Fishing for coins

A few months back I ran into this poor homeless man. I think his approach is very original. What do you think of his picture?

Not a bad subject here, it is a great human interest image. Did you give him any $$$?

As far as this image goes the subject is good but the lighting is tough and you ended up with a fairly contrasty overall look. You could crop this in from the sides a bit (up to about the edges of the benches). Cropping in tighter and converting to B&W might give this an interesting look.

If you have the chance to do this again try shooting with the camera level with the subjects head and filling the frame with what you are trying to shoot.

MB1
Thanks for your comments. I gave him a dollar since I did not have coins with me. He was gracious enough and allowed me to take his picture. I will give your suggestions a try and repost it.

Here is the same image cropped in tighter. I also removed some of the contrast. What do you think?

Great subject and human interest image, as stated. My first thought when I saw this was it was cropped too tightly. If you did get a chance to see this again I would get close to him with a wide angle lens and try to get alot of the street and surroundings around him. Also get down low to view the buildings behind him. Part of the appeal in a scene like this is seeing this sight amongst the hustle and activity of the life going on around him. It sets of a relationship and contrast in lives. A bit of fill flash and reduced exposure for the bg would seemingly work here.

Thanks Gary. The next time I run into this subject I will shoot it differently as you suggest.

Very interesting! I think your fixed one has a little too much contrast removed, somewhere in the middle between the 1st and 2nd is what I like. The crop on the sides looks good, but you should have left the bottom part, so that we could see the whole bench. I also like the b&w idea =)

Thanks Matilda.

I think it's a great human interest photo.

Like some of the others, the first is a bit too contrastie, while the second is washed out a bit too much. It's always a fine line with the adjustments. The dark areas are very dark, the detail is lost in the darkness (i.e. jacket and pants) Perhaps adjusting the levels (shadow and midtone) just a bit might help.

As for the framing, I would like to see a bit more of the background included (i.e. where is he in relation to the rest of the world) and perhaps with the photo taken a bit lower (it almost looks like your shooting down slight on the subject.. If you were a bit lower, shooting level to the subject or even slight up a bit, you would also get a bit of the more of the background and context of the picture.

On the second picture, I would leave the bottom like the first. I really like the shadows that are presented in the first.

Regardless, as I said, a very interesting piece.