We were travelling in Namibia and this was the gateman as we left a place called Ai Ais at The Fish River Canyon. I was sitting in the back of the car and as we checked out I saw the fantastic and natural detail of his face and had a split second to grab my camera and shoot before losing the moment. I had a 75-300 lens on. The vignetting is caused by the backs of car seats etc. and is really close to his face on the photo's right down by the collar of his shirt, so in PP I tried to even it up by extending it all the way up on the right, leaving everything as is on the photo's left because I was (and am) not sure if it is a DQ offence to get rid of it. Apart from that there were levels, contrast, hue adjustments etc in PP.
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Place: 251 out of 684 Avg (all users): 5.8254 Avg (commenters): 6.2941 Avg (participants): 5.7650 Avg (non-participants): 6.0577 Views since voting: 992 Views during voting: 327 Votes: 252 Comments: 20 Favorites: 1 (view)
You've captured the detail of his face perfectly including both color and texture. Wonderfully expressive eyes. Well done, but IMO the vignette hurts this otherwise worthy photo.
It is a nice capture, maybe a little blown out on the side there, which Im sure everyone is saying. Don't care for the edging treatment. Maybe crop it closer to his ears, or move his right our left edge in a touch.
i do love this photo - the guy seems so nice and warm and basically a good decent fellow, and your capture of him conveys this in such a big way. this is the sort of portrait that really appeals to me; not only have you got their physical characteristics, but you've nailed something deeper here as well. i'm not entirely sure about the black smudge either side; it's weird in that it could be either a bit of dodgy post processing, or it's real like through a viewer through a door or something... it's impossible to tell. that aside though i think this is wonderful, and has a very big sense of REAL about. voted this a 9.
Great choice of subject for the shot. The person has a lot of character and is quite interesting to look at. I like the tight, close up framing, it gives a great chance to show off detail. I feel that there are a few factors holding this shot back though. For a portrait type shot like this, the focus should really be tack sharp on the eyes. It seems like here, the focal plane is just a little off. It looks like the nose, mouth area and beard are sharper than the eyes. Also, lighting wise, it is very harsh on the side of his head, that whole bright area is blown out. And the 'vignetting' thing, don't know if it is natural or added in post, but for me, it just doesn't seem to work for this image.
Aish, this is lovely. His expression is wonderful. I'd just like to see his eyes sharper, and brighter. I dont know that the vignette effect is helpful either. But overall, I like it a lot.
This is a very nice portrait. So clear and detailed. With the vignetting, it gives the impression that one is looking at the subject through a peephole, which I kind of like because it helps me ignor the tightness of the crop (cutting off the top of head, bottom of beard).
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