Rainy day, slippery road...I saw the cleanup of an accident and some police lights so I stopped and took a bunch of photos. I noticed this baby stroller in the ditch next to the destroyed mailbox. I'm hoping viewers understand the "broken" refers to the life more than the van, although at this point I'm not sure what the outcome of the accident was.
Taken at 18mm using the 18-50 kit lens. Post processing involved:
- conversion to black and white (used the 'create 3 channels in pselements technique' and used blue channel data)
- cropped 30% off the top (mostly sky)
- slightly corrected black point in levels
- increased brightness +41
- increased contrast +64
- added a 1 pixel black border
Tried USM but decided it wasn't needed.
I want this photo to have a cold, uncomfortable feel to it (which is partly why the top was cropped through the van door).
Self critique:
At the time of exposure, I would have lost less detail by underexposing. Also wish I could have gotten further into the ditch to try some slightly different angles. Also, had I shown up earlier I could have gotten a more frantic, busy looking scene with more flashing lights...but for what I had to work with, I'm fairly happy.
I'm very happy with it and would give myself a 7.5 for this photo...I expect a final score of about 5.7 but I honestly can never tell what the dpc-crowd will think of these types of photos. I look forward to the comments...
Statistics
Place: 89 out of 177 Avg (all users): 5.3194 Avg (commenters): 7.0000 Avg (participants): 5.5213 Avg (non-participants): 5.1237 Views since voting: 1260 Views during voting: 297 Votes: 191 Comments: 15 Favorites: 0
I like the photojournalistic aspect of the shot, and I think you succeeded in communicating the idea of "broken lives" by the inclusion of the stroller. Although you have several commenters that applaud the high key treatment, I want to offer another opinion. Comparing your entry to your original photo, I find the b&w version to be much the busier of the two, and less successful in communicating the story of what has happened here. I think that the high key treatment does add drama, but in this case at the expense of clarity. I would have scored your entry a 6 had I voted on it.
On another front, after looking at the third (context) photo, it's amazing that you were able to position yourself to get the shots you did. Good job! I'll try to be as determined in taking my pics in the upcoming challenges.
there may be a couple reasons that it not do as well as you had hoped. one, as other people have addressed, is the fact that it is a style of photograph (high contrast, blown out highlights, unique composition/cropping, etc) that some will like and some will dislike. a second part is that, like you mention in your description, people may not have been sure what to look at - which is somewhat reflected in some of the comments. it took me awhile to realize that the car was damaged (and i never would have caught the fact that it was pulled out of the ditch, if not for e301's comment), which in turn means that i didn't understand the message right away either. this is one that people are either gonna love or hate.
Looks like a stroller in the ditch. Stark, contrast tastefully adjusted. I think this is an appropriate interpretation of the challenge. Wonder if a bit of toning could give this image more emotion, perhaps a steel blue. Of course I like it the way it is.
Wonderful documentary work. That blated out feeling to the processing is entirely appropriate, the juxtaposition of the ... oh, hang on, are those markes where the car's been pulled out of the ditch? The baby carriage adds an almost too good to be true element of the sentimental (no, that's not an accusation, just a wondering whether it doesn't over-egg the puddding). fine fine work - that over-exposure of the road allows the distracting elements there to become insignificant. I wonder though, for a scene which of itself holds great power to affect, if a vvery staightforward treatment wouldn't be the more effective for making the audience more familiar with the world it contains? I mean a muted but full colour treatment, keeping the full control of exposure everywhere? But I like it this way too. A strong contender in my book (though I expect that's a book that many won't find agreement with).
Brutal and stark. It certainly fits the challenge. I love the choice of high key. I am uncomfortable with the cropping. Too much ditch, not enough car. 7
Perhaps more focus on the cars themselves would improve the shot as you can barely see their damage and they don't appear as the main subject. GOod photo though.
I'm not really sure what's going on here, which is a shame, because it looks like there's an interesting story being told. I'm not sure how well "broken" is conveyed as a result.
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