Noodle boy

[erusan]

I would like to put another pic for the lions here. I was able to pick up a lot of good tips from my previous post, for which I have to thank you all.

Below is a photo I recently took during a noodle-eating festival here in Japan. What you see is strings of noodles freshly cut, being arranged on a cutting board to be cooked. The boy in the back was fascinated by the process.
As with my previous post, I am quite happy with this image (apart form a little bit of camera blur which I found out about at home, sorry about that) and it shows one scene of the situation at the festival. I would appreciate any comments on the use of space in this image: composition, relation fore/background, whether it says anything to you at all (having read the explanation)...

ISO160, 1/18s, f/3.6

[Tim Gray]

I think the composition and cropping is fine.  I particularly like how the verticle blurred noodles reslove crisply into the foreground.  Only nit is that the foreground seems a tad bit overexposed.  I also might be tempted to try some noise reduction.

[Sheldon N]

I like it as well - compositionally. I think it could be improved with a little photoshop work. I did a quick 2 minute crack at it...

Duplicate Layer - Gradient Mask - Levels adjustment to brighten upper half.
Slight color balance adjustment to upper half to add cyan/blue to cool the warm lighting. (+6 cyan & blue midtones).
Slight levels adjustment to foreground to darken the noodles.
Flatten. Noise ninja.
Reopen, Duplicate Layer - Gradient Mask - slight sharpening on the foreground.
Flatten, Save for web.

[Tim Gray]

Nice - that's exactly what I had in mind.

[JRandallNichols]

Very nice work, Sheldon.  I especially like the way your levels and color adjustment in the upper left quadrant have now defined the boy's hair against the background, a change which for me does just as much for the image as the work on the foreground noddles.  Thanks for the Photoshop demo!

[Bobtrips]

I think I would have shot it differently.  The main point of interest (for me) is the cascade of freshly cut (pulled?) noodles, not the more static pile of noodles in the foreground.

Focusing on the descending noodles would have given more focus to the boy's face which is a critical element in the frame and let the foreground go a bit out of focus.

But one size does not fit all....

[erusan]

Thank you all for your insights.

Sheldon N - Thank you for trying and in particular for the description: it provides food for thought (and practice). A very helpful use of Levels, I will give that more thought in future images. The pic I posted already had some Levels / Curve adjustment there (the slightly overexposed look may come from that, will look out in the future), so I will have another crack at it and see if I can work out the details better this time.

Bobtrips - thanks for the insights on composition. The part you are talking about was being dropped on the cutting board, so without a flash it would have been hard to freeze that. I was shooting from pretty up close as well. I understand though, what you mean, but I intentionally wanted to focus on the noodles lying there with stuff going on in the background. That must be a disagreement between us about the artistic   choices made for this particular image.

The input is very much appreciated.

cheers,