Resting

[Tuna]

Madrid, Spain.

All comments and critique greatly appreciated.

Tuna

[PlantedTao]

I really like this picture. The subject matter is great and goes well with the composition. I like how she is on the side, while all the busy ped traffic is behind her. The dof is great.

Did you us PS to blur the background even further? and add contrast to the background?

The resting women really holds my attention, while the blurred moving background draws me in further. I have not seen too many street scenes that hold my attention, but this picture does.
Bravo!

[mattp]

I'll echo that sentiment. I was holding off commenting because I wanted to take a while thinking about it first. Thematically this seems to be about the separation/isolation that can come with old age, as the world around you seems to speed up and no one has time for you any more. The depth of field really captures this, in a sense it mimics motion blur, so I can imagine this as a time lapse sequence, with the woman unmoving as the world whizzes around her.

The only thing I was unsure about was whether the empty space on the left increased that sense, or whether it was a slight distraction. On balance I think it it enhances the photo, the people are now separated from her by both time and space.

Well spotted, good stuff

matt.

[gahspidy]

A good scene of the elderly woman resting amidst the hustle going on around her. I just find the blur not natural enough, and assuming you worked the blur and dof in ps, i would just want to see it done a bit more natural in appearance. Most noticeable on the ground area as it suddenly goes into blur even more so than the rest of the image behind it. A crop? It seems like a bit too much going on in the left of frame, but I think it fine to leave it as is. Another well spotted capture.

[ShotsbyScott]

I have come back to this several times. The bg people blur thing is what I can't find words for.
I looked at a crop just to the left of the women walking toward you nearest to the elderly women.
It centers your subject up and looks pretty good. But, thats just me! Wouldn't it be great if the elderly women could hold completely still and get a tremendous blur of people walking by while your shutter was open. Just thinking out loud.
Great eye in spotting this.


Scott

[Tuna]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

This is an old photo that I decided to work on and re-Photoshop. I am on the road and the image looks different on my work computer than it did at home (may be time to calibrate the old monitor...). First, the background blur has been enhanced by adding some gaussian blur and it does look a little unrealistic the more I look at it - this is mentioned by the eagle eyes of Gary. Also, the woman was in the shade of the building and I did some selective levels adjustment to her as well as some dodging but I am seeing a bit of a halo around her - should have checked the hardness of my dodging brush a little better. Also, the overall scene appears to be a little bright - might need to reduce the contrast just a tad. Not sure what you folks think about those changes but now I am itching to get back home and work on it some more.

Tuna

[gahspidy]

Sure, sounds good. Would like to see what you do with it.

[CarbonTerry]

Try using a layer mask to allow the G-Blur to happen gradually will give a normal feel to the DOF.
A little fine tuning on the burning and you have a dandy photo...

[walterick]

Tuna - I like the image. Good job spotting this and excellent job composing. I think if you were to put this in "classical" composition ie crop it down to an 8x10 diminsion it would be great. In other words, cropping some off the left pulls my eye to the subject better. My other suggestions: burn in the bright spot on the sidewalk behind the walking lady and possibly burn in the whole background a little bit. The blur didn't bother me, but her halo did catch my eye.

Good work!
Rick