over the last few days I have decided to have a go at street photography - it's really what I enjoy. I am very very new to it and am wondering if anyone would give me some critique which would help me improve. Here are some of my shots (no need for any sugar coating - I am out to learn :-) Thank you!
I know very little and am also very keen to learn. I prefer the lower picture because the two figures are interacting and a story is apparent. I might try darkening this but would otherwise think it a pretty good shot.
The first picture I would be very tempted to crop into two separate ones - the gentleman with the bottles on the right across to the back of the nearest person sitting - the other section being just the seated people with some of the framework above removed as it seems to confuse the picture and take away from the main subject, the people.
I am sure you will get much better advice from many others, and do applaud you for trying street photography. Good Luck :))
I'm very keen on Street Photography but I've only really been having a serious go at it since I bought my Fuji X100S which is a great camera for this kind of photography. I'm still learning the art but there's loads of reference material on the net. You could try taking a look at these free e-books for a start. http://121clicks.com/articlesreviews/free-street-photography-ebooks-to-download
@barneyone Thank you very much. I agree with your comments. I will try out your suggestion of two shots and see how it looks.
@dgcarter Thank you so much...the link looks very useful. I have read quite a bit, and I am quite a self critic, but sometimes find that looking at my own photos for long, hinders my ability to really see things. Here's a link to a blog I found to be quite informative http://erickimphotography.com/blog/
Hello Angie, I love street photography but have very little experience or success. However I think it would be good to have an idea about what you want to capture before you embark onto the streets. For example do you want to capture expressions, interaction, shadows, frame, light, reflection, movement, viewpoint? It is such a massive subject and not one I could do without real purpose. I like the top two because of the man's expression in the first and I wonder what the man in the second image is looking so intently at. However they are very busy and might benefit from cropping to enhance these aspects.
I have tried to look at street artists and then gone out to replicate their values or what I have observed in their work. It might be a way to start. Good luck. I am sure you will enjoy yourself.
I love street photography and have somewhat of a innate knack for it, I have been told. I just shoot what appeals to me. Sometimes people are hard for me to grab. Here are two recent favorite of mine. Good luck.
@spanner Very very helpful. Thank you so much. My first objective is going to be to take on board your word 'busy' - absolutely agree, coupled with some ideas from street artists. Thanks again
i've done a fair bit of street in my time here at 365... different folks take different approaches to the art... often the goal is to capture a "moment" something that tells a story somehow... in looking at your images, i think they all of elements of a moment, but for me, they seem a bit busy, and i'm not quite sure what it is that caught your attention, that you feel i should be looking at...
I've done a fair bit of street photography as well. I'm on the same page as Northy here - be sure to show what caught your attention in the first place. Looking at the 3 photos you posted as examples, here are my thoughts.
First photo: It looks like there are two unique subjects in the scene. the folks sitting at the table and the guy walking out the door. I think both would have made good subjects individually, but in the same scene they compete for attention. I'd suggest focusing on one or the other. To truly include both, I think you'd need to take about five steps to the left such that the guy coming out the door becomes a background object.
2. Second photo: I like the concept of using the group as a subject. What would help in this case is to include more of the background so that we have some perspective. Are they on a busy street, a campus, a pedestrian mall? Pulling back just a bit increases the dynamics of the overall scene.
3. Third photo: This one really has a lot of potential. Now, various styles are different and you'll get as many different opinions on this one as you have people on this site. For me, I find the woman on the left to be a distraction from the overall story. I'd like to see this same photo with a tighter crop and tighter zoom on the woman sniffing the tomatoes. To me, she's the story.
Hope this helps! I love street photography, so I can't wait to see what you come up with.
@kannafoot@northy Thanks so much. That's really so helpful. I have picked up that I was going about it the wrong way and thinking that I should have a whole 'scene' to show what's going on and basically document the event rather than the subject. I have recropped the tomato shot and can see the difference. The background to the right is noisy and could be eliminated by moving a few steps - that will take some practice as right now I'd be sure to miss the scene by the time I get into the right place :-)
@angiec@lifepause@bencho@altadc@kannafoot@northy@dgcarter@barneyone@spanner Hi Angie! Thanks for starting this thread and everyone else for your comments which I find really interesting. I'm trying to learn street photography too. I'd be interested to know what type of lens people like using best. I took all the shots below with a 50mm prime. I like the lens but when you have to work quickly I'm wondering if it's easier to use a wider angle and crop afterwards. If anyone has the time, grateful for any critique of these shots...
@jasperc Jasper, there are three lenses I primarily use: 1) 50 mm f/1.2L, 2) 35 mm f/1.4L, 3) 16-35mm f/2.8L. I really like the perspective and field of view provided by the 50mm, however more often than not I prefer the 16-35 since it allows me to get right on top of the subject. It makes for a more dramatic shot, I think.
@dgcarter@angiec@jasperc@lifepause@northy Angie as others have said thanks for starting this thread. I agree Thomas Leuthard is a good place to start as his eBooks are free. I had not heard of him until a few weeks ago when another 365er mentioned him, but already put some of his ideas in to use.
Agree with the comments you have had already. The key I have learned with street is the picture you take is not the photo you keep, by that I mean look deep in to your picture and crop heavy if needed. Photo 3 above is a prime example of this as your revised copy shows. Also get the contrast right. I have started using Googles, NIK software - its made up of 6 or 7 programs, but the one I use most is SilverFX Pro which is so flexable. It cost $149 for the suite but in my opinion SilverFX is worth that on its own. In fact, one of my followers has suggestedtoday that I start a thread of my own to show off some work that did very well for me last night at my club (2nd 3rd and 5th out of 62 shots) and all of these were done with it - in the past I think the best place I got was top 10!
In terms of lens I either use a 50mm prime on my Canon or an Olympus xz-1 which I call my day camera as its easy to keep in a pocket. Most Street is taken on small format as you do not look like a Pap.
Above all the key is to practice - oh and have fun doing it
@scarybird Thank you so much for your time and comments. A great clip. I am not sure about asking people though, it kind of ruins the authenticity of the shot which is what I like...I'd rather tell them afterwards.
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The first picture I would be very tempted to crop into two separate ones - the gentleman with the bottles on the right across to the back of the nearest person sitting - the other section being just the seated people with some of the framework above removed as it seems to confuse the picture and take away from the main subject, the people.
I am sure you will get much better advice from many others, and do applaud you for trying street photography. Good Luck :))
I'm very keen on Street Photography but I've only really been having a serious go at it since I bought my Fuji X100S which is a great camera for this kind of photography. I'm still learning the art but there's loads of reference material on the net. You could try taking a look at these free e-books for a start.
http://121clicks.com/articlesreviews/free-street-photography-ebooks-to-download
@dgcarter Thank you so much...the link looks very useful. I have read quite a bit, and I am quite a self critic, but sometimes find that looking at my own photos for long, hinders my ability to really see things. Here's a link to a blog I found to be quite informative
http://erickimphotography.com/blog/
I have tried to look at street artists and then gone out to replicate their values or what I have observed in their work. It might be a way to start. Good luck. I am sure you will enjoy yourself.
i've done a fair bit of street in my time here at 365... different folks take different approaches to the art... often the goal is to capture a "moment" something that tells a story somehow... in looking at your images, i think they all of elements of a moment, but for me, they seem a bit busy, and i'm not quite sure what it is that caught your attention, that you feel i should be looking at...
some 365-ers whose work you may want to look at are @michaelelliot @andycoleburn @ruthmouch @jaseagain (my apologies to anyone i've missed!)
you might also want to do some googling... Henri Bresson and Vivian Maier are amongst the well known iconic street photographers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bressonhttp://www.vivianmaier.com
good luck and have fun!
I've done a fair bit of street photography as well. I'm on the same page as Northy here - be sure to show what caught your attention in the first place. Looking at the 3 photos you posted as examples, here are my thoughts.
First photo: It looks like there are two unique subjects in the scene. the folks sitting at the table and the guy walking out the door. I think both would have made good subjects individually, but in the same scene they compete for attention. I'd suggest focusing on one or the other. To truly include both, I think you'd need to take about five steps to the left such that the guy coming out the door becomes a background object.
2. Second photo: I like the concept of using the group as a subject. What would help in this case is to include more of the background so that we have some perspective. Are they on a busy street, a campus, a pedestrian mall? Pulling back just a bit increases the dynamics of the overall scene.
3. Third photo: This one really has a lot of potential. Now, various styles are different and you'll get as many different opinions on this one as you have people on this site. For me, I find the woman on the left to be a distraction from the overall story. I'd like to see this same photo with a tighter crop and tighter zoom on the woman sniffing the tomatoes. To me, she's the story.
Hope this helps! I love street photography, so I can't wait to see what you come up with.
His free e-book Going Candid and Collecting Souls are my inspirations.
http://thomas.leuthard.photography/
Here's the new look :-)
Am still green in street photography bt going with the ideas you have been given,i think i can also do something good and share with you..
These were both taken at 35 mm:
Hi everyone, I hope to see your shots on this week's artist challenge. It's about street photography by Thomas Leuthard.
Details here:
http://365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/22085/artist-challenge-thomas-leuthard
Wow great book It might be a bit late but im going to join this!
Agree with the comments you have had already. The key I have learned with street is the picture you take is not the photo you keep, by that I mean look deep in to your picture and crop heavy if needed. Photo 3 above is a prime example of this as your revised copy shows. Also get the contrast right. I have started using Googles, NIK software - its made up of 6 or 7 programs, but the one I use most is SilverFX Pro which is so flexable. It cost $149 for the suite but in my opinion SilverFX is worth that on its own. In fact, one of my followers has suggestedtoday that I start a thread of my own to show off some work that did very well for me last night at my club (2nd 3rd and 5th out of 62 shots) and all of these were done with it - in the past I think the best place I got was top 10!
In terms of lens I either use a 50mm prime on my Canon or an Olympus xz-1 which I call my day camera as its easy to keep in a pocket. Most Street is taken on small format as you do not look like a Pap.
Above all the key is to practice - oh and have fun doing it