fast like Road Runner :)

It is a nice photo, but I think it would have been much better if left with natural colours, to make it a nice documentary style image. I think this photo is lacking lots of details, and is a bit too contrasty, but I like the subject.

Well captured moment. Shades are ok, unsharp picture doesn't interfere (imho), well done. Also this time I've got an impression there's a dark vignette/overlay added :).

Sanjin: I think that's because of the serie - every pic from China seems to be in the same tones.
Sorry for two posts, I haven't noticed Sanjin's but still wanted to share my thoughts :). Greets.

Haaaa ... This is good !! I'm not going to talk about the toning, you know my opinion on it :-) but this is agreat picture !! I really like the 3 different level: The girl with thye smoke, the couple waiting and the couple walking in the background ... It stays simple and the eye wander in these 3 plans without difficulty. I really like the atmosphere ... The smoke really add to it. I can almost smell the scene !

Great job !

Fred @ 400iso.com

Lovely capture...the dust/smoke really makes this one...

That sure is a big lift for such a small person. I wonder what she carries on this lift and how much it weighs?

I admire your editing skills, posting up about 8 photos of a trip to China - I presume you took a fair amount of images.

I too am very interested in what such a small girl carries on such a large hand truck. The size discrepancy along with the smoke makes for an kind of unreal scene. I dig it. Well done.

amazing...

David I like this a lot. The lack of detail and darkness in the upper portion of the shot frames things nicely. There's plenty to look at without distracting detail. The smoke is quite funny, actually.

Nice shot - is the edge vignette post production?

a nice daily scene in a nice foreign land. great tones. love the darkened edges.

The focus on the guys sitting instead of the girl at the front annoys me, but otherwise a wonderful capture..

I'm beginning to think you've recorded a Photoshop "action" to desaturate and tone all of your photos, and you're assuming that the end result will look like art.

There's so much good work on your site that I think you're better than this.

Posting anonymously to avoid the certain onslaught of hatred from the fan club...

Dave i'd love to see this in colour, especially the colours of the signage..

I was going to ask about the tone too... I believe it works really well with all the subjects that you have used it for in this mini-series, and the 2 in full colour needed it.

The pictures and subjects themselves are fantastic, and I can only hope that I will one-day have the eye for composition that you do.

Having said that, i'm slightly inclined to agree with 'Anon' above. One of the things that keeps me coming back is the amazing colours captured in your shots. So although these do have that Arty edge to them, they don't grab me in the same way that most posts do.

Last???? My favorite of the China shots. And B&W too!

Steam powered trolly pushing female robot. I like the look of these images from china they have a sort of cinematic feel and make the period ambiguous. Unusual without looking forced or too contrived.

wonderful!

interesting 'slice of life' street shot!

If this is the last shot of China and you want to see more, come on over to my site where you can see them everyday! Love the shot by the way. Especially the smoke.

You came to china? More photo will better!

Don't ask me why, but this made me think of Blade Runner for some reason.
Nice one Dave.

Love the smoke, like the processing, agree with a few others that I imagine a colour version of this would work well. I love the fonts in chinese writing, it always add interest to a shot.

This is really nice. I love the way everyone is facing in a different direction and doing different things. What is the lady sitting down (to the right of the photo) doing? Looks like she is stabbing the man with a pencil !

The best of the serie so far for me too.

A good example that a centered composition not always is bad. I believe that the game of balances in the center of the image, the light strongly inclined and the fort contrasts of the copy are some of the virtues of this photography. It attracts especialment to me the shade that enter by the left part of the image, as well as the smoke around the girl. The diffuse shade around the copy also has seemed me a good form to isolate a scene of its spacial context.

Congratulations

I love that how on a quick glance the girl with the trolley appears to be carrying the two people on the bench and that the capopy is integral to the whole vehicle - almost like a futuristic home made rickshaw - which rather quaintly appears to be steam powered...

Cool!

I intended to pose a question today about the level of 'photoshop' editing on recent images and am encouraged to see that other contributors have raised similar issues. These other contributors are probably better informed than I about the possibilities and benefits of photoshop but I can't help but wonder how these edited shots start out before being manipulated.

I am extremeley impressed by the standard of work you consistently produce and have no real opinion about the matter of whether any given image is enhanced or degraded by editing techniques. The reason for this is decause we all view these images in our own unique way, beauty (or otherwise) is in the eye of the beholder.

As a relative newcomer to creative photography and as someone who is strugglilng to come to terms with the possibilities that photoshop offers, I would dearly like to see the process of image editing adopted by DJN.

As a one off exercise, Is it possible to demonstrate the start and finish points of the process for any given image to demonstrate to all interested parties just how much an image can be enhanced?

For what it is worth, I do like the Chinese images but am not sure that the darker tones properly reflect what the naked eye would see and if these tones give a more sinister / gloomy image of what I am sure is a very colourful place.

First, I am definitely a fan of your photography. I visit your site almost every day and learn from you. I realize that criticism, if properly aimed, can be helpful in forcing one to look at a scene or technique from a different perspective. This site is both eductaional and inspirational in this regard.

Having said that, I must also state that it is depressing to see some of the comments made indicating such subjective opinions as "I wish you had included 2 more people. One on the left facing east and another in the center, standing on her head, slightly out of focus, facing north." Are these people serious? Did they commission you to make and publish the photograph? Forgive me for possibly alienating some of your public. I suppose it will always be thus.

Sorry for the typo. Of course it shoud be "educational."

~it's passing moments like this, the ones that most people never notice or remember, that catch my eye and interest every time...nicely seen!~

Nice contrasts and shadows. Maybe it should have been even more interesting with the female subject on the left-border of the image, and also cropped just above her head. Typos are very present, but maybe too much, keeping just one of them could lead to a more powerful image, given much impact to each element. But well, I guess this is a shot you couldn't frame very well... You already were lucky to get this moment.

I really like this one, there is something so ordinary and yet beautiful about it ... lovely.

I really like this image and I keep searching for details in the reflections. I like the fact that focus is on the guys sitting on the bench and I enjoy the toning experiments.

another greate capture - so simple, yet fascinating. i have enjoyed your China series :)

A Note on behalf of CHROMASIA

Dave will be unable to post this evening due to a severe failure on his broadband connection. He expects to be back online tommorow.

John Washington

Well said Tom, in agreement completely. Unfortunatly some people always think that they can do better.... So where's their photoblog sites, open and ready for criticism?

Beautiful photo!
"The best of the serie so far for me too" :-)

The last photo from China? This is one of your best series. They tell us viewers where you've been, the people that crossed your path, the local history.

i guess the real key is having these pics monochrome.. they seem fresh n captivating..

Initially striking but on further viewing I think you've overdone the post-processing a little as it looks more like a pictire from a Hollywood film set than a real life street scene. I think B&W is the correct colour choice, it works well with the writing. If I were picture editing your work for a book I'd like to pair it with the mother pushing a pram on blackpool beach!

Hi David,

First time commenter long time admirer. I just wanted to ask why you choose a black and white format so often as opposed to using colour. I have my own ideas but would really like to hear yours as well as any other photographers thoughts on the subject =)

Thanks everyone.

As for the colour versus monochrome issue: I'm not sure. Normally, my decision to convert a colour image to either black and white or monochrome is either because I want to concentrate of the structure of a shot, and/or I don't like the colour balance as shot. For most of the shots from China I think it's the latter. There was quite a bit of atmospheric pollution around and, somehow, all the colour shots I took seemed either flat or just wrong for some other reason.

bmoll (and John Prior): yes, there's a strong vignette.

Ed: I took about 300 shots in total, most of which I'm not particularly pleased with.

Anon: sorry you felt the need to post anonymously.

pierre: quite a few bits of Dalian brought Blade Runner to my mind too.

Antony: yes, if I ever get any spare time, I'll put up some worked through images.

Tom: constructive critique isn't easy, but I welcome the commentary.

The smoke, the lack of depth and characters of the photo make it very good. Congratulations.

Tom: so well said!