The streets of India

[tirediron]

Taken today on the streets of Chennai, India (I know these are in the 'Show your Photo' forum, but feel free to critique, especially the mono conversion).


http://thephotoforum.com/gallery/files/5212-Chennai_8x10_5Medium.jpg


http://thephotoforum.com/gallery/files/5212-Chennai_8x10_3Medium.jpg


http://thephotoforum.com/gallery/files/5212-Chennai_8x10_4Medium.jpg


http://thephotoforum.com/gallery/files/5212-Chennai_5x7_1Medium.jpg

[tegan]

You did not read my post on tips for shooting dark-skinned people. All their faces are under-exposed and lacking in detail.

Tegan

[tirediron]

You did not read my post on tips for shooting dark-skinned people. All their faces are under-exposed and lacking in detail.

Tegan

No I didn't - do you have a link?

Edited to add: I found your post Tegan, good tips, unfortunately, there's precious little time to focus, recompose etc when you're standing on a street in India!

[kiley9806]

really interesting - love to see photos from around the world!
funny to see 2 shoe repair shots and 3 out of 4 people in bare feet...
i really like the way youve captured the subjects, in everyday activities (ie. work)
peronally, i think the 4th man has great texture to his skin. yes, the faces are dark as tegan pointed out, but it still works for me...

[tegan]

Here is the post but you have more experience and may have simply not noticed the problem.

To handle one of your questions, dark skinned people are difficult to shoot correctly as far as exposure and lighting, often because the background is a white building or light sand etc. The meter sets the brightness according to the background rather than the person.

There are a few approaches to solving the problem.

1. Try to shoot a dark skinned person in the shade or against a dark
background. Even lighting is easier for the meter to deal with.

2. Use manual exposure and adjust until you see the detail you want in your
preview LCD screen on the back of your camera for the face of the person.

3. Zoom in tightly on the face, press AEL (automatic exposure lock) on the
camera or hold the shutter button partially down, zoom out and reframe
your photo and then shoot.

4. Use a natural light reflector. For example, have a bright building on the
left or ride side of your subject...but not behind.

5. Experiment with different ISOs and contrast in camera menus to get
maximum detail and accurate colour.

Hope these tips help and have fun experimenting.

Tegan

[Travis]

I love this type of work. It's always refreshing to view images that we are not calibrated to see day in and day out.

[tegan]

Edited to add: I found your post Tegan, good tips, unfortunately, there's precious little time to focus, recompose etc when you're standing on a street in India!

True, but before I went out, I would put a polarizing filter on, set the ISO at 200 to 400, and adjust the exposure compensation to +.5 of an fstop for slight overexposure.

In post, of course, it is also easy to improve exposure and facial detail as well. These have great potential for good post work.

Tegan

[tirediron]

True, but before I went out, I would put a polarizing filter on, set the ISO at 200 to 400, and adjust the exposure compensation to +.5 of an fstop for slight overexposure.

In post, of course, it is also easy to improve exposure and facial detail as well. These have great potential for good post work.

Tegan

I wonder if we're (and by 'we' I suspect me) suffereing monitoritis: how about if you take one (or more) and 'tune' the face that way it looks good to you, and i'll compare it to the original on my monitor? They look good to me; the people in this area are very dark-skinned. I'll post a couple more from today in a bit (which were shot through a CPOL) and see what everyone's thoughts are.

Thanks again.

[tegan]

OK, here is a tuned black and white from your collection.

Tegan

[tegan]

And here is another tuned face.

Tegan

[AcadieLibre]

I like the photos, Teagan what did you to make it look so washed out, lacks any definition or depth. Now if you did not to do the touch up to the second one my apologies.

[tegan]

I like the photos, Teagan what did you to make it look so washed out, lacks any definition or depth. Now if you did not to do the touch up to the second one my apologies.

They are not at all washed out and have better detail than the originals. My monitor matches perfectly with the results I get from a commercial pro printing firm, so I have no reason whatsoever to doubt what I am seeing.
Of course the Nikon version of srgb workspace was sufficiently different from the standard, that I got a prompt to convert. If you are using MAC there may also be some difference.

Tegan

[tirediron]

Hmm, well, based on that, I'm pretty sure it's a monitor or eyeball issue. Both of your edits show here as rather muddy, uncontrasty images, esp. the mono conversion. I'll have to get some sent off to print and see what the hardcopy looks like and go from there. I know my monitor is out of cal which may be contributing. Thanks for the effort.

[kiley9806]

they seem foggy to me... especially the mono conv. and the 2nd one has strange eyes.
although the brightened faces show MORE detail than the darker, i prefer the darker images as they seem to still have CLEANER detail than the edits.

[tegan]

they seem foggy to me... especially the mono conv. and the 2nd one has strange eyes.
although the brightened faces show MORE detail than the darker, i prefer the darker images as they seem to still have CLEANER detail than the edits.

Well, I certainly did not add any fog. :) As to the 2nd the "strange eyes" were obscured by the dark area in that part of the original.

Underexposure increases contrast which only gives the appearance of prominent detail in the less underexposed areas. It is NOT present as clean detail or it would come through in the brightening of the dark areas.

Tegan