture, we were having a nice conversation. Out of the blue he asked me to take his picture. I brought my camera up, he adopted this pose, which was the opposite of our interaction to that point. However, with some of the things that had happened in his life, a bit of rage just below the surface actually made sense. I squeezed off a few shots, hoping I was getting something halfway decent.

I'm reluctant to push the ISO past 800 on my camera, but if I'm gonna get noise anyway, I might as well correctly expose the picture, right? I don't mind the noise too much in this photo, but I'm interested in opinions on that.

I'd appreciate general critique on composition, direction of light in this shot and post processing. Any general tips on handling impromptu portraits would also be appreciated.

[Shadowman]

Tips: always be aware of the direction of light and your background. Squeeze off a few more shots than you intended. Quickly change your position for a bit of variety. Always say "just one more".

Composition is good and I think the direction of light works well for this particular pose. I think you can clean it up a bit more regarding the noise. Nicely done.

[IzzieK]

It is a scary stance for me, David...I think I am more of the emotional type of person to take this shot...

[Dave Humphries]

Hi David,

I could sorta tell it was a posed, not dangerous (to photographer) shot, but that doesn't diminish its impact.

The biggest single improvement I'd make to this in PP would be to somehow 'lose' the yellow column.

I think you got the crop just right.

There's also something 'funky' going on in his left collar area, I think it is a long shiny earring, or possibly a shirt collar that's caught the light and makes it look like there's been an attempt to clone something out that's resulted in a sharp edge where the edge of his beard suggests there shouldn't be one - although I'm sure this is just natural.

HTH, Dave

[FootLoose]

The biggest single improvement I'd make to this in PP would be to somehow 'lose' the yellow column.

I was just thinking how lucky it was that you caught the brown and yellow posts in the background. They are strongly reminiscent of the Aboriginal colours framing this guy.
He may have posed for you but it is not unusual to see men like him acting like this in the street. Did he ask you to pay him?

The only alteration I might consider is the feet in the top right corner.

[D L]

John, Izzie, Dave and Greg, thanks for your comments.
John, good tips, I'll keep those in mind. I reckon I could've got a couple more shots if I'd asked, and cleared up the background a little by moving around to the right at the same time.
Izzie, the pose wasn't exactly what I had in mind either
Dave, my first instinct was to lose the yellow pole, and I was messing around with B&W conversion. Then I realised the same thought as Greg, the reddish brown, yellow and his black jumper sorta make the Aboriginal flag colours. The strange beard thing is an earring. It looks strange. The more I sharpen, the more pronounced it is. I have pulled back the sharpening, but it still looks a bit odd.

On the version in this post, for the noise, I've tried using Athentech PerfectlyClear tool available on my software. Usually I find it a bit overdone, but it does clean it up a fair bit.

Greg, yes, he did ask me for a couple of bucks at the end, but I didn't mind. I was expecting it. He wasn't aggressive about it, we'd had a good chat and he'd been friendly, so I was happy enough to hand it over.