Savannah Speakeasy

[ziggles]

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ7
Exposure: 0.625 sec (5/8)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 6 mm
ISO Speed: 80
Exposure Bias: 0/100 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

I took this photo on a recent trip to Savannah. I was a bit irritated with the subject of the photo, b/c he would not pose for a shot sitting at the bar, so I took a few pictures on the fly. While this one was the best, it was still a bit out of focus (I think camera shake from the relatively long exposure due to the minimal lighting). In PS I applied a grain filter and converted it to b/w to make the most of what I had. I also toyed with the contrast, ramping it up to make the eyes really stand out so they draw the viewer's attention. I think it turned out ok, despite a number of unfortunate flaws in composition and execution. I'd love to hear what others think about my approach to dealing with this shot, and whether there are other ideas on how to improve on it.

[FrankenPengie]

This makes me curious as to why you really wanted him to sit at the bar. Most of the shot here is the bar. The better shot of the bar to me would be this one as it includes... the bar. If you wanted to take a shot of him, why does the backdrop matter? If you want to take a shot of him at the bar, why does it matter where at the bar he's at?

In short, you cannot fault a subject for when, where, how, why... they do or do not want to be photographed. Don't make a deal of it. Don't let it fluster you. Relax and look for permissible opportunities.

The aperture is up but the ISO cranked down. You need a little more sensitivity me-thinks in order to help stop the motion. There's a lot of blown-out looking areas. I don't know if this is all due to processing or original shooting. His face and hand are gone as is the wall behind the bar.

I personally like the composition.

[geotography]

ziggles,

Interesting. My very first reaction when I saw this photograph was, "oh, he is wearing a beanie with a propeller." I don't know your age offhand; you may have never seen such headgear from wayback. The person's hairstyle and the ceiling fan created an image of a beanie with a propeller...pop headgear of the '50's or so. So, my conclusion: check out the background to see what is growing out of someone's head.

[ziggles]

Thanks for the helpful responses.

FrankenPengie--I should have been a bit clearer in my narrative. I was sorta joking when I said I was irritated....in fact, I am glad I took the picture from this perspective, b/c if he had been seated at the bar, it would probably have looked like a boring touristy snapshot. The blown-out looking areas are the result of post-processing. I was mostly playing around and I thought it had a striking effect, and also did away with the strange hazy glare on his glasses. The reason for the low ISO is that my Panasonic FZ7 is notorious for noisy images at any ISO above 100. I try to keep it low and compensate other ways. In this case, the compensation was the long exposure that led to some blurriness. Here's a link to the original so folks can see what it looked like before I did any processing: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2335/...3e45f04449.jpg

geotography--even after looking the picture numerous times, I never thought about the beanie headgear. Interesting observation...i'll try to pay more attention to backgrounds, although I didn't have much choice for this shot.