Re: [Leica] Nathan's picture of Week 35

[Pablo Kolodny <pkolodny@fibertel.com.ar>]

great, BD
I now understand what you were trying to mean...
As a simple paranoid I am I felt that you were about to justify those kind
of images where background is always so distracting, sometimes annoying.
In this case I don't think that background is annoying, just a little bit
distracting but, at the same time, I think that this background is adding
some extra charming stuff to the image. I, personally, would've liked to go
wider in aperture to make it look more pleasant. Some high lights still
remain a little hard shaped, then more distracting.
The three glasses stuff, also discussed in the thread, look fine but it
would look better if they were not so symmetrical. IMO.
The scene in the image is parallel to the film plane, or too much
perpendicular to the lens axis, I usually try to avoid that, but again is my
personal taste. I almost always, if possible, try to get out of the lens
axis. This adds a little bit more of depth to the image and also helps to
degrade the background since what I get is a range of out of focus.

see you later
- -- 
Pablo Kolodny
www.pablokolodny.com

> From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 13:41:26 -0400
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Nathan's picture of Week 35
> 
> I believe that the poster in question criticized the cluttered, busy
> background. And I made the comment that in real life backgrounds often
> are cluttered and busy. So if one is going to shoot in real-life
> situations, one is often going to get cluttered, busy background. But in
> this shot, and in other good "documentary" shots, the subject stands out
> enough so that the cluttered background becomes a non-issue. I agree
> that the two bands of highlights in the background are a bit annoying.
> But I find them annoying not because the photographer didn't eliminate
> them completely with shallow depth of field, but, rather, because they
> are so muted as to become a little puzzle, making me wonder what they
> are, or what's going on.
> 
> B. D.