I went downcity for some street photography today, and this was one of those days where it was difficult to choose a single photo to upload to the Photo-a-Day gallery. I finally went with this one because it told the story of the day: Put your head down, stride purposely forward, and try to get wherever you're going before the rain comes. You can see from the wet cobblestones that it did rain off and on earlier, but it had stopped for the moment.
The setup for this scene is a technique I've been using for a while now with some success. What caught my attention was this weathered door with the paint peeling, the windows blocked, and a dim yellow-glow light illuminating nothing. It's the perfect background for a photo, and the wet cobblestone added to the overall mood. Now it was a matter of waiting for a subject. The gentleman in the photo came down the steps from Waterplace Park and walked towards me. There were no other exits, so I knew he had to come through here. When I shoot street photography, I normally keep both eyes open as opposed to squinting behind the viewer. This allows me to keep the scene composed with my right eye, but watch the approaching subject with my left. It was most beneficial in this case, since my intended subject started to circle behind me so as not to disturb the photo! With my left hand, I motioned for him to move through the scene, and he quickly obliged. Even better, he didn't look at me or the camera until after I'd taken the photo and stood up. I love it when a street subject fully cooperates with the photo.
Post processing started with a detail light filter in Topaz Adjust. I then adjusted adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, brightness, color regions, and adaptive saturation. A levels adjustment was added in PSE.
