Taxi Square

Perhaps a dubious style of portrait, which pivots on the subtlety of its content. Generally sodium street-light-lit portraits are seen as a bit of a faux pas. This was shot with a Soviet-made Helios 58mm f/2.0 modified to have a square aperture; it's easy to overplay the effect this has, and I'm still getting used to the lens, but I wanted to use a level of subtlety while exploring its remarkable capabilities. In thumbnail view, the bokeh looks almost entirely normal, which is the intention - only upon closer examination do you notice there's something more going on beneath the surface. It's supposed to be a classic portrait, despite the background.

Editing: Curves to get the white balance a bit tamer and bring up some blues in the shadows, dodging and burning, resize and selective sharpen.