Had to wait for almost half an hour for the right lighting conditions: the approaching car to back-light the falling rain, while staying out of the picture, and pedestrians with umbrellas in the foreground.
----
More from the same shoot
Statistics
Place: 10 out of 128 Avg (all users): 6.4810 Avg (commenters): 7.3043 Avg (participants): 6.6154 Avg (non-participants): 6.4570 Views since voting: 2778 Views during voting: 572 Votes: 343 Comments: 35 Favorites: 1 (view)
Congratulations on the top 10 place, well deserved.
This is a great picture, well observed and obviously deliberated over and timed carefully.
You have shown great skill in composition and eye for a photo. The use of the oncoming car for sidelighting is inspired and shows the patience for the 'right' moment that makes the difference between a good shot and a great one...
The only issue for me is the blur. It is fine to show movement in the characters as this helps imply racing to get out of the wet, but at 1/25 second this looks handhelf and the movement in the sceen elements (for example the fire hydrant) let the overall shot down.
Next time try using a tripod to avoid shake... apart from that... very, very nice and a really good fit to the challenge..
I gave you a 6, which is one of the lowest scores I've given you. ... It just didn't grab me while I was voting. uh-oh... maybe I'm becoming a focus nazi! :O
:) Well, this picture has very little symbolism, which is, I guess, why you liked it less than my other pictures. This is, also, why it scored so high. Look at the top winners of any challenge: most of them lack any kind of semantics.
Personally, I think that the only thing that "makes" this shot is its cinema-like appearance: it has this "drive", which is, probably, a combination of high contrast, lighting, and dynamics. I definitely don't think that this is my best picture. But I needed a score above 5.6; in fact I need to score above 5.6 three more times to get that man with the bottle off my personal page. :) And I am back to my usual sub-5 score with my Free Study XIII entry.
So what was the answer with the blurred central bike?
The shot was shot at f/1.4, so DOF should have been pretty slim, which explains the unsharp bike in the middle. I think that the biker *appears* to be sharper than he is because the backlighting creates a contrasty halo around him, sort of a natural oversharpen effect. So, I think that the effect of uneven sharpness distribution is just a visual mistake.
sheesh, your highest scoring photo and I gave you a 6, which is one of the lowest scores I've given you. 6 isn't a bad score, mind you, it's the same I gave the ribbon winners. Looking at it again, I can see that it fulfills the challenge splendidly: it's soooo wet and rainy. It just didn't grab me while I was voting. uh-oh... maybe I'm becoming a focus nazi! :O
You did well to capture the actual rain. It's odd how certain parts are much clearer than others. The blurry bike right in the center is unfortunate, but why is it blurred? were you panning? Anyway, captures a feeling well. Technicals aren't awesome, but a picture like this doesn't necessarily need awesome technicals. 6
There is something simply riviting about this image! It evokes a lot of thought and I think there is a playful yet serious mood conveyed. Good exposure for a night shot too! The sign on the far left could even be excluded to make this stronger. Monotone was a great idea here! Love the image! 8o)
I've come back to take a second look, I think this is likely to be my favourite of the challenge. I love that it's a candid street shot, the motion, the light and the great b&w tones. Well done and good luck :)
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
