Nice scene, but lighting is very harsh and there is loss of detail in the pavement and on the girl. Colour looks a bit pumped up and the people on left background are a pity. I'd be inclined to clone them out.
To explain how the shot was taken: I took the shot in October and the light flooded unfiltered almost horizontally through Bologna (Italy). The city center is built of deep red bricks and into the sun they reflect the red intensely. I toned down the red a bit. The contrasts were extreme, which is why I lost fine details, as you rightly criticize. The dark person is important to me because it represents the dark side of the pandemic. It almost looks like he/sheis mourning, while the young people are hopeful for the future. I would now take back the brightness of the footpath a bit more. Thanks for your tips, it helps a lot! All the best, Uli
One more thing about the red in the picture: Because of the red brick architecture, Bologna ie is also called "La rossa", the red one. In the center, one restaurant follows the next, hence another nickname, "La grassa", the fat one. All the best, Uli
This is a case where I am not bothered by the burnt out bits. Almost nothing of importance is lost. When the sun hits like that, the contrast is extreme especially in such clean air. And the ally-ways are like dark canyons. However if it is a raw file there may be more to save.
The figures are bit "busy". The imminent collision looks a bit strange and the group of three are very close, five feet looks odd. However, the main thing I notice is the odd perspective of the archway in the centre background - it looks a bit peculiar.
Hm, in two other forum this has been understood by members exactly the same way. But that probably differs greatly from forum to forum. I generally see differences between German, more European and US forums. There are different experiences and cultural approaches in each case. All the best, Uli
Without the title or explanation I wouldn’t have gotten the message intended behind it. I’d also want to clone the shadowed people out. But then that leaves just a group of people randomly doing nothing in particular. It’s neither social commentary or an example of chiaroscuro with a few figures as focal points. Needs to be one or the other for me for it to work.
The whole thing works only as a text-picture combination. In the image itself is nothing post-pandemic related. Only the text together with the image creates the association. What I succeeded in this case only partially. I often work with images that, well, should result in a new context through the text. All the best, Uli
There is one to his right reaching up probably taking a picture of the lamp above. Also silhouette, or maybe shadow, of one to his left.
I think that is fair enough. It is an old cliché that pictures should speak for themselves, but many only work in combination with eachother in a set and many are illustrations of what text is saying. But you can't critique them without the full context. Then the question is do they illustrate the text, but in this case, it still doesn't for me. It looks like it could have been taken anytime. I'd be looking for clues like the dark guy clearly wearing a mask, or discarded masks in the street. In some ways this could do that job with young people not wearing masks, but better if they were in the foreground and people behind had masks. https://flic.kr/p/2jH7GRa Even so, I think the take-out in present context would be inconsiderate people endangering others by refusing to wear masks.
I think it is a really nice scene, but I also think more context would have helped. I like the colours.
