Street Photo - Morning Reading

Morning Reading

This photo was taken yesterday morning while I was having my breakfast at McDonald's Shaw Plaza. This gentleman was sitting right opposite me and totally engrossed in his reading of the papers. The ambient light and the light of the overhead lamps are bright which is good as it creates this great soft light on the subject. I'm lovin' it!

Most of you might think this is just any other mundane and uninteresting photo. Well make the jump and let me explain the whole creative and thinking process behind this picture.

Before I even started consuming my Hotcakes Meal, I quickly activated my Smartphone camera and took a few shots of this gentleman. After some editing, I chose this shot. With his hand posture and frowning eyebrows, he could have read some heavy articles. It was that moment that I was looking for and I couldn't possibly wait for that lady in the background to finish her meal and walk away though I wanted the subject to be all alone. Things would have totally changed if I hesitated and that moment would not repeat itself ever again. Also, I like the background with vertical and horizontal lines that form patterns, along with the uniquely designed lamps overhead.

Below are two photos of the original in color and in monochrome for comparison.

The color shot is post-processed in Snapseed close to the actual scene which caught my attention in the first place. Yes, the incandescent light induces too much warmth but it's soft. So I thought why not convert it to monochrome for simplicity and tonality. In comparison, the latter works much better. Some of you might prefer color over mono and vice versa. Well, black and white has its advantages i.e. simplicity, tonalities, and focus.

I could have cropped away the overhead lamps (which are bright and steal away viewers' attention) to make it in landscape orientation so that viewers can focus more on the subject's posture and expression. It happens on color. However, in monochrome, I don't have to worry or crop away the lamps because I want to include them in the frame. By toning down or "burning" in traditional wet darkroom terms and technique on the overhead lamps, viewers' attention stays with the main subject.

Cropping in this case is to re-adjust or re-work the composition as shown below based on the guidelines.

So unlike the usual Rule of Thirds guidelines, these other guidelines help to create interesting compositions and perspectives, perhaps might create a fresh look at daily mundane subjects and/or objects.

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Morning Reading made with Samsung S3 at maximum digital zoom and post-processed in Snapseed.