ooo first post!

From John’s and your shots from yesterday this is precisely the look I would expect from this gentleman. The three portraits make up a fine body of work, and a telling view of this man.

And now I can say something constructive! Though I prefer yesterday's shot from an 'art' point of view, I like this very much simply because it reminds me of my dad, god rest :-)

You should have called this one "Sparking Up"!

This is much better than yesterday's in my opinion... That's a face you could say is well lived in!

Yeah, these last two photos are really great.

Great crispness on the hairs on his face. One again another great shot - which compliments the previous one very nicely! I would actually appreciate your input on this post of mine, as I think you could be of great help for me and others hehe.

This is a very nice shot. The colors and the details are astonishing.

I love these two shots. Great parallels in texture between his skin and the wall, as well as great contrast in color between these two elements.

And thats exactly how it is...thumb in the air while lighting; action smoking at its best. Another super shot.

Love the warm colored figure and the contrast with the black/white background. Really neat image. Great character in the face and pose, too. Great shot!

David,
I am very impressed by the sharpness and detail of his skin. I have read that there is a "natural" softness to all DSLR's, but your images, this one as the example show a very fine detail that seems to be as crisp as as it can be. Do you, in any way enhance that level of detail?
Is it the 20d? is it mainly the lens? I don't own a 20d or the 17-40 f/4L USM... and I am don't think I have ever taken one single image that can compare to this one... I am expecting a "all of the avobe" type of answer, but I still have some hope it can be post-processing ;o)

Very nice photograph.

Impressive.

What a face! I bet he's seen some things...

Excellent candid portrait.
The cigarette not being visible makes his posture even more interesting.

Nice complement to yesterday's shot indeed. I like portraits, no such thing as posting too many portraits.

good skin tones.

the old brightly dressed man, the rugged beard, the smoke, the tattered walls. love the contrast.

I like the previous pose a bit better. This one makes me slightly sad though. His eyebrows remind me of my late grandfather's.

You know, looking back, I've realized there's only 2 types of old men in the world. Really cool ones, the ones with crazy stories, and the really perverted ones.

This guy looks like he knows a few people. He could sort things out for you if you had a bit of "bovva". An excellent follow up to yesterdays photo.

Another fine portrait Dave.

In response to VelviaPix's comment about "natural softness" of DSLRs...
Comments on that "natural softness" which you speak of causes me pain. ;-)

While it's technically true that a sharp focus image is a bit soft coming out of a 20D and all similar DSLRs, that is *not* the final image. The reason this is so is because the way sensors record the light, and the fact that DSLRs don't sharpen in-camera, at least, not much. Compare that with point-and-shoot cameras which do a LOT of in-camera sharpening, and you get the perceived "softness in DSLRs" you mentioned.

If you use the Photoshop "unsharp mask" you will breath "life" into un-sharpened DSLR images.

What settings you ask? The answer is it depends on the photo (sorry). For further information I suggest searching the forums over at DPReview.com. They cover this topic in tremendous detail. Sometimes even accurately!

Personally I tend to use settings: 250/0.4/0, but I play with it. The resulting difference between doing this and not is huge.

--- Doug

I prefer this one over the one posted yesterday. I like the intensity.

Hi Dave,
IMHO, I feel this portrait would have worked better in black& white (similar to the portrait of Vish few days ago). This one isn't bad, but the depth and tones would work get more attention in black & white I thought.

On another note, do you apply any sharpen features/filters after transferring to the computer (or on camera)? Or is your lens just very good at sharpness. I dont' have the 17-40 USM lens that you use, but having used my 20D extensively (with a crappy 28-70mm lens), I have always longed for this kind of sharp images.

Also, can you throw some light on what additional features/ benefits does C1Pro give you that the Canon software doesn't provide? Would the difference be really significant for an amateur/hobbyist photographer like me?

Cheers,
Param

What I really like about this image is the perfect framing, the terrifically bland background which still manages to lend some atmosphere and mood, and the relatively muted yet somehow still bright colors in this man's clothes.

I love this one better than the last. It looks so natural.

Definitely the better of the two... this single photo hints of 1000 stories the old geezer could tell us, about his life and experiences. Excellent!

Thanks everyone.

Jem: done.

VelviaPix: RAW files are a bit soft, but as Doug mentions, these aren't sharpened in-camera. As for the answer to why mine are sharp, you're right, it is an "all of the above" type of answer: the 17-40 is a good lens, the 20D's sensor provides a good level of detail, and I do sharpen the images prior to posting them here (normally with a USM setting of around 200, .2, 0).

Doug: thanks, that was a good explanation.

Param: I did try this one in black and white but preferred this version. As for C1 Pro: it's main advantage over other RAW processors, in my opinion at least, is that it's great for batch processing a series of shots. Other than that though I think it produces images with less noise, reasonably good colour, and better shadow detail than some of the alternatives.

Just love both pics of this man; the photos are (as usual) nicely done, colour, light, composition just perfect....but....this man is something! Timeless, pure style, a kind of suburbian vampire....the british answer to William Borroughs coolness. Good catch Dave!

simply human, I like it

I prefer this shot to yesterday's because it has more character, the tones are more constrained and, I assume, more accurate. Yesterday's was more artistic, fun, and shouted jazz for the eye.

You need two more versions that you could present to your commentors and then you'd be able to quickly determine their photo personalities. We could sign our posts with a notation of our personality choices and then we'd understand better why we get some of the radically different interpretations and a bit more about the why.

Wonderful. I love the feel of this shot.

I like this photo better than the first. It envokes more emotiong for me than the first. His expression seems more dramatic. Great job`

What fantastic eyebrows!

This is the best shot of this guy yet, great detail.

Beautiful picture.

Brilliant picture, I really like the colors & textures.
Depth of field is well chosen.

GOOD PICTURE