Faces on the Street – Guanajuato

San Miguel De Allende, Mexico 2013

I’ve been wanting to try a different processing style for portraits – the rich and deep gritty style and this seemed the perfect subject matter – a portrait of an old lady going to a Church in Mexico. I’ve found varying opinions on this style and most people I know either love it or hate it.

I can’t seem to point my finger exactly at what is amiss but have a feeling something is. I would love to hear from you if you have some experience doing this style of processing and any specific learning that can be applied here.

I’ve used Nik Silver Effex Pro.

Tags: Gritty Portrait, Guanajuato, Mexico, Photography, San Miguel De Allende, Silver Effex Pro, Street Photography

10 thoughts on “Faces on the Street – Guanajuato”

Birgit Fohlert on March 14, 2014 at 3:05 am said:

I love this photo….I love real photos

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- abu zar on March 16, 2014 at 6:30 pm said:
  
  Thank you Birgit.
  
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Mark Kertesz on February 9, 2014 at 11:41 am said:

I love the composition and I do like the post processing. I do lean towards making the contrast on the face a little less aggressive but again that is just my preference overall it’s still an excellent photograph.

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- abu zar on February 9, 2014 at 12:31 pm said:
  
  Thanks for sharing your feedback Mark. As a general rule, I do not prefer sharpening/ or creating contrast in portraits, but this is the exception – the goal was to add additional contrast to accentuate the wrinkles.
  
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janechese on February 9, 2014 at 10:19 am said:

I read the two comments and think it depends on your preference. I am wondering about softening the wrinkles some. This woman is a wonderful subject with her shawl, both showing the repetition of curves and lines.Always hearing good things about the range of tones in Nik Silver Effex.

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- abu zar on February 9, 2014 at 12:39 pm said:
  
  Thanks for sharing your comment Jane. Silver Effex makes it easier to process B&W, what would require advanced skills in Photoshop. I am still scratching the surface of the NIk software.
  
  Regarding the wrinkles, it is a bit overdone – consciously – as I was going for that look. I will work on a slightly toned down version to compare
  
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Sophie L. on February 9, 2014 at 3:58 am said:

I have no expérience at all in portrait but I can say that I love this picture, you push up the structure and it make her wrinkles more inground.
Nik collection is a very great soft I like it a lot

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- abu zar on February 9, 2014 at 12:43 pm said:
  
  mille Merci Sophie !
  
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Vicki on February 9, 2014 at 2:39 am said:

Love the subject.
This elderly lady has some of those great wrinkles and character lines which make her an ideal portrait subject.

My only criticism would be that there is too much definition in the wrinkles making them appear too deep and too full of contrast. This in effect makes her facial skin look like wax or clay. I might suggest that a softer approach to focus and contrast would be a wee bit better. Perhaps you could post the ‘original’ straight out of the camera so we could compare. I have been considering buying Nik software as it supposedly has a wonderful array of ‘greys’ and is ideal for the B & W photographer.

As a woman of ‘mature’ years, I would personally not like a photographer to emphasise my winkles – I’d rather have them softened in an image.

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- abu zar on February 9, 2014 at 12:11 pm said:
  
  Vicki, I was expecting some polarized opinions :) . Take a look at this photo (the grandmother) and what it evokes :
  http://1x.com/photo/56870/all:user:13704
  
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