Monday 16 April 2007: Günther Peter
Günther Peter (47) / Magdeburg
I saw this guy limping in the street with a bottle of beer. He was walking slow but looking restless, taking pauses after every few steps. I was lucky enough to have a conversation with him and take some pictures. His body was learning to the left due to some physical problem. Focusing on her eyes was a bit difficult for me as it was not possible for him to stand still.
Peter's home is in Magdeburg where his girl friend lives. He does a labour job in Hamburg for Lufthansa Airline company. He loves Hamburg and doesn't find Magdeburg a very attractive city. His grown up children (forgot to ask how many and their age) live independent lives. Peter told me about some illness that he had which I couldn't really understand (again due to my poor german).
Though sadness was etched on his face, yet a soft spoken peter described himself as, "I am a cool guy".
When asked if he had some message for others. His reply was
"I want to help others in any way that is possible for me".
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Also from today:
Spotted a charming lady sitting in the shopping mall. Sought her permission for a portrait. Permission Granted with a smile. Click Click. Contacts exchanged.
Here is her portrait
Her name is Stefanie (22). She works for an advertisement agency in a town near to Magdeburg. Very nice lady indeed.
Comments
That's a mean looking nose, and that left eye is scary! The colors look surreal, spooky... accentuate the apparent tension building up. He looks like he is going to explode!
~ Chaos
He reminds me somewhat of the english tv presenter Jeremy Clarkson. Another great portrait Kamran, I'm really liking the super-sharpening effect, works well on faces.
~ UnusualAspect
Great shot. How do your process these shots to put such wonderful emphasis on the skin texture? Please share some tips!
~ benek
Great picture! Especially like that you can see every wrinkle.
~ Reike
how do you do this ??? the coulers ??
it is amazing !!!
~ waterliefje
excellent blip, Kim. Let me give some more feedback here. What you are doing is introducing us these people, who we might not even spot in the street. When I would see some guy like this I would certainly pass him as fast as I can and would never start talking to him. But through your blip I can understand how ignorant and impolite to people sometimes I am. Kim, your blip teaches me and makes me a better person. Thank you for that.
Ps. I think here I finally expressed what I really wanted to say about your blip on this day. I am happy to express it now. L U, man!
~ oleG
Great blip.
~ WeeFeet
Brilliant
~ Goodbye
Great picture. His pursed lips make him look determined to hold his life together. Very dramatic.
~ Red
You are doing breathtaking stuff. Thank you for the vision.
~ nuncmeister
Powerfull moments, you seem to achieve the instant emotional pact between you and the person you are photographing that is essential for truly great portrait photography, bravo.
~ slant
it looks to me that u have interest either in homeless (sad people more precisely) or beautiful girls. in both type of stranger portrait series u were doing great. but this gunther peter image is so strong that it has left other images behind.
~ faizan615
he does seem like he might explode. his face and jacket look rather metalic. the light and colors are amazing. yes, what is your secret?
~ bluesheep
Excellent use of sharpening here, works great with the texture of the skin and really brings out the lighting on his face.
~ MCraft
I guess that you overexpose the people's visual characteristics a lot with your postprocessing skills. That is good for the expressiveness of the image, and it's allowed because expressiveness is an important factor for photography. On the other hand, images could become very (too much?) stylized with that. I think everyone who watches this portrait gets another opinion of Günther Peter as if he had watched him on the raw image. So to tell it to every photographer: be aware of your powers to impact people by your images, and act responsible.
A great portrait, though.
~ michh
Great shot, I love your portraits! Especially the ones from people in the streets..
~ chocaddict
Thanks all.
@benek & bluesheep
There is no real secret :-) In this shot the texture of his skin is emphasized due to several reasons.
1). Direct sunlight on his face which highlighted his skin. Also the guy was sweating a little bit which further added more highlights.
2) For post processing, I don't follow a a particular order. I usually play with color balance, often reducing reds and use Levels / Curves. To add contrast, I create a black and white layer using channel mixer and blend it with the original layer using soft light, hard light or multiply. I do it with the live preview option while adjusting the amount of RGB sliders in channel mixer. The blending reduces saturation and increases contrast at the same time. I can repeat this process as many times as I am happy about the results.
3) On this image I also added a considerable amount of sharpening.
@ michh
I agree with you. The post-processsing DOES matter a lot in the perception of a picture.
~ kamran
excellent.
~ sp33dway
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