Blur of Colour - Monk at Angkor Wat

[travelpat]

I was talking to this monk at the temple of Angkor Wat and really liked how is cloth stood out against the almost achromatic background. Here's a couple of things I'd like to get your opinion on.

1) Exposure: One day I think this is too dark so I increase exposure. Next day I look at the picture and think it's too bright. I can't really make myself happy with it, what do you think?

2) Composition: I cropped a fair bit of the picture away to make the monk fill out more space. I also kept a lot of the temple in the background because it's the contrast I like about the picture. Do you think it's too much background?

3) Camera: If you were taking this shot with a DSLR, would you use a small DoF to make the background blurry? Would you use other capabilities only a DSLR has? Reason for asking this is that I'm curious to know how using a compact camera limits the options for taking a photo.

4) Post-Processing: The right side was over-exposed so I used a graduated filter on that. Also desaturated the background and increased saturation for the monk. Would you have done more/less?

5) Anything else that comes to mind?


Monk at Angkor Wat by TravelPatrick, on Flickr
ISO 80, 1/60 f2.8, Canon Powershot A570 IS

[sk66]

composition and exposure seem good to me.
Yes a P&S *can* limit your options, but I would not change the settings for this pic.
I would have desaturated the BG less...just leave a *sense of color*. But this is not a bad application of selective color as is.

[Doug Sundseth]

1) I suspect the problem you're running into is not so much exposure as dynamic range. I would consider pulling up the shadows a bit without increasing the brightness of the highlights. (Method depends on the tool you're using for post, so I'll leave that to you.) That said, I don't mind the dark shadows here.

2) For an environmental portrait like this, I like the deep DoF. I also wouldn't trim the background much, since you're trying to give a sense of place, not just a sense of the person.

3) With a DSLR, I would expect to be able to pull back a bit more from both highlights and shadows in post. I'd also expect significantly less noise in the darker parts of the photo for a given ISO. But getting a really deep DoF can be significantly harder with the longer lenses on a DSLR.

4) I think your exposure adjustments work pretty well. I would probably not have done selective changes to the saturation, though. (Without seeing the original, that's just a guess, but I like even muted color.)

[travelpat]

Thanks for the info, guys.