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thetawave2 — Two Roads
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Published: 2011-06-26 22:47:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 321; Favourites: 27; Downloads: 14
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Theme 44. 78 to go!How will the economic crisis end? More foreign-owned debt and austerity measures? The Greek people don't seem to be too fond of that.... Default? I can't imagine that being good for anyone!
Syntagma Square, Athens.
The protests have been surprisingly peaceful, except during the general strike on June 15th when the Anarchists took the opportunity to cause some trouble.
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Comments: 14
I think I'll give some technical tips.
I'm not sure if you meant for the guy on the right to be blurred, but if you want a for steady shot, you can increase the ISO. I see you have it on ISO400, but for this kind of environment, unless I want everything blurred, I would go to ISO1600 at least.
Of course, you can use flash as well.
I would be interested in what story or purpose, in your view, this picture represents. Usually, that is the raison d'etre for a photojournal picture.
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This was a fairly quick shot and I didn't want to draw attention to myself by using my flash. Usually I try to keep the ISO to 400 max so that my images don't get too grainy, but I suppose for this special case 800 or even 1600 would have allowed me to take a shorter exposure and cut down on his movement.
Of course, the shot on a superficial level simply shows the Greek people protesting outside their Parliament. My thematic purpose to this shot was to show the impasse at which the Greek people find themselves. The two people seem to be discussing something, but with their arms crossed they don't seem to be getting anywhere.
Thanks very much for your detailed comment. I do appreciate the advice
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The composition is probably the only good thing about this image. The quality is somewhat lacking i.e. the street lights are too bright, the colours are dull, the depth of field is pretty huge and the focusing is not there.
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It was kind of a tough environment. The lighting was really difficult and I didn't have much of an opportunity to set up the shot.
Thank you for your comment though 
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A flash gun gives you more control of the lighting.
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Thanks for the tip! I'll have to look into that.
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I really like the perspective in this photo- the people in the photo add life and movement but with the contrast between the bright building and the dark sky, the eyes are forced to look at the building which is very good- I find that many photographers lack that huge contrast and often, due to open spaces, the eye wanders off the photo but in this photo's case, due to the extreme contrast, this mistake is avoided. There is one problem, however, the 2 people in the foreground seem like they are also the focus of this photo thus creating 2 focuses which are quite far away. I really like the open space though as it gives a form of relief over the crowd. great job
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Thanks very much for the detailed and thoughtful comment!
The people in the foreground are definitely intended to be a focal point of the picture. The parliament building in the background is, I think, another important focal point, since the Greek political atmosphere and the voting and policymaking going on in that building is the reason that the people are there. I think having both foci in the image, especially ones so thematically relevant, is important here.
I found your comment about "relief over the crowd" very interesting. The back of the protest was really a breath of fresh air after being in the thick of it all! I think a tighter composition would have been appropriate to being more in the midst of the action, but I think some space was appropriate to this image, where the viewer surveys what's going on without really being a part of it.
Again thank you very much. I really liked what you had to say about my piece.
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With the 2 focal points, the idea of protesting could be emphasised by not having them be in the same vertical axis
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haha yeah I suppose so. Although doesn't that kind of emphasize their connection?
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the vertical axis would emphasize their connection but also distract the viewer and possibly bore the viewer since everything is very symetrical this way.
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Cool, I like how you have placed this image. I would have been nervous to take a night image with so many moving people but overall its not too blurry. I might have taken this image at a lower angle, or tilted the camera downwards a little more so there was less of the black sky up top. But all in all I think the composition works well
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Thanks for the comment! I really appreciate the input.
This was really a quick snapshot, as I didn't want to hold my camera up for extended periods of time in the middle of the demonstration. But I think a lower vantage point would have let me capture less of the crowd. I guess I could have taken a little off the top by tilting the camera down but I think I was trying to prevent the image from looking too crowded and cluttered. If I could do it again, I think I would tilt the camera down a little like you suggested, but I don't think I'd cut out more than a quarter of the sky.
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