Some Street Photography at Easton Farmer's Market

[BackdoorArts]

To each their own, Ron. If you've read the beginning then you understand that I was looking to do something different here, and originally in B&W. I understand the fact that not everyone will like it, but what I found is that if I just processed these as nice color snapshots they looked like, well, nice color snapshots. While these treatments are by no means flattering to most, what I personally love about it is that it accentuates the details, lines, and in particular the flaws in everything. For me, this drives the viewer to find the moment in each shot. The extra deep, wry dimple on the smirk of a young girl in love as she listens to a guy go on and on. The child in a mother's glasses. An elbow bandage that is nearly invisible with normal treatment. Deep lines and a chipped tooth of a Marine whose smile blanks out the horrors that likely filled parts of his life. The furrowed brow of a girl shopping for vegetables leading you to wonder what exactly is on her mind besides, "What's for dinner?"

The human condition is deeply flawed, and we have plenty of photographers masking that with false beauty and Photoshopped waistlines. With normal treatment, easily half of these would hold no interest to me. And it would be fair enough to say that they perhaps that means that it's not a "good photo". But I believe each captures a human moment that might otherwise go missing. Some of those moments may not deserve a like, but I believe they are worth more than a passing thought and "that was nice", which is why I'll continue this series in a similar manner.

And just to be clear, I'm perfectly OK with anyone or everyone not liking them. I'm not defensive about it - I shoot for myself alone. Some of these I could have turned into lovely shots worthy of a greeting card cover. But that's not what I see when I raise the camera to my eye. At least not in general. Maybe that's why I like Infrared photography so much because it accentuates things that are not part of the norm, or twist your perception of what something is or isn't. Not everyone is fond of it, and I get that. They're often not "beautiful" in the traditional sense, and in some cases they take something that is normally rather serene and turn it into the foreboding - a comment I've heard repeatedly from the owner of a gallery where one of my IR shots is on display (at their request).

Nature and wildlife? That is where I find/look for pure beauty, and because of that I tend to treat it with that regard, though subconsciously far more than making a conscious decision (I've thought about it more in typing this response than I've likely ever thought specifically about it).

So, no problem, Ron. You can avoid this thread - I'm OK with that.

 

[hark]

These are somewhat surreal which is obviously your intention--and nicely done, I might add. Did you use the same type of effect as the shot inside the store? I had to do a double-take when I saw the flowers as they don't quite look real.

When viewing your Flickr images as an entire page with these images being smaller than normal, they look more like drawings rather than photos. Just an observation--I'm not passing judgement I just can't understand why they appear to be drawings until I click on each one to enlarge it. Then they appear to look more like a photo. The post processing is definitely interesting...in a good way.

 

[hark]

After a moment of thinking about it, I will mention this again...the effect reminds me of the surrealism that some HDR photos have. Yet you didn't do HDR from what you told me in a previous reply. Pretty nifty editing!

 

[carguy]

Really nice set Jake. I love how you captured the people in various states doing various things.
I enjoy street photography and need to hit more crowded events this summer. Looks like another week to take my camera to work for a lunchtime stroll downtown.

Thanks for sharing

 

[BackdoorArts]

@hark, the thing that these have in common with a lot of HDR photography is the emphasis on texture and structure. High Dynamic Range, in and of itself, isn't really about that, it's about the maximizing of visible light so that you see everything that's there (something your brain does automatically even in harsh lighting conditions) but is not capture-able in that form by a single, "normal" exposure of the camera sensor. What happens, a lot of times, is that when you flatten the light you lose the shadows that help your eye define the boundaries between things, or even within things. To compensate many programs, and photographers, will apply extra "structure" to make these boundaries more visible. This because a defacto style of HDR early on, and these surreal aspects made many people want to try it, but they are not something that is inherent to HDR photography, they're just a technique that many HDR photographers chose to apply.

While my photos are not HDR (mainly because the conditions do not require it), the B&W luminosity layer I use is often purposefully set so that it flattens the differences in color luminance, so it has a very similar impact. For example, let's take a closer look at this photo...



I've chosen this because it's predominantly composed of blues, reds/browns and shades of grey. Here's the original photo...



There are at least 6 distinct shades of blue within the shot, ranging from very light and pale to deep and dark. When I created the black & white luminance mask, I purposefully looked to use a blue filter so that it would effectively render the blues "invisible" to some level in the B&W shot. As you can see in this screen shot from Silver Efex Pro 2, I have the color filter set on a shade of blue, which comes as close as you can get to squeezing them into the same level on luminance/lightness...



When this is applied as a Luminance mask, it takes the darker blues from the original shot and lightens them up - that's what the Luminosity blend mode does.

Now, if I had done the opposite, a literal 180 degree shift on the color wheel, the filter would instead render the blues almost a inky black...



Applying this as a luminance blend and you can see that the blues have now all shifted to a darker state, some obviously more than others...




In both final shots, the texturing has remained consistent - a product of boosting the clarity in Lightroom both before and after processing the shot in Photoshop, and from the use of high levels of Structure in Silver Efex Pro 2. However, in the second case, the deepening of the colors give you less of an idea that HDR photography might have been used.

Balancing this kind of luminance shift is far more difficult when you have a full spectrum of colors, and it can require the use of layer masks to reduce the impact the filtering of one color has on another (i.e. when I filtered blues, all the yellows go deep brown, which meant the sunflowers have no yellow as in the top photo from the last set - a correction I missed). So, I'll mask out the luminosity layer to keep reds from becoming deep crimson and yellows too brown where I don't want them.

I'm anxious to throw myself into the luminosity masks that MoabMan mentioned yesterday, but that's going to require some time and study. Those masks are built based on true luminance, where what I'm doing here is building a false layer, further adding to the surreal nature of the shots.

 

[hark]

Thanks for the explanation, Jake! I always learn something new from your helpful posts and appreciate your willingness to share the info!

After seeing the comparison between these two photos, I realized what the final photo (and the others in this series) reminds me of...a Norman Rockwell painting.

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[BackdoorArts]

After seeing the comparison between these two photos, I realized what the final photo (and the others in this series) reminds me of...a Norman Rockwell painting.

Well that's a hell of a compliment!! I've always loved Rockwell, and in particularly his ability to capture the emotion and expression of the otherwise ordinary. Maybe that's a little like what I'm trying to do here, though I never would have thought to tie the two together. Rockwell was never afraid to show the warts, come to think of it, because we've all got them somewhere. I'll wear this smile on your behalf for the rest of the day. Thank you so much for the kind words.

 

[Pretzel]

Thanks, all. The Marine shot marks a turning point for me. I have done very little street photography, mainly because I've always had a thing about approaching strangers with a camera. I saw him today sitting at a table and knew he'd be a great photo, but I didn't want to shoot him serupticiously, particularly after walking around him a few times and realizing that there wasn't going to be a good shot unless he looked right at me. He didn't seem the ultra-friendly sort, but I said, "Screw it!", and just walked up and said, "'morning! Would it be alright if I took your picture?" He didn't say a word, just chuckled loudly, turned his head to me and smiled. Absolutely not what I was expecting him to do, and I was happy as I could be - particularly because of that chipped-tooth smile. I won't be as intimidated to ask someone next time.

I still think I prefer the idea of B&W for street, but there's something about the color of a farm market or outdoor event that makes me prefer the color for that. I've tucked the recipe away for future use as I really like the feel. I'm off to an arts & craft show today, so we'll see what I get out of that, though I have to work it a little.

Loving the street photo bit, but I wanted to respond to this and add my .02 re: asking folks if you can snap their pic: A few of my all time favorite photos have come from biting the bullet and asking, "Do you mind...?" 1st, the pic of the homeless guy on his bike near the beach. He even agreed to ride down the boardwalk a bit, then ride back toward me. 2nd, the lady sitting near the window in Brownie's burger joint. I got a nice 10 minute convo and some history of the place, and a few great photos! Lastly, the lady in the face painting booth at the recent local carnival. She even agreed to give me a nice "looking away" pic! Even still, my nerves often get the best of me, and I don't ask... but when I do, the results are grand!

My theory is - it's so impromptu, people don't have time to throw up a facade, so you're getting the real grit. Working on the nerve to ask a few more people here and there.

Edit: Threw in the pics I was speaking of, for reference. They may not be the greatest, but as mentioned before, they were my faves. Don't wanna side-track the thread, though, so if you prefer, I'll take 'em back out. Leaving them as thumbnails at least.

 

[Skwaz]

Hi
some great pics there and enjoy looking
I don't use pp apart from the very simple Faststone
i do quite a bit of HDR using Photomatix
can these effects you have not be produced using an HDR prog
not knocking your pics at all just seems a lot of editing when to a complete novice it seems Photomatix would do the same

 

[BackdoorArts]

i do quite a bit of HDR using Photomatix
can these effects you have not be produced using an HDR prog
not knocking your pics at all just seems a lot of editing when to a complete novice it seems Photomatix would do the same

It's going to sound like splitting hairs if I dig down and explain my, "No, it can't", answer, so I'll just state that an HDR program can likely produce something similar to what I've done here, but I suspect not with the same level of control and purpose.

What I've done is to create a luminance mask, applying a high degree of structure to the mask, not to the photo. I've also purposefully shifted the luminance by focusing on a single color filter value that thereby adjusted the relative luminance of other colors within the spectrum based on their relationship to that color. I use HDR Efex Pro 2, and while I would likely be able to use control points to do some of that work, I could not specifically ask it to replicate this feel, even though it contains many of the same controls as Silver Efex Pro 2. The reason I stress the mask in that first sentence is that HDR programs would look to build structure into the photo itself, which can introduce levels of light noise that would not be evident in my method. Noise is created, but it's created in the mask and it would look different.

Look, any program that allows you to play with clarity and structure would allow you to mimic the look and feel of these photos. But were we to start with the same image I suspect it would be difficult to match the end result. That's neither good nor bad, and I don't say it in order to extol the virtues of my methodology, such as it is. Getting an HDR look is something that can be very appealing to some, and obviously my work in this series bears a resemblance to that look though that was never my intention - or my immediate perception after completing the first set of images. That the HDR look seems to have more to do with high structure and texture and less to do with balancing dynamic range (to some at least) is a bit of a shame. I have seen my lifetime's fill of over structured skies on what should otherwise be an amazing HDR landscape. I've had to tell myself time and again when using it to, "Just step away from the structure control!!" To me HDR is about the tone mapping of the light and little else. The rest is just editing.

So, to answer your question again, "Yes, you can use Photomatix to add these 'effects'. But no, you can't necessarily use it to tone map the way I did."

 

[hark]

Well that's a hell of a compliment!! I've always loved Rockwell, and in particularly his ability to capture the emotion and expression of the otherwise ordinary. Maybe that's a little like what I'm trying to do here, though I never would have thought to tie the two together. Rockwell was never afraid to show the warts, come to think of it, because we've all got them somewhere. I'll wear this smile on your behalf for the rest of the day. Thank you so much for the kind words.

You are quite welcome...and certainly worthy of the comparison. As soon as I saw both images displayed together, that's when it hit me. Then I Googled images for Norman Rockwell paintings just to be sure. In these street shots, you capture people doing what they do, and that's exactly what Norman Rockwell did. The luminosity editing you are doing makes these look almost like a painting because of the accentuated details--and it is those details that remind me of the HDR effects, too. You've taken photographs and turned them into art--not that photography isn't an art--but these are more like artwork than sooc images.

From now on when someone mentions the name Rockwell, I hope they clarify which one.

 

[RON_RIP]

Post processing aside, however you achieved your final results, the series is one of the best group of street photos i have ever viewed. Congratulations Jake and be assured that I, for one, will follow this thread avidly to see what else you come up with. Candids and street photography is something I just don't do, but admire immensely.

 

[BackdoorArts]

From now on when someone mentions the name Rockwell, I hope they clarify which one.

Just don't call me Norman.

Post processing aside, however you achieved your final results, the series is one of the best group of street photos i have ever viewed. Congratulations Jake and be assured that I, for one, will follow this thread avidly to see what else you come up with. Candids and street photography is something I just don't do, but admire immensely.

Thank you so much, Ron. I'm glad you and others are enjoying them. This is a genre I've had to force myself to shoot as it just does not come naturally. But the more I shoot the less obtrusive I feel, which helps. In this instance, going to the Farmer's Market every Saturday for over a month has allowed me to feel like I'm blending in instead of standing out. I say "Hi" to the same people, and am finding the same faces in many of my shots week over week. And I'm prepared to shoot that biker making his peanut butter, banana and nuttela baguette sandwich every week if I have to. LOL

 

[sonicbuffalo_RIP]

Jake....while I appreciate and applaud your efforts and especially your explanation of why and how you shot the series, I, too, felt like the skin tones were totally rendered in a false way. I like what the effect does to the architecture of the shots, but it lacks when it comes to the subjects skin tones. I feel if you can get the overall rendition of the effect, without having the 'used motor oil' look in skin tone, THEN, you will have completely mastered your technique. I really love the effort and hope I haven't sounded overly critical, but I understand both your and Ron's points of view, I think. Overall, I enjoyed the shooting and your editing. Thanks!

 

[BackdoorArts]

Again, to each his own. I've far from mastered anything here, I've simply found a sweet spot within this type of processing that helps me express a specific and repeatable feel with the photos. It's meant to evoke a feel, an emotion, a vibe (if I can use "hippie parlance") to the viewer, and I don't expect that to be universally accepted or liked, so it's OK.

To the "motor oil" point, the skin tones are one of the first things I played with, and to be honest, "normal" skin tones rendered the feel utterly schizophrenic, as if the human body was out of place with everything else. I easily could have rendered them all in B&W, which would have likely diffused most of the skin tone criticism (a word I don't equate to negativity), but the B&W's for me were just more street photos, and I wanted to express something different. They're not meant to be portraits or even accurate representations of what things or people look like, and I sure as heck didn't set out to take snapshots for a family album. They're meant to evoke a feel, and they obviously do that. I suspect some people, were to see themselves in the photos, might be aghast at how they look (and might choose to wear more sunscreen), while others might actually appreciate the imperfections the treatment brings out. Again, I'm cool with all of that, because I never set out to take photos of people, or things. I wanted to capture a recurring event, and all that goes with it, and I think I've managed to do that in a way I'm happy with.

There's a part of me that's moved past taking "nice" photos that are universally likeable, in favor of capturing something that speaks to me. As my brother and I walked through an art fair two weekends ago we were discussing the possibility of him starting to sell some of his work now that he's no longer shooting for a newspaper, and as he looked at the other photographers' work he said, "Man, I guess everybody loves to buy 'Wallpaper Photos'." What he meant was that there are a lot of people out there taking high quality photos of things that are very pleasing to the eye, shots that people can't wait to make their computer wallpaper for the next week or two - until they find something else to replace it. But those photographers all seemed to blend in to one another, and of the 20 or so booths that we passed there were maybe 3 that made us stop and take a hard look, because they had something different to show that actually had something to say. I'd decided this long before that moment, but I could never exactly put it into words until then - I don't want to be a wallpaper photographer. Sure, I want to be able to make wallpaper quality photos when they're appropriate, but I want my photography to be something beyond that, and if I'm going to make a go at this as a serious sideline then I need something that sets my stuff apart from the others. I may not sell as much work, but those I do will sell because they spoke to the person and not just because they'll look good over the couch (not that there's anything wrong with that).

 

[sonicbuffalo_RIP]

I really see you as an artist....which you should be very proud of....and I really like 99% of what you post. I think you've achieved your objective in wanting a style that stands out. Do you think you could edit just the skin tones a tad, and still have the overall effect? I know that would take a lot of editing, but art takes a lot of patience also. Artists sometimes take months to get everything just right. I think when you're elite, as I would say you are, it might take you a while to find the right balance in skin tones that is pleasing to a wider spectrum of buyers. Again, in another way, you are very talented, and I'm sure you work very hard on each picture. My question is can you remove some of the 'dirty skin' look that most of what you posted has, without going to black and white? I'm thinking more (and I might be very wrong on this) along the lines of outlining people where they show exposed skin, and maybe layer and/or mask (just guessing) the skin tones to brighten and clarify them a bit (not all the way, as there are blemishes and faults that need to be shown) so that they don't have the dark skin when they're obviously white skinned folk? Is this even possible?

 

[BackdoorArts]

I could do that, but to do it properly would involve a series of edits with masks, one that includes everything but the skin and then the inverse, with each mask being subject to a different color filter. I could also go back and alter the color of the skin afterwards, but it's not so much the shade of the skin that bothers you, it's the underlying texture and tonality that comes with the colored filtering I do, and that is less easy to deal with. Regardless, these are things you want to see - things you perceive as wrong with the image.

If you look carefully across the series you can see that some people are less affected than others. The fairer and purer the skin tone the less "oil" gets on. For example...



...the older girl had very fair skin, while the young girl in the foreground's skin was darker and far more affected by the filters. This natural distinction is something I like because it speaks of differences in life experience when I look at the shots as a set. Altering the harsher tones changes that message. Would it be OK? Yep. But it's not what I want to express in the series!!

Let's face it, there's not a lot you can't do with post processing to alter and change the look of things. So, were I shooting these as a commissioned set for the people who run the Farmer's Market and they told me the look bothered them then I would consider altering it, because their opinion not only matters to the final product, their voice does too. Your opinion matters to me, but not to the extent that I put these up here for input. It's purely my vision, my interpretation, and my choice to share it. Poke at it, praise or pan it all you want, but while I appreciate your comments as always, the shots are what they are and future shots in this series will continue to be unaffected by them. (see http://nikonites.com/off-topic/2423...ack-constructive-criticism.html#axzz38DDreq7m)


If you're asking me to show you a reinterpretation, at this point I'm very disinclined to do so, if only because it would invite comparison, and I have no desire for that with these.

 

[Michael J.]

I figure there's no reason to start a second thread, so as I continue to visit I'll add to this thread. Apparently bouquets were in order this week.

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All photos are special an dtell something but to me, those photos are so great. I've waited long time to click like and to replay cos I wanted to see if I like those everyday I click. And yes, I do like them today as same as I saw them the first time.

 

[sonicbuffalo_RIP]

The more I look at these....I like them more. I think your explanation of why you did it the way you did is cool. I really admire your creativity. Great series Jake and hopefully you'll post more after todays visit to the market!

 

[BackdoorArts]

Big day at the Market today. They had a live "Art Installation", and it was the annual Zucchini 500!! We'll upload these in piece parts, and there is more on my Flickr page.