A conceptual reshoot with the same lens at the same taxi rank as in
The lens is a Soviet Helios 58mm f/2 professionally modified to have a square four-bladed aperture. Live view is a must for this lens, as what you see in the viewfinder is completely different to what reaches the sensor.
I went for a somewhat more radical edit this time. Since I'm presenting what's essentially an entirely out of focus image, I wanted to bring out as much texture as possible. The bokeh itself already produces some artefacts which present as texture due to interference patterns on the sensor and imperfections in the glass. The high iso noise performance on the 1D is exceptional, and the noise ends up looking film-like. Dodging and burning and sharpening allowed me to bring out the filmlike luminance noise while suppressing the chroma noise, enhancing the texture of the road and buildings especially.
Editing steps: Healing of hot pixels from the live view heat, crop, curves, dodging and burning, selective colour desaturation of yellows and reds on part of the image, resize and sharpen.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 35 Avg (all users): 6.9000 Avg (commenters): 8.3333 Avg (participants): 6.7500 Avg (non-participants): 6.9750 Views since voting: 2341 Views during voting: 123 Votes: 60 Comments: 16 Favorites: 2 (view)
Congratulations on the Blue, Eugene. The square aperture makes some visually interesting 'subjects' & the blur created a lovely painterly abstract. Taxi Noir looks great on your Profile page, next to the raptors--shows there's more than one way to get a great shot.
An appealing image that meets the challenge fully.
I recognised whose work this was as soon as I saw it! Well done in winning this challenge with this superb abstract its in a class of its own. You’ve made a lovely job with this unusual bokeh, even better than last time, though I do miss the lovely model. Everything about it is exquisite, the colours, the patterns and shapes, the composition, even the blown highlights are pure white shapes that add to the overall result. Certainly, in terms of the challenge brief, it doesn’t get any more abstract than this! Well done Eugene, thanks for your truly creative entry
Congratulations on the blue. This was one of my two favorite images, so I am not surprised to see this do well. I also appreciate your explanation as I was curious how you were getting the rectangular lights.
Taxi Noir
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