character study Photo

Photographer’s Note

Three people I came across in Langa township just outside of Cape Town. They did not pose; really, they were just standing like that. I had some trouble getting this photo just right because it was taken in harsh midday sun and there were areas of overexposure and the faces were in too much shadow. I tried to correct all this with fill flash on the faces and adjusting the backlighting overall. Suggestions are of course welcome.

dawekato has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

centurion (0) 2004-07-29 0:14

Excellent charcacter picture and also very well exposed, framed and ev. modified.

cgrindahl (6109) 2004-07-29 1:55

You are aware of your challenges here since you have confronted them with each of your photos from South Africa. There are interesting elements in this photo with three characters each relating to your presence in different ways. Only one meets you gaze as you take the photo. The boy stares off into space eating his icecream cone, while the older woman gives us what might be a troubled stare or squinting from the bright sun.

We've concluded that you don't have Photoshop CS, so Shadows and Highlights aren't available to you. I tried that treatment on this image and was able to eliminate the glare without destroying the details in the face. I observed as well that this image appears over saturated. The cyan is very saturated appearing in shadows, walls and brightly in the woman's shawl. One option would be to reduce saturation, adjust levels on the dark side and reduce contrast and brightness. All of these things will take away some of this brightness. You can only experiment with the tools available at your command. I note that you did a workshop today, which you handled well. Practice is a wonderful way to refine your eye. And you can play with your own images to your heart's content until you learn to solve problems you see. This is a good image with which to work.

[3] +

dawekato (1990) 2004-08-01 20:25

Very well done, Janet. A real photojournalistic image. It captures the daily life and environment of these people. Very natural looking. Technically the picture is well exposed, and sharp. I don't know how you did it. Did you brighten the shadows under the eyes in pp? Anyway, you should be giving advice to others. The only thing I know about shooting in harsh light is to move the subjects into the shadow and either use a fill flash on the face or a white reflector (kerchief, piec4e of paper, etc.) You will get even lighting on the faces in the shade, but it might be very flat and, depending on your film, a bit blueish. That's why the bounce light.