Street Performer by vignouse

Street Performer

This gentleman was entertaining the crowds of summer visitors in a little square in Saint Malo. Apart from his classical guitar playing - which was excellent - I was fascinated by the guitar itself which as well as the standard 6 strings, appears to also have 4 bass strings without frets... and thus fixed tuning. It looked odd but sounded wonderful.
Excellent b&w w choice
Love the character
Also like all the lines in the guitar, strings and wood.
July 29th, 2014  
Looks a fascinating instrument and a great B & W study of the street performer.
July 29th, 2014  
This is one fantastic B&W shot! So Real and animated. He jumps right out of the photo! Superb DOF!
July 29th, 2014  
awesome. What have you done to separate him so well from the background? it looks like he has light behind him maybe?
July 29th, 2014  
Beautiful. Fav.
July 29th, 2014  
Awesome portrait
July 30th, 2014  
Wonder bw portrait. He appears a little curious about you.
July 30th, 2014  
Kim
great portrait. Interesting instrument
July 30th, 2014  
Terrific portrait
July 30th, 2014  
Wonderful candid portrait!
July 30th, 2014  
A great candid --his face tells dozens of stories.
July 30th, 2014  
Oh, and fave for sure.
July 30th, 2014  
Reading other comments...amazingly sharp focus on him and his guitar. Did you do some extra blurring of background in post processing? The people sitting at a table seen over his right (our left) shoulder have an odd quality to the blur that I can't figure out. (Of course, I know so little about camera settings...)
July 30th, 2014  
such detail Richard! Stunning.
July 30th, 2014  
@janiskay @tracie8266 @joansmor @mcsiegle
Thank you ladies - very much appreciated. The right way to do this is to select the foreground subject in Photoshop, turn it into a layer mask and then apply a blur effect on the background (PS Lens Blur for preference) followed by targeted processing on the selected subject. With his flyaway hair and the guitar strings, I figured that was going to be a major piece of work, so I chose to do a quick & dirty job! I cropped then processed for enhanced mid-range tones in Lightroom and exported to PS CC. There I removed people and artefacts in the background, and then returned to LR where I repeated the processing for enhanced mid-range tones. I then used a local adjustment brush to lower the exposure of the background. The background was already out of focus (70mm lens at f/4) but when you process for enhanced mid-range tones the soft blurred edges of out-of-focus objects become hard-edged tonal boundaries which is what you are seeing on the figures in the background... They have clearly defined edges but are otherwise blurred. It creates an odd effect but I was happy with the trade off as the proper PS fix would have taken more time than I had available. Whilst playing he was staring, with intense concentration, into the middle distance, but this did not come over in the processed image. So the final edit was to do a targeted local adjustment to lift the exposure on his eyes by one stop, and now we can see that stare of concentration.

I'm happy that this image corresponds with what was in my minds eye when I took it. I hope this explanation helps.
July 30th, 2014  
Great portrait!
July 30th, 2014  
Amazing instrument! Thank you so much Richard for adding your touch! Just beautiful
July 30th, 2014  
Lou
Look at that - I've never seen anything like it!
I'm liking the perfect diagonal you've got here :)
July 30th, 2014  
great portrait.
July 30th, 2014  
fav
July 30th, 2014  
wonderful portrait. has a lot of feeling.
July 30th, 2014  
@vignouse thank for taking the time to explain how you did this-really appreciated. Once again a marvellous creation :-)
July 30th, 2014  
Great portrait and love the black and white. Fav
July 30th, 2014  
Great street capture and portrait. It looks great in b&w
July 30th, 2014  
Richard I love this. Great subject with so much detail and brilliantly processed. Fav.
July 30th, 2014  
Mentor I am coping this and putting it in my mentor file to try sometime. Thanks.
July 30th, 2014  
Love it .... fav!
July 30th, 2014  
What a totally compelling portrait. I can't take my eyes off it. So glad to read above what you did to it processing wise as I couldn't quite get my head round it. Personally I really like what the processing has done for the main subject (he stands out in such a surreal way) and less so what it has done to the background. But you said yourself a "quick & dirty job" , fair enough. I also really like the action of his hands, his unusual guitar and of course the stare. I shall be coming back to this a few times I reckon, it is very mesmerising.
July 30th, 2014  
Richard, I am captivated by this portrait - it has such a soft glowing feel to it and the b&w is perfect. The guitar is fascinating as you say. Big fav.
July 30th, 2014  
Thanks for the Fav Debs but I think you forgot to press the button as it's not showing on my stats... I need a couple more for PP ;-)
July 30th, 2014  
A super portrait - his character really shows through in your shot!

Ian
July 30th, 2014  
Darn I forgot to fav it. Done now.
July 30th, 2014  
wow...such a super candid portrait..fav for sure....
July 30th, 2014  
really great street shot !!! fav
July 30th, 2014  
Superb portrait and processing job. Thanks for the explanation. The interesting guitar is a bonus - would love to hear it played. Fav.
July 30th, 2014  
Great candid shot Richard...............sounds like the time you spent on this picture you deserve to get on the PP. Good luck.
2 Favs :)
July 31st, 2014  
Great candid shot Richard..has great expression captured and that guitar.. someday I will have to learn how to process fav
July 31st, 2014  
fav! fantastic portrait and amazing processing
July 31st, 2014  
Wonderful portrait. A lot of character in his face.
July 31st, 2014  
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