From a series of shots taken from a slightly elevated position of an unorganized and undiciplined French museum line in Paris. No models involved, just the post processing it required (burning, dodging & selective sharpening).
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 109 Avg (all users): 7.9783 Avg (commenters): 9.0789 Avg (participants): 7.3231 Avg (non-participants): 8.1792 Views since voting: 120392 Views during voting: 618 Votes: 277 Comments: 216 Favorites: 407 (view)
love it, definitely one of my favourites so far (as I slowly wade through the high quality of images on this site), I may be a bit biased as I like street photography I guess, but still a great capture.
If I could I'd rate it a 10.
This photo is utterly amazing! i love how your drawn to his gaze, its entrancing, he looks like he could be a mobster, not someone you wanna mess with lol. Very well done, def. one of my favorites. I love the way the people in his immediate vicinity are all facing away so there are no distractions at all. Wonderful, im looking forward to seeing more of your work. A++
Jean-Jacques,
I keep coming back to this photo again and again, and I am always amazed by this shot. It is truly stunning. I can only imagine the delight you felt when you first viewed this on your screen.
Looking at your scores for this challenge it escapes me why other voters could possibly give you anything less than a "5". If it was possible I would have given you a 12. I cannot imagine why any voters could view this remarkable image and not recognize an image containing beauty, talent and technical brilliance and still give a score of 1, 2, 3 or 4.
Candid street photography can be a very rewarding photographic vocation when you can train your eye and hone your reflexes for that extraordinary shot.
Please keep perfecting you craft and inspiring us all to do better.
To all those that wanted this cropped - I think it would have ruined this shot. The crop is perfect as it is. You start out, instinctively, looking at the bright background. It grabs your eye first. Then you look down and start looking at the crowd and then you see him - the man - staring back at you. You feel surprised, shocked, and maybe even guilty.
That's why the crop works.
Great photo JJ! It reminds of what an honour it is to have shared the front page with you at least once in my career.
You continue to find images that susprise and delight - your imaginative facility always prompts the thought 'what if we were to run out of available images?' very glad to see you hitting the heights here again.
I love the fact that not only is the main focus staring at the camera, but also some older man in the back right is staring as well. Both seem to be in focus making this photo all the better. Great Job!
How you managed to take a picture of a crowd and have only 2, maybe 3 people look directly at you is amazing. There's so much to look at this picture and, yes, it demands a viewing that is "3.4x" longer than the average photo. ;) After posting this I'm going to go back and look at it some more!
The dodge and burn is very well-handled here! I think in this case a shallow DOF would've hurt the image because there is so much to look at here and I want to see it all!
Well-deserved 10's, well-deserved 9's, well-deserved blue! A definite favorite! Congratulations!
This photo has a perplexing eerieness to it. The returned gaze appears quite threatening and seems to be reinforced by the shade of the subjects coat. It's pretty much the darkest object in the picture. It perfectly suits the "singled out theme" Excellent job!
Having the shorter people in the foreground really aided the impact of this shot. It really is one of those images that after viewing it stays with you for awhile. While I was looking at the mans face I got an eery sense of being watched. That it was I, who was the one being singled out. Freaky. Congrats on the win. Fabulous Entry!
Strayed a little from the challenge guidelines on using shallow DOF to isolate the main subject but all the more amazing that the effect was achieved without it.
Very powerful and worthy ribbon winner.
Congratulations.
I commented during the challenge but I want to add this: This is a photo that you have to look at for at least 3.4x longer than the average photo. As I'm sure you know, there are several interesting characters in this captured moment: Guy with tinted glasses, guy with untinted glasses, the mysterious tall person walking away from the camera, guy in the very forefround, woman looking up, the guy in the distance thinking you should not take his picture ... I definitely think the European location allows for a more classic and interesting look considering that there are no baseball hats or Oakley sunglasses. OK ... it's about you now, not my rambling. Congrats.
The master is back; maybe he never left...
What I think is really masterful about this shot is the way there is focus and out of focus people, blurred and sharpened, burned and highlighted, and perfect placement of the people that have the good expressions on their faces; and, you didn't go overboard with the contrast make the whites ivory and midnight blacks; the balance and gray tones add to the jumble of faces and staring eyers on center.
You don't need me to say it, but great shot!
Congrads on your win. I thought this photo was great. Reminded me of some of the photos I have been looking at as I viewed other photographers work for the tribute challenge. This is timeless, and works on many levels.
For the "Tribute" challenge, I was studying famous photographers and their styles. After being on net for few days, going through hundreds of photos, when I came back on DPC, I saw the top three photos for "Singled-Out" challenge. I can't believe how close these photos are to the photos from the 'legends' which I have been studying in last few days. "Eye Contact", "Girl .." and "Dressed .." are all just "wow!" (though I feel better title would have complimented "Dressed...")
Welcome back JJ. Glad to hear that I was correct in assuming this was a candid street shot and not a posed model/friend standing in a crowd. DPC likes candids of people they think look like Robert Deniro. This photograph from you is as masterful as usual and I'm proud to have been one of the first people to add it to my favorites.
Great capture! Did the lady in front of him cover her face?? I love the black and white feeling plus all the different characters of the other people in the photo.
This is an awesome shot!
The guy looks vaguely like Robert De Niro at first glance.
I didn't vote on this challenge but this definately would have been a 10 for me. My first thought echoed jduffett....I totally thought it was Robert DeNiro at first glance. Great candid capture. Adding to faves.
JJ, You once again have amazed me. Stunned me beyond words. I did not vote on all these entries because of time constictions but if I had you would have gotten my first ever 10. This shot is simply stunning. There is a story here to be told. A feeling that is almost universal. It sends a shiver down my spine. You have given me a gift. If anyone ever asks what my all time favorite DPC shot is now I have a choice. It is this shot.
Kudos
TC
PS. Please amaze me again.
God...I think I've been back to look at this photo like 8 times in the last hour. It looks as though everyone in the photo is an actor....it's so amazing. It looks like there are so many stories to be told from this photo. I love it.
8 - Good. Like the b&w/toning. Criticism; the white car in the background detracts, but fairly minor. If the main subject was more prominent, 'somehow', whether this could be achieved in pp with contrast/etc, who knows, but if the gentleman 'popped' out of the crowd just a bit more, make this even better in my opinion. Also, dependent what you had to work with, if the subject was more centered, with a little 'more' bottom and right incorporated into frame (and possibly 'less forehead' at the bottom), may also have made this even better in my opinion. Up to 8 from 7.
Wonderful shot! This is exactly the type of picture I imagined when they first announced the Singled-Out challenge. Amazing that only 1-2 other people were looking at the camera during this pic. Nicely done. <10>
I love this image and it's processing, though the challenge was specific that a person be singled-out from by minimal depth of field.
His look and the focal point are superb!
Bump up to 10 on the second run-through. If this is not in top 5, I don't know what is. Absolutely fantastic, staged or not I don't care, nor it should matter. Good luck!
oh this would have been twice as good cropped further in... with all those faces and the lone man in the middle staring back... very good. you can't get a 12, but i'll give you a 6.
Quite frankly, one of my favorite captures in this challenge. You've successfully isolated one face in a fairly large crowd. That's not an easy task. Good work. 10!
Captivating...like an adult version of Where's Waldo. The B&W is stunning and well done, and the deep DOF, rather than the shallow one seen in most other shots here, gives us a lot to see. It's gonna be tough, but I think you have a good shot at the top prize. Regardless of whether you get it or not, this is still one hell of a shot.
The best- superb! I looked at this for a long time. How many other shots did you take? I came back after reviewing the rests- this is almost 3D. Really is the best of the bunch
...yes...I think this is my very favorite...there is nothing more powerful then eye contact as far as making one stand out in a crowd I think...the tones are also so pleasing...a fantastic image.
oh wow. this is marvelous. just amazing. all the people are busy and pre-occupied around the one man in the middle who is just still and has his focus on you. i love this.
Great one, I hope you knew the guy, powerful stare. Ok, second look, I mean 5th time I went back to this. He reminds me of Mel Brooks. You really nailed this one, such a busy croud, everyone is looking in a different direction and that hat the subject is wearing, perfect. I'm bumping you up to a 10.
i was really pissed off going through the challenge entries and seeing that everyone was relying on poorly executed post-work instead of creative photography. thank mahdi that this one popped up. normally it would really bother me that there is so much space on the top of the frame, but i love that his face is right in the center of the photo. nice work.
Does not seem real, but if it is it's quite amazing. I imagine it's a friend or relative of yours that you placed there for the effect. Great idea and great execution. Toning is perfect. 10
Lots of things I like about this! Busy chaos on one side of the street and on the other nothing much. The Sepia-like tone lends a journalistic aproach. The fact that no one else but your subject looks at the camera is very dramatic. I smell a ribbon here. :)
Excellent shot, sinister looking guy, perfect B&W tones, you might get a few comments on lack of 'blur', but imo it doesnt matter when it's a shot of this calibre. 10
Great eye contact. This really captures the essence of a crowd... Not sure the top third of the frame adds much - I like the lower two thirds on it's own far more.
This is my favorite through halfway in voting. This is exactly what "singled out" is all about. Even though DOF isn't shallow, you can definitely tell what is being singled out here - which is what makes it so challenging and perfect. A+++
My favorite of the challenge. eye contact means so much more than shallow depth of field to create a subject. Extremely excellent capture. tones very effective. 10
I like this photo a lot, but if you had actually managed to "use minimal depth-of-field to your advantage to help isolate your subject" it would be really great!
That is a fantastic singling out! The expression just makes him ping from the crowd. You didn't have to use shallow DOF to do it either but at least the foreground people are OOF.
Eye Contact
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