DSLR Photography Forum

Huainan, like just about any place in China is rushing in a building craze, old neighbourhoods are disappearing day on day while new buildings spring up like mushrooms.

When I was here last weekend, I saw an area of a neighbourhood that is progressively being taken down, while some of the inhabitants brave the continuing destruction and stay in there houses. The sad reality is that they don't have the money to buy a house or an apartment somewhere else, but that it is really only a question of time until they will be forced to abandon their old houses.

Yesterday I went back to have a closer look and got involved in a chat with some of the people.


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Two ladys came out of their houses while I was taking pictures and one of them even invited me to come inside for a tea, but I felt that was too imposing. Instead I talked to a bunch of people who were busy taking their old house down just next door. They told me they were building a new house on the other side of the hill, in a newly developing district of the town. Now they clean brick by brick from attached remnants of concrete and then drive tham over to the site of the new house to reuse them.


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The owner of the house, while taking down the house lives in a tiny house, or rather the remains of a shed, one small, cold room containing just his bed, his toothbrush....


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His current shelter, left in the middle of piles of bricks.


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Along the street on my way back I stopped again talking to other people who were busy cleaning up brick by brick, many of them women. They were very friendly and had fun during our littel shooting session. On occasions like this one I am always for the possibility of showing them their picture on the screen of the cam, and btw I am picking up prints to give them tomorrow.


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I am still debating between 9 and 10 as my favorite of the shots of the women, both have their flaws...

Also, I would be curious to hear if you think the colors in these pictures of dull, lackluster, too bright?
My judgment is clouded by hours of working on these shots, but somehow I can't seem to get the best out of them. Especially the grey of the bricks is difficult, always burnt out in the original files and hard to recover without seeming dull.

Thanks for looking!!

Hope you enjoy,

Uli

Great photojournalism. It's a story I've seen many times too, and I wish I could tell more people. It's so sad to see the iron wheels of progress crushing people's lives. For other stories on "progress" you can read about the 1.4 million people who are being displaced by the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river. CNN.com ran a story on their site yesterday about it.

I think the drabness of the bricks both accentuates their brighter clothing and adds a "feel" to the story that is being told.

Awesome shots. It amazes me that they can smile in the midst of it all. Number 10 is my favorite. It seems a little too bright to me, but other than that, I really like the contrast of the colors she is wearing and her beautiful smile against such dismal surroundings.

Nice series as always Uli.

#6 sums up the story. Great picture that one. I like it...

Another wonderful insite into your life there in China Uli. It hink number 10 is the better of the last two, but I agree with Aine - you may want to lower the highlights slightly.

Cheers.

Uli, great series, and again you've done what few photographers will by getting in and learning about the people and their stories. That you can do it so easily, in such a foreign land, speaks well for your abilities, personality, and the people around you.

The colour and processing look natural and authentic. I like the mix of muted surroundings and more vibrant clothing and people. It's been handled really well.

Photographically I like #9 better for the more natural wrist position and casual indifference to her own task. As a photo of a person, #10's the winner with a more engaged subject. Choosing one between them is going to be hard.

I don't hold photo-journalism to the same standards of beauty as photo art. In the case of PJ, the unretouched colors add realism and poignancy to the phtoos - and should be preserved.I really like the shot of the chair in the rubble and #7 - the shot of the displaced man looking confident and happy-go-lucky.

Thanks all for your comments!
I am glad to hear the muted colors off the bricks are not putting you off, although I would still like to figure out a better way.

Toad Wrote:the displaced man looking confident and happy-go-lucky.

That's is exaclty what is so amazing about them, they always manage to convery a sense of happiness, which I now for fact is not always what is in their heart. And how could it, considering the conditions.

Thanks again for looking!

Uli

Hi Uli,

I tend to think about photo journalism as a photography with hard contrast to enhance in some way the realism of the scene. Reading Toad's comment makes me think that maybe I have to see more pictures not to generalize my idea about this kind of photography.

Anyway, I took one of your pictures to work a bit with the contrast.

This is what I did.
Work your contrast in the clothes or people with the adjustment of your choice. I did it with curves here.
Go to the paint bucket tool and set to gradient.
Up in the tool bar set your gradient to black and white and then click in radial (second box).
Go to the layers bar menu click in the mask (white square) of this layer adjustment.
In the picture draw a line from the center of the person upward or downwards, the gradient will make a selection in the layer adjustment where you want to have the effect, the idea is that the white of the gradient will cover the person and the rest of the picture will be black without the effect.
If the gradient is working the other way around invert the gradient, and draw the line again.


Now to work the contrast in the bricks,
in the layers bar menu right click in the mask (white square) you just added the gradient...
In the drop down menu click in the option "intersect layer mask with selection", and a selection will appear in your picture,
inverse selection go to selection>inverse or (shift+control+i)
Open another layer adjustment and now work your contrast with the bricks.
While you are working with this layer adjustment the selection will disappear, but you will be able to see the effect in the bricks without affecting the person.

At the end if it is needed you can work with levels.

In this picture I drew the fist line from the shoulder to the shoe.

Here is your picture.




Here is how your layer bar menu should look like



This is a very easy way to work with your pictures when you need to adjust parts of your picture like in a landscape and you don't need a precise selection. Enhance only the blue of the sky, or add a bit warmth in the grounds and keep the sky blue.

If you are not familiar with mask, at the beginning you will find it a bit difficult, but with the time it will be so easy.

I don't really know if you think that your picture looks better or not with more contrast. At the end the decision about post processing like this or some other way will be yours, and I am sure it will be the right one....
I just wanted to show you, how I work kind of selective contrast/adjustment with this picture.

BTW, thanks for letting me use your picture for my comment...

Thank you Irma!!

I do use masks quite a lot, but I haven't had the idea of painting gradients on them, that's a very good method.
(I ususlly just use the paint brush)

I do like the outcome a lot, especially since you did not add a dramatic effect but really subtly made it better.
The only problem I see is some grainyness coming up in her face, but I can probably avoid that when I work on the orgininal size file.


One more question is wether you can add more than one gradient on a layer? I don't think so, so with several people in one picture I might have to work with the brush or a previous selection again.
How would you do it?

Thank you!

Uli

No, unfortunately you can't use two gradients in the same mask or at least I wouldn't know how to do it.

But as you say, you can paint with a brush with different opacities depending on the needs. As a brush I use a very big soft brush it makes the effect look as a gradient in the edges.

I really didn't see the grainyness... you have great eyes!! but you are right it might come out better in the original size.

I am happy you found useful my comment...

Another well researched and touching story and some fantastic shots to go with it Uli.
It's such a shame these people must live with the reality of the situation while we sit back and admire your photos. Still, kudos to you for bringing their plight to a wider audience and it also looks like you brightened up their day.

Personally I really like the colours and the amount of dullness in the bricks already. I also like the bleak sky in shots #1 and #6. It all helps portray the depressing situation these people are faced with.

thank you Kombi!

they certainly brightened up my day... !

Uli