Well, that's fair enuf ... constructive criticism and a compliment. Those broad shoulders of which you speak are nothing more than padding ;-))
You're right in that I didn't work on this nearly as much as I've worked on others, perhaps because I didn't care for it as much as some other photos. I've been looking at it for months trying to decide if I liked it ... Shel > [Original Message] > From: Anthony Farr > I never comment much on peoples' work, but I know you've got broad shoulders > and can give and take criticism without getting emotional. I'm also an > admirer of your work, especially as it's in a genre where I have little > talent. > > As for the content of this shot, I find it enigmatic that the narrative is > about the drummer, but the other character in the shot is so engaging, and > so well captured and rendered, that he 'steals the show'. He's really worth > his own photograph. > > This picture is IMO technically well short of your usual high standard, and > it stands out enough in its deficiency for me to make a very rare criticism > of another's work. I'm accustomed to seeing documentary and street > photography presented with slightly less contrast than other genres, and I > suspect that it's more a matter of fashion than necessity, but it's not my > place to tell another group of photographers that their preferences are > wrong. They're not wrong, just different to my own. I prefer more robust > tonality and I'm not afraid of solid black or blank white. What bothers me > is muddiness close to the limits, especially when we now have the means to > easily optimise problems that we once had to either accept or spend much > time/money to correct with advanced darkroom manipulations. > > But this example has conspicuously weak highlights when you consider that > they aren't blown out, just unrealised in the result. The highlights are > there for you if you use the tools to recover them. > > My expectation of Shel Belinkoff is that he'd sweat blood to get the best > result before our eyes. (That's a compliment BTW). This shot wasn't ready > for our eyes, IMO.
