Tag Archive for: portrait

Another direction

The other direction. Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

A few weeks ago I was attending a university graduation ceremony of one of the members of my family. I wasn’t really in a artistic mode to be honest, much more in another direction like  “take portraits with the telephoto as you came late and can’t get closer than 20 meters from the scene” mode. Not my favourite kind of photography, but being the only one in the family with correct photography skills, I was the one that got declared volunteer for this task. I think that it will ring a bell for all the photographers reading this blog post.

Once my relative got his diploma, it got really boring as there were still a LOT of kids that were to receive their precious paper. It gave me time to wander a bit and I found this grey haired man, in this theatre-like place. It was a pretty interesting figure: he was the only one with light coloured hairs, and he was reflecting the lights from the scene like none of the other people in the place. The time for me to move the camera to him, he looked at the other side (the scene is a bit more on the right hand side), and in this other direction he showed me a part of his face. Click, the shutter is released, at least I have my shot of the day 🙂

The processing was fairly straightforward using Adobe Lightroom to turn the photo in black and white and give a lower key feeling. Then, some tiny touches of dodge & burn to raise the overall contrast.

Do you like this photo? Contact me for printing fees!

EXIFs:

  • Camera: Canon 6D
  • Lens: Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
  • Aperture: ƒ/2.8
  • Focale: 150mm
  • Shutter speed: 1/160s
  • ISO: 1600
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2016, all rights reserved
/0 Comments/by

Formula 1 autoportrait

Today’s photo is not per se street or travel photography, but was taken with the same spirit 🙂

Autoportrait in the rear mirror of a Matra MS11 (1968) with its V12 engine. Matra museum, Romorantin, France.

This is a Matra MS11 Formula 1 from 1968. It sports a Matra V12 engine, that was run in open air, just like in the photo. Which is pretty awesome. It was driven by Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo, unfortunately without great success (1 podium only, and a lot of DNF). As a Formula 1 and motorsport in general fan, I couldn’t help myself from appearing in the shot, in the rear mirror. It’s not a occasion you often have!

This Formula 1 car, as well as all the F1 (including the 1969 MS80 F1 World Champion driven by Sir Jackie Stewart) and the Le Mans winning sport prototypes can be seen at the Matra Museum in Romorantin, France.

This shot was first process in Adobe Lightroom with basic adjustments then converted to black & white with Nik Collection Silver Efex, using the High Structure preset I’ve posted, with a few tweaks.

Interested in licensing this photo? Take a look here!

EXIFs:

  • Camera: Canon 6D
  • Lens: Canon EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
  • Aperture: ƒ/8.0
  • Focale: 70mm
  • Shutter speed: 1/160s
  • ISO: 6400
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2015, all rights reserved
/0 Comments/by

On a tight leash

On a tight leash. A kid and his grandfather, playing between the water fountains in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

A grandfather playing with his grandson between the fountains of Piata Unirii in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Playing, but keeping him on a tight leash!

This photo was first processed in Adobe Lightroom for the basic adjustments (crop, color temperature, lens and perspective correction). Most of the work has been handled in Nik Collection Silver Efex Pro. I really enjoyed using the different structure levels in order to get a fully detailed image. It’s such a powerful tool!

Interested in licensing this photo? Give a look over there!

About this photo:

  • Camera: Canon 6D
  • Lens: Canon EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
  • Aperture: ƒ/2.8
  • Focale: 53mm
  • Shutter speed: 1/800s
  • ISO: 200
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2015
/0 Comments/by

Contrast: bright present, dark future

Contrast: Bright present, dark future

This photo was taken in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It’s a photo that I really like, full of contrast. I don’t speak about its processing, here 🙂  Bright/dark, young/old, dark hair/white hair, white clothes/dark clothes… This young, beautiful, dark haired girl stands in the light while this older lady with a white hair and dark clothes stay in the dark. Is it a vision of her future? That may be!

While technically not perfect, it’s a photo I really like as it displays the 2 sides of women in Romania. On one side today’s beautiful girls, on the other side the older woman who lived during the communist era, a totally different life. Did I say contrast already? 🙂 It was a reflex shot, as I was roaming in the streets, on the phone, the camera in the other hand. I passed by them, hardly had the time to rotate by 135 degrees, take the camera to my eyes and shoot them. I wish I framed a bit more on the right, but one second later they both moved and the scene was gone.

For this photo, nothing really fancy on the processing side, just a black and white conversion with Adobe Lightroom and a few dodge and burn to give it a more 3D look.

Interested in getting this photo? Follow this link!

About this photo:

  • Camera: Canon 6D
  • Lens: Canon EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
  • Aperture: ƒ/5.6
  • Focale: 35mm
  • Shutter speed: 1/640s
  • ISO: 100
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2015

 

 

/0 Comments/by

During the Hungarian Students Days…

It’s Friday, time for a new pic of the week 🙂 And good news, I’m still in love with black and white street photography:

A group of hungarian students going to the kick off demonstration for the Hungarian Student Days 2015 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. One of them was quite... sexy ;)

During my lunch break at work I met with a group of hungarian students going to the kick off demonstration for the Hungarian Students Days 2015 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. One of them was quite… sexy 😉

I really like this portrait. Maybe technically it’s not the best photography I’ve ever taken but it has this power, this dynamic, this contrast… and a guy with a wig, an instant classic 😀 I’m just a bit sad I couldn’t manage to go and take more photos of the Students Days, it is usually pretty fun and quite original.

This photo was processed using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for the standard workflow and then with Google’s Nik Collection Silver Efex Pro 2.

[exif id=”725″]

/0 Comments/by