<<< o >>>untitled #119 11 comments + add yours
chromasia.com

This is one of those shots were everything suddenly came together. It was taken during the Faces and Places workshop that Bobbi Lane and I ran in Oman last month, and followed on from a series of portraits of this guy holding his phone. We'd bumped into him while walking through Wadi Shab and a few of us asked if we could take his portrait. After I'd taken a few I stood back and watched while other members of the group took their turn and then noticed the shot that you see here, and as you can see from the original, the light was almost perfect :)

As always, let me know what you think.

On a related note: there's a slideshow of some of the students' work from the Oman workshop linked below:

http://www.gulfphotoplus.com/news-detail.php?id=284

captured
camera
lens
focal length
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
image editor
plugins (etc)
cropped?
12.14pm on 18/3/11
Canon 5D Mark II
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
70mm
f/6.3
1/40
aperture priority
+2/3
evaluative
100
no
RAW
Camera Raw
Photoshop CS5
none
1x1
 
1x1 + travel [Oman]
comment by Luisa at 09:20 AM (GMT) on 20 April, 2011

Strange as it can be I prefer the original version, the lights below are too high in the final version.

comment by Ian Mylam at 09:40 AM (GMT) on 20 April, 2011

Wonderful light. I like the way you have processed it to dodge the edges of the frame, and cleaned up the area above the right thumb to focus on the shape and form of the hands.

comment by Jim Denham at 09:50 AM (GMT) on 20 April, 2011

I like it a lot! The high key lighting works well and draws the focus straight to the hands and phone! Well done!

comment by Micha at 10:30 AM (GMT) on 20 April, 2011

Just perfect your 'god's calling' pic second version. Congratulations.

comment by Dan Kaufman at 01:47 PM (GMT) on 20 April, 2011

love the foreground luminous, contrast, and detail to the background suggestiveness.

comment by A.Barlow at 03:09 PM (GMT) on 20 April, 2011

Love the light and the DOF looks amazing!

comment by Katherine at 06:00 PM (GMT) on 20 April, 2011

this kind of light makes my heart happy :) love it!

comment by ROB at 10:36 PM (GMT) on 20 April, 2011

This one, I am with Luisa in preferring the original. Have sat here switching back and forth and the original for my eye at least works better.

comment by Jessica Sweeney at 04:55 AM (GMT) on 21 April, 2011

Can't decide if the edited version is too bright for me, but either way i love the image. Great shot!

comment by djn1 at 07:38 AM (GMT) on 22 April, 2011

Thanks everyone :)

comment by Patrick Dodds at 09:47 PM (GMT) on 22 April, 2011

This is one of the most beautiful pictures I have seen on your blog to date. I really love the light, his hands, the way the phone is held, the shirt (?), everything. Strange how arresting such a simple day-to-day scene can be. Wonderful.