Nikon D300sNikkor 18-200 @ 170mm
1/200s
F/5.6
ISO Auto
Nice bright colours to attract the environmentally responsible. It works too. As you see, at least one of the bins is full to overflowing.
I waited until the sun was low in the sky so that there would be some shadows, not that rectangular boxes offer much in the way of texture. I also shot the image low and close-cropped so that the blurred background was an unobtrusive plain wall in a fairly neutral colour.
While I was there, an actual environmentally responsible person turned up and posted a handful of newspapers for recycling.
Nikon D300sNikkor 18-200 @ 52mm
1/250s
F/4.8
ISO Auto
This was a quick candid shot, so the framing wasn't good; I missed the back of the car. The irony of going to recycle old copies of 7DAYS in a two-seater over-engined sports car was not lost on me. Every little helps, I suppose.
Enough of the environment. There is a different interpretation for this month's subject. As tofu is perhaps perceived as Japanese (at least in my house it is) I present an actual Tofu Knitter.
Nikon D300sNikkor 18-200 @ 48mm
1/30s
F/4.5
ISO Auto
Shot hand-held with available light at a well-known emporium of Japanese-style fast food, I was looking for a shot with the chef's hands blurred with the rapid movement associated with knitting tofu. Of a score or so attempts, this one had the man's face in focus with his eyes open and his hands suitably blurred. All the movement was done in camera. There is some PhotoShop: the background of square tiles was not quite parallel with the photo frame, but a little Free Transform sorted out that issue. I think the fan is a distraction, but it's real and authentic, and anyway I made a right mess of trying to clone it out.
Posts
- BINS
ReplyDeleteNice try and with the time of day and it has helped, but at the end of the day is is just a few bins, sorry.
Is there some color funnyness in the backround with a hint of red/pint ?
- BMW
Not bad, this one much better, I think the car helps adds sense of context (and irony).
Aspect is strange which is okay but think you've cropped to close to her head for my taste.
(I always wondered what THE envriomentally responsible person in this country looked like.)
And the best for last !
- Tofu knitter.
Like this one a lot, very strong shot, tells a tale and techincally good.
The bright colors and balance of movement in the hands with face still works very well.
Only one thought, wonder what if you'd have got a smidge more DOF by keeping f4.5 but going from 48mm to 200mm zoom but moving back to keep the framing.
But then you'd have lost some of the contrast between his movemnet and sharpness of the tiles, and you'd have needed to take another dozen shots.
p.s. Best way to get rid of the fan would probably be a healing tool or even patch too (not the clone stamp), then a big bursh and select source location carefully. Probably work as a separate layer so that you can adjust the brightness etc in the patch layer so it matches better.
But as you say with the fan it sort of fits, particualry with green veg tray it looks okay, shame there are no dead ducks hanging up !
Cheers,
Richard B.
Points taken, Richard. Thanks for the C&C. My excuses:-
ReplyDelete1. No colour funniness. It's all unadjusted from what the camera recorded.
2. You are right about the top crop. But you would not believe how much distracting crap there was at the top of the frame. If I'd expected someone to recycle something while my camera was poised, I'd have made a better effort at composition.
3. You realise that I was right at the front desk? If I'd moved back to exploit 200mm, half the population of Dubai would have been between me and the subject, and the shot would have been impossible.
Ducks would have been nice, but these are Not Coming In Fujiyama.