Title • evening caberet #1

This is the first of two very similar shots, and I hesitated about putting both up as separate entries but a) I think that they have a different feel to one another, and hence are both worth seeing, and b) I'm trying to post more sequences of images rather than just stand-alone shots. Also, I really couldn't decide whether to post the monochrome or colour versions of these shots so have put up both. The colour version of this shot can be seen here:

.../archives/evening_caberet_1.php

Possibly, if I'd just intended to post this shot and not tomorrow's, I might have gone with the colour version, but I'm not sure. I like the vibrancy of the colour shot but, for some reason that I can't explain, the monochrome version seems more powerful (this may just be my reaction but it gives me a real feeling of claustrophobia). Anyway, the deciding factor was that I was putting both up, and as a pair I think they work much better in monochrome.

Oh, and if anyone's interested, both today's and tomorrow's shot were toned by using the Channel Mixer to extract the red channel and then the Curves tool to i) boost the shadows in the red channel, slightly decrease the shadows and boost the highlights in the green channel, and decrease the shadows in the blue channel. This warms/colorises the darker areas of the image while retaining a fairly neutral colour balance in the highlights.

And for those of you who like urban/people photography I'm pleased to be able to say that Travis Ruse has just re-launched his photoblog. Express Train (which replaces Here to There - recently mentioned at blog.photoblogs) is a chronicle of Travis's daily commute from Park Slope, Brooklyn to midtown Manhattan and features many wonderful shots. To get you started you might want to take a look at this portrait, or this one, this rather futuristic view of Grand Central Station, or a view from the N train somewhere in Brooklyn.