Ron Davis
November 2024 - Shoe Shine Boy
About the Image(s)
Having been brought up in Melbourne, Australia, through the 1950’s-60’s our first television shows, especially American TV shows and movies, occasionally had the shoe shine boy. This figure I quickly gleaned was at the lower order of social status in American society. Often customers would flick payment for his shoe shinning services by flicking a coin into the air with their thumbs and he would scramble about fetching it from the pavement.
Well I discovered a shoe shiner while in Resistensia, Argentina. The photo was taken from the 5th floor of hotel through the window. It required processing as the glass produced a haze look and shooting through glass can produce blurring.
Camera Panasonic DMC-FZ150. F8, ISO 400, Shutter 1/60. Focal length 35mm equivalent 99mm
ProcessingTopaz: Denoise raw, sharpen, exposure. Photoshop Auto Tone with this style of photo taken under these conditions a lot of processing is required.
7 comments posted
We still have shoeshine stands at the Denver airport and many other places. I don't think the patrons are as dismissive anymore. But shoe shiners are still at the bottom of the social ladder everywhere. Other problem for them is many don't wear shineable shoes anymore.
I like this street photo. The interaction between the two is great. Who doesn't like seeing a good laugh. Small nitpick, green grass area looks over-saturated to me. Posted: 11/07/2024 11:44:44
I like this street photo. The interaction between the two is great. Who doesn't like seeing a good laugh. Small nitpick, green grass area looks over-saturated to me. Posted: 11/07/2024 11:44:44
Hi Ron, I can see a good story here, both from the perpective of telling a story about local shoeshiners, but also about the connection between the men - I wonder who told the joke?
Your settings look good, but a narrower DOF might help to make the background less obvious, and hence less distracting. In addition, I find the pink umbrella to the left a bit annoying and a slight shift in your position may have eliminated this. Posted: 11/09/2024 00:03:09
Your settings look good, but a narrower DOF might help to make the background less obvious, and hence less distracting. In addition, I find the pink umbrella to the left a bit annoying and a slight shift in your position may have eliminated this. Posted: 11/09/2024 00:03:09
Hi All. Leslie raised a very interesting point regarding the over-saturation of the green grass. I would like to pass on an assessment I watched at our club's recent PJ comp. The judge a former President of the Australian Photographic Society (APS) made an interesting comment about PJ photos.
* Photos should at best capture as much of the event as possible, my Cricket photo did mediocre as it was just a batsman, bowler and other cricketers playing in a cricket match.
* Most interesting comment which surprised me was that the main subject matter, often people, need to be luminated against the background, he said you have to make them POP. In Lightroom not sure about Photoshop the Luminance slider can only be used on the photo globally. I was unsure how one can Luminate within a photo, if background colours and subject matter are of a similar shade e.g. green clothing against a green treed or grassed background. Perhaps Photoshop can do this but my concern is that as Photogs we are being pulled towards software all the time. My experience of late has been 3 hours photographing cricketers and 5 hours processing photos from same event. I have refused to buy a fast burst rate camera; Sony has 24 FPS mirrorless in RAW. Brother-in-law has one and took 4000 photos at a rodeo then spent 2 months going through these photos got one that won photograph of the year within our club. Is it worth it? Posted: 11/11/2024 16:57:37
* Photos should at best capture as much of the event as possible, my Cricket photo did mediocre as it was just a batsman, bowler and other cricketers playing in a cricket match.
* Most interesting comment which surprised me was that the main subject matter, often people, need to be luminated against the background, he said you have to make them POP. In Lightroom not sure about Photoshop the Luminance slider can only be used on the photo globally. I was unsure how one can Luminate within a photo, if background colours and subject matter are of a similar shade e.g. green clothing against a green treed or grassed background. Perhaps Photoshop can do this but my concern is that as Photogs we are being pulled towards software all the time. My experience of late has been 3 hours photographing cricketers and 5 hours processing photos from same event. I have refused to buy a fast burst rate camera; Sony has 24 FPS mirrorless in RAW. Brother-in-law has one and took 4000 photos at a rodeo then spent 2 months going through these photos got one that won photograph of the year within our club. Is it worth it? Posted: 11/11/2024 16:57:37
(Groups 2 & 5)
That hearty laugh really makes the image for me! The shoe shine activity is very obvious, and I like the pose of the two figures. At least on my own computer screen the green of the lawn doesn't appear oversaturated. My own feeling is that a little less brightness overall and a bump up in contrast would make the image pop a little more. Posted: 11/11/2024 17:35:00
Could also add the story in HI is probably not enough for judging. The technical components of your photo for some judges are possibly more important. Posted: 11/12/2024 23:21:15
(Groups 2 & 5)
I'm curious why you don't see a good story here? We often see interactions between people that don't tell us exactly what is going on but it still evokes interest. I have never seen a shoeshine person at his/her job, and this illustrates that story in a very effective way, as we see the supplies set out and the worker doing his job and the man receiving the service is enjoying the process! Posted: 11/13/2024 08:49:52
I am not saying there is not a story, this story to me is very unique, never ever seen a shoeshine person in Australia, appears only an American thing. What I am saying from my last experience of witnessing judging of PJ photos is that technical aspects of photo seem as important as the story. subject matter has to "pop" according to last judge. Pop can only be achieved to my knowledge by manipulating the Luminance slider in most reasonable software packages. These two characters in the photo would be very difficult to "pop" as the man is in black, maybe the shoe shiner as he is in blue. I should have unpoped the umbrella and tent on left side of photo, this could have been done or change the colour of the tent and umbrella (not allowed though). Posted: 11/13/2024 18:14:22