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Sony Forums Challenges | all galleries >> Challenge 171: Noise/Summer (hosted by John Dunn) >> Challenge 171: Eligible > edit image
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15-JUN-2008 vincentnyc

First Place
Thus Far, a Peaceful Night... by vincentNYC

Tough work / gritty image.

Sony DSLR-A700
1/20s f/4.5 at 28.0mm iso 2000 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time15-Jun-2008 22:24:19
MakeSony
ModelDSLR-A700
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length28 mm
Exposure Time1/20 sec
Aperturef/4.5
ISO Equivalent2000
Exposure Bias
White Balance
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programaperture priority (3)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Katherine Stanback's Photos23-Jun-2008 23:48
Wonderful capture - I love the composition, the black/white conversion, and the lighting & shadows!
Justin Miller23-Jun-2008 20:58
I like this Vincent - it could be used in a variety of emotional moods - from quiet idle nights, to introspection and sadness after a bad night. I can't help but have a small flash of nine eleven when I see this shot - just in the spareness of it and the relative loneliness of the two men.
Bruce T Jones18-Jun-2008 17:28
I love the way their feet frame the image. Very well composed. -- Bruce
Sony Forums Challenges17-Jun-2008 14:05
ok, Vincent I posted a new colour version in the demo folder:http://www.pbase.com/stfchallenge/image/98825178
Guest 17-Jun-2008 07:01
jrdu: i chuckled when i saw what you just wrote...that's because i 'm not that good at all at Photoshop! if ONLY i could simply "...clone out that box...". since the color version (in the Demo Gallery) is larger, would you like to try your hand at it? then, maybe you can save it also in the Demo Gallery and label it as such! Look forward to seeing it! Wish I could learn how...
jrdu 17-Jun-2008 06:53
The detail I'm most concerned about is the young man's face and the US flag. In the colour version they are more evident, and I find their juxtaposition striking. Vincent, do you think it would be effective cloning out that black box and lightening the young man's face a trifle to try to regain the clarity that's in the original?
Guest 17-Jun-2008 05:39
jrdu: thx for your comments. the color version is in the "demo" gallery and is of a larger size. I only wish that the 800 pixel size limit is changed/relaxed somewhat as it really is quite small in light of the size of many LCD monitors available today. I saw this b/w image at 800 pixel size and decided to increase the non-gaussian noise a bit in order to recall the pushed Tri-X look: 800 pixels is too small to really see the grain otherwise! I hope there is just sufficient grain now to see it and get the "point" across, yet not over done and be too obvious.

Thx also to the reference to the entrance of banks in China - I do recall that even though the new HSBC building is brand new architecture by Norman Foster, they retained the two lions from their old building! They had become local icons!
inframan 17-Jun-2008 05:26
The graininess makes the image more visceral, vs. a catalog of details.
But I sure do love those ducts & helmets. (Shades of *Brazil*).
jrdu 17-Jun-2008 05:10
I liked the colour image, and it worked better at the larger size. Maybe you could put the original size colour one in the demo folder to let people have a look. In China, all the banks have two lions sitting outside. One is roaring to symbolize that no one should dare to try to rob this bank, and the other lion is quiet, to show that investors don't need to worry. Here we have two firefighters, a devil-may-care youth and a older wiser man who frame the entrance to the fire hall. It took me a minute to realize it was a fire hall when I first looked at it. I love being surprised like that. I feel that we've lost a lot of interesting detail with the downsizing and the darkening that happened with the extra grain.
Guest 16-Jun-2008 15:43
John: Thanks for your comments as well as informing me of the proper rules - which is something that I ought to have seen/read. I will now know moving forward. I submit images to "challenges" infrequently. I will use the black and white version, in this case, re-sized to 800 at the long end, and added a touch more non-gaussian noise as this very small size made the "grittiness" hard to see! My goal is to recall the "pushed Tri-X" look from the film days.
John Dunn16-Jun-2008 11:50
Hi Vincent. This photo has a lot going for it and I like your comment on it: Tough work / gritty image. That's using noise well.
In the guidelines it says: Please resize your images to no larger than 800 pixels on the longest
side before uploading to PBase (can be larger if it's a panoramic image). That keeps a level playing field.
The Demo gallery is for trying different versions and approaches to the same shot. I'm going to move your black and white versions there and put a link here. That is the usual method we use for soliciting feedback. If you prefer to submit a different version than this one, just click on edit this image and go down to the bottom of the edit image page where you can upload an image to replace the current image. You can also use this to upload a resized image.
The black and white versions are here:http://www.pbase.com/stfchallenge/image/98759828 and here:http://www.pbase.com/stfchallenge/image/98766630
People would normally comment here, just so it's easier to find all the comments.
Ray Johnson 16-Jun-2008 04:26
Great photo. Strong balance of opposing elements: light & dark, calm & tension.
Something wicked this way comes...