The Restaurant Musicians, a photo from Beijing, North

Photographer's Note

A semi-upmarket courtyard restaurant in Beijing. A courtyard resturant being a former Chinese-style house built around a central courtyard. This restaurant in particular had some musicians playing Chinese music.

Tech: There were 3 musicians. With the shallow DOF handholding a 50mm F1.8 lens, I could only get one of them in focus. It's a very tight crop off the central musician.

This is my first experiment with Kodak's C41 black and white film. Scan from negative, crop, contrast adjustments, resize and sharpen.

snsk, orme oznaczył to zdjęcie jeko użyteczne

Critiques | Translate

liakoshim (565) 2004-03-17 5:19

nice image in BW, delicately toned. the closer-up on the musiscien would've been better. and crop the man's face away.

Darren (6823) 2004-03-17 6:03

Nice shot Josh. I think the combination of the black and white, the grain and the softness due to low light and movement all work very nicely together. Because you have chosen to focus in on her, I kind of wish she was at the left edge of the frame, with the person to her left blurred in the background and the guy on her right out of the frame. I actually like the guy on the left's facial expression because it helps lead us into the frame, but I find his instrument to be a bit of an intrusion. Good shot and a nice use of low light levels.

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snsk (796) 2004-03-17 8:00

good composition i like the BW version.the expretion of the musician is great.
weldone.

gringofil (0) 2004-03-17 9:05

I actually like it as it is. The grain looks beautiful here (only film can do something like this). The focus on the girl works for me as she is the central person in the compo here. Very moody. Good job!

orme (7219) 2004-03-17 21:34

This is a very beautiful shot, Josh. It has quite a unique feel to it. Good choice of B/W. You have framed it very well and I like the way you captured the girl's hands in motion. Well done.

jhonny_blue (4956) 2004-03-18 5:09

Wonderful Josh ! Great composition and the girl is very beauty !
Congratulations for your choice in B&W !

robbertjan (2906) 2004-03-18 8:36

Great BW picture. I like the movement you have captured! I like all different sharpness in the picture. A little bit of noise but that doesn't matter. Well done.

jackpkn (863) 2004-12-26 9:01

Muito boa a foto. Conseguiu capturar a expressao de concentracao da garota, aparentemente muito concentrada em sua musica. Parabens!

Very nice photo. You catch perfectly the musician girl concentration expression!