Met a friend for lunch today then went out to the beach on this cool, rainy, dreary day. The intent was to practice some street photography, and I couldn't believe how excited I was about that! I got quite a few pics, some good, some bad, some mediocre, and two of the subjects I actually asked if I could take their picture. This guy was walking in my direction rather quickly, talking on his cell phone. I smiled, pointed at his shoes, pointed at my camera, and he smiled and slowed down so I could get some pics! It was so cool! My favorite shot of this guy was too blurry to use (I kind of had the shakes - not from nerves, but from trying to hurry and focus fast and get the shot before it was gone). I ended up selecting this shot taken after we passed when I turned around to get a few more. It was clearer with just a little blur that felt like it depicted more of his speed rather than my ineptitude. I have run this thru LR for my normal post-processing, but have done nothing to turn up the volume of his footwear, only maintained what was already there.
SO, I feel like a brand-new photographer, like I'm starting all over again by trying out this street stuff, which means you'll have to forgive whatever glaring errors there are. HOWEVER, I need critique so I can improve!
Camera Settings: An aperture of f/4 resulted in an appropriate depth of field, ISO of 500 is well within your camera's performance and resulted in getting the shutter speed up to 1/320 which stopped the action of the feet. The focal point looks to have landed right between the feet on the sidewalk which also feels appropriate for the shot.
Composition: I really appreciate the diagonal theme in this composition, the feet diagonal from bottom left to top right along with the opposing diagonal sidewalk crack. There is adequate breathing room around the subject with no distracting elements. (One of my own pitfalls is breathing room...I have a tendency to crop too tight in a desire to "fill the frame"). I do find myself wondering if the image would be improved if there were a little bit more room top right for the subject to "walk in to". I like having only the feet, it keeps our attention on the subject and we are not distracted searching for faces, etc. I also wonder if there might be impact in showing the vibrant color contrasted against other dull footwear. Still only showing feet, but another set or two of feet wearing dull footwear.
Subject/Content: Very cool! You saw, you shot! It's not a usual sight to see such neon footwear. Because color is the subject here, it is appropriate the image is in color and not b&w.
So again, well done! I do love street in that it is constantly "new". New scenes, new people, new situations every shot. And that makes it a very interesting genre to do. You mentioned focus being challenging. Indeed focus is in fact a significant challenge when doing street, particularly with a scene in motion. I've had best luck having the camera autofocus in continuous servo mode as opposed to single shot. I have a Nikon so am not exactly sure how set your Canon to continuous servo, but hopefully it will mention in the manual. Continuous servo does use a bit more juice though so I've learned that checking the battery (or carrying an extra) is a bit more important.
I love this shot and well done for chatting to some of your subjects too. It does get easier.
This is brilliant shot, it gives the sense of movement, it is an interesting subject and the reflection in the puddle is fantastic. fav for me.
Camera Settings: An aperture of f/4 resulted in an appropriate depth of field, ISO of 500 is well within your camera's performance and resulted in getting the shutter speed up to 1/320 which stopped the action of the feet. The focal point looks to have landed right between the feet on the sidewalk which also feels appropriate for the shot.
Composition: I really appreciate the diagonal theme in this composition, the feet diagonal from bottom left to top right along with the opposing diagonal sidewalk crack. There is adequate breathing room around the subject with no distracting elements. (One of my own pitfalls is breathing room...I have a tendency to crop too tight in a desire to "fill the frame"). I do find myself wondering if the image would be improved if there were a little bit more room top right for the subject to "walk in to". I like having only the feet, it keeps our attention on the subject and we are not distracted searching for faces, etc. I also wonder if there might be impact in showing the vibrant color contrasted against other dull footwear. Still only showing feet, but another set or two of feet wearing dull footwear.
Subject/Content: Very cool! You saw, you shot! It's not a usual sight to see such neon footwear. Because color is the subject here, it is appropriate the image is in color and not b&w.
So again, well done! I do love street in that it is constantly "new". New scenes, new people, new situations every shot. And that makes it a very interesting genre to do. You mentioned focus being challenging. Indeed focus is in fact a significant challenge when doing street, particularly with a scene in motion. I've had best luck having the camera autofocus in continuous servo mode as opposed to single shot. I have a Nikon so am not exactly sure how set your Canon to continuous servo, but hopefully it will mention in the manual. Continuous servo does use a bit more juice though so I've learned that checking the battery (or carrying an extra) is a bit more important.
This is brilliant shot, it gives the sense of movement, it is an interesting subject and the reflection in the puddle is fantastic. fav for me.