I stopped downcity at lunchtime for today's photo. The plan was to park at an available meter and then walk down South Main Street, hoping to find an interesting scene either at the WWI Memorial or further down at the Roger Williams National Memorial. Along the way, though, I saw this young lady enjoying her Cranberry drink and checking out her phone, conveniently sheltered from a cold wind. This was one of those situations where I felt it better to ask before taking the photo, so I explained the "Photo a Day" concept and what attracted me to this scene. As you can see, she readily agreed. As the caption implies, she was on a break from her job at an adjoining restaurant and had just stepped outside for a quick smoke and to check her phone.
I have been using my 50mm prime lens almost exclusively for street photography. I'm liking that approach more and more with each shot. On a full-frame camera, the 50mm closely approximates the view as seen by the human eye. I also love the sharpness inherent in a prime lens. Most importantly, though, the 50mm lens forces a level of interaction with the people being photographed that you just don't get with a long zoom. Using my 50mm has provided an opportunity to meet some wonderful people that I would otherwise would not have met.
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, and then adjusted adaptive exposure, regions, boost black, boost white, protect highlights, and contrast. A slight contrast adjustment was also added in PSE followed by a sepia photo filter.
@steviemichelle Oh, she was a pleasure to meet, Stevie! A warm friendliness even upon first approach. I'm glad that great smile came through in the final image.
@aponi@shelldunn Thanks, Kathryn and Michelle! I'm definitely enjoying the street photography. This should improve significantly when it warms up and there are actually people out on the street!
@tigerdreamer Karen, "regions" in this context is a term unique to the Topaz suite of plug-ins for Photoshop Elements. It's associated with their "adaptive exposure" adjustment. Topaz can explain it a lot better than I can (especially since it really helps to see examples) so here's a link to the Topaz blog that describes them: http://www.topazlabs.com/blog/understanding-regions-in-topaz-adjust/
The net effect, though, is that by increasing the number of regions it dramatically increases the amount of subtle detail that's present in the image but normally hidden. The lower the number of regions, the flatter the image appears. As you increase it, the contrast is fine-tuned and the image really pops. The blog I linked is for their Topaz Adjust plug-in, which is designed for color photos. The same concept applies to Topaz B&W FX, which is designed for b&w conversions.
January 29th, 2013
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@tigerdreamer Karen, "regions" in this context is a term unique to the Topaz suite of plug-ins for Photoshop Elements. It's associated with their "adaptive exposure" adjustment. Topaz can explain it a lot better than I can (especially since it really helps to see examples) so here's a link to the Topaz blog that describes them: http://www.topazlabs.com/blog/understanding-regions-in-topaz-adjust/
The net effect, though, is that by increasing the number of regions it dramatically increases the amount of subtle detail that's present in the image but normally hidden. The lower the number of regions, the flatter the image appears. As you increase it, the contrast is fine-tuned and the image really pops. The blog I linked is for their Topaz Adjust plug-in, which is designed for color photos. The same concept applies to Topaz B&W FX, which is designed for b&w conversions.