Chuck and Joel, you are right that the focus was very intentionally
not on the face.
This was not a portrait, and if my 90mm could have opened up to 1.4
I would have. Both the identity of the man, as well as the car, are
meant to be vague and suggestive.
It's all about the juxtaposition for me. Only the man's shoes, and
(partially) the coins and notes he has gathered though his begging,
are in focus.
Moose, you make strong points as ever, and of course it's all about
*intent* at the end of the day. I can probably think of a number of
philosophical reasons why I chose to focus on his lower legs and his
money, both the things that will "carry" him in this divided world.
On the other hand, taking that too far can sound too pretentious, as
an image like this is composed and focused in literally a second or
two.
Suffice it to say, that the focus is precisely where I wanted it :-)
Thanks for looking, all
Dawid
On 13 Jun 2010, at 5:49 PM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> I tend to agree with Moose on this one but I think the photographer's
> choice of focus is deliberate and I wait to hear his reasoning.
> Still,
> I'd have chosen the face as the point of focus.
>
> Chuck Norcutt
>
>
> Joel Wilcox wrote:
>> On Jun 13, 2010, at 12:54 AM, Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> On 6/10/2010 12:32 PM, Dawid Loubser wrote:
>>>> The gap between rich and poor have never been - even in our
>>>> troubled past here in South Africa - been as great as it is now.
>>>> I generally don't like photographing unfortunate people, and
>>>> tried here not to focus as much on the sitting man, as on the
>>>> contrast of him and the scene behind him.
>>>>
>>>> http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/161/d/5/The_Gap_by_philosomatographer.jpg
>>>> (OM-1, 90mm at f/2.0, Ilford FP4+, 8x10in analogue print)
>>>>
>>> Nicely seen and captured. Still, your métier of very shallow plane
>>> of
>>> focus requires great care in focusing and has, to my eye, failed
>>> here.
>>> The lower legs in focus and face soft doesn't really work for me.
>>> I'm
>>> not sure I mind the soft face, but the part that's in focus seems
>>> wrong
>>> to me
>>
>> To me the amount of focus on the man's face is just about perfect.
>> It would be difficult to get that by focusing anywhere else. I
>> might like to see the car a little more in focus to emphasize the
>> social comment, but that takes attention entirely away from the
>> man. Tough photographic problem, but I think to call the decision
>> a failure is far from obvious, at least to me.
>>
>> Joel W.
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