The Sweeper
The Temple Sweeper. (click the image to see it at 1698 px!)
Full disclosure up front: This image is a composite pano from two separate images.
With that said, I really like this image. I like it for several reasons. When I look at it it evokes an emotion for me. I see a little old man sweeping a huge area with a straw broom, squatting in close to his work, inching along sweep-by-sweep. I like it because of it’s context. You see the vast space he is sweeping. You see the small temple behind him and you know or maybe just feel he is doing this work as an act of devotion or worship. I shot these images with the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 with the new 14mm f/2.8 Fujinon lens attached. (Thanks for the lone Piet). So what when through my mind when processing this to push me to make a pano out of it?
There were a couple of factors. I had two decent images that I liked but both seemed to be missing something. Below are both images for you to see.
Image 1 (click the image to see it at 950 px)
Image 1 is the main image and the bulk of the pano above. It is fine by itself – but not outstanding. Why do I say that? I feel it is missing the complete context and as such important piece of important information, the pink temple. The background in an image often serves to inform the view of the context of the shot. It helps you place your subject in a story. If you compare these two images, you will see that the information in the second image is much stronger. So, why not just go with the second images alone? Because it is technically flawed. The old man is soft due to motion blur.
Image 2 (click the image to see it at 950 px)
The 14mm f/2.8 Fujinon lens is crazy sharp and nice and wide. Still not as wide as I am used to with my 16-35 mm shooting on a full frame 5d, but a nice addition to the Fujinon line of lenses… and an all metal lens to boot! Both of these images were shot at a 60th of a second at f/2.8. The shutter speed of a 60th second was right at the limit of hand holding this lens at ground level. Had I had more time I would have laid down and shot it with the camera to my eye and thus given me more stability and a sharper shot. But he was moving too quickly and I only had time to shoot about 12 frames. With him moving, then add the issue of a dark skinned man with a light sky behind him I was fortunate to get two unusable frames. So to put it in the plainest of terms, it was either use one of the two images above or add more background to the first image and make it a pano.
contact sheet (click the image to see it at 950 px)
I tried not to alter an image if I can and if I do, I will disclose it as in this case. It really come down to how this image will be used. If one of these images were to be used by Fujifilm I would offer them Image 1 as it is the best image technically and shows off their new 14mm well. If it was an article on Rajasthan and it’s people then I would submit both of the images with the temple in them as they communicate more context and let the publication decide which one they would run. For this blog, you’ve now seen everything I have shot at that moment and I have come clean. Which one do you prefer?
Editors note: After publishing (I am always in too much of a hurry) I have noticed the facial distortion of the sweeper in the pano, the effect is pulling him flat and wide. Let me be clear, this is NOT from the Fujinon 14 mm lens used. The Fujinon 14 mm has virtually no distortion as you can see in the other frames. This was done by Photoshop when I stitched them together. If I was to use this image for something other than lilistrating a thought process I would work to fix that aspect of the image.
Nice image Matt, I think it works well as a composite, or stitched pano. Some people get a bit precious about such compositing/manipulation, I think the key is not to present the image or the scene as something it’s not, but to openly acknowledge the process or technique involved which you have done.
Thanks Kevin. And thanks for trying hard to post. Not sure why your post always get spammed. 😛
Hi Matt,
I have to say I love the second image. The trees on either side frame it really well, and there is great use of leading lines that move my eyes around the image in a clockwise circular pattern. The man’s arm leads the eye up to his face, where it pauses for a moment. Then, the colourful pink temple draws the eye over to the right, before traveling down the tree trunks to the bottom right. The broom then stretches far enough across the image to grab attention, preventing the eye from leaving the image and drawing it back up to the man’s hand. Rinse & repeat 🙂
I also like the movement in the hand and broom. Nicely done Matt.
Tim, I like “image 2” as well. but it just is not sharp. Sharp enough for a 940px blog post but not for anything else. “image 2” on the other hand is quite sharp. So you see, that was my dilemma.
My thoughts: Making a pano did not alter the content of the image. Yes, technically, there are different pixels but the content (using the broad sense of the word) is unchanged. Now, as to disclosure: The same thing applies. Why clutter the presentation with disclosure of that which is immaterial? Consider changing the white balance or bringing out some shadow detail with photo manipulation software. Where would a purist draw the line?
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