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Author Topic: selection of street photography.  (Read 1986 times)

designpartners

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selection of street photography.
« on: August 18, 2012, 04:23:57 pm »

Hi,

I thought it was about time I come out from behind the camera and get some feedback - I'm an amateur, joining a club in a few weeks and I'm putting together a portfolio to see if I can get some advice and bring my photography to the next level.

So, be honest, be brutal if necessary, but please be constructive.

I look forward to your replies!

James


Photo1 - Cannes Street Portrait



Photo2 - Perpignan Street Portrait



Photo3 - NYC Street Portrait



Photo4 - NYC Street Portrait



Photo5 - Malaysia Street Portrait




you can see a few more here if you are interested.
http://500px.com/JamesLynch/sets/street

Thanks for your time!
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RSL

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2012, 04:38:48 pm »

Hi James, No need to be brutal; There's some pretty good work in there.

#1. Not bad. The way the man's hunched up with a bag between his feet gives it a bit of ambiguity, which is one of the keys to good street photography. I'd have tried to get some texture in the blown part of his hair, but the composition is quite good.

#2. Lots of ambiguity here, but to me the color sort of kills it. It's really quite an interesting street shot, but I'd like to see what it's like in grayscale.

#3. Un uh. Just a guy on the street. Technically not a bad shot. Color again. There are times when color can help a street photograph, but those times are very rare. This isn't one of them.

#4. Un uh. No hoboes in doorways lighting up. It's a whale of a cliché.

#5. A fun picture, but the featureless street makes it too flat. It's good to expose to the right, but if you can't bring stuff like that back to the left in post-processing, it's time to toss it.
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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2012, 05:25:42 pm »

Hi Russ,

Thanks for your feedback, very helpful!
you asked for #2 in gray scale, here you go. it's basic gray scale conversion of the photo above.


James
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RSL

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2012, 05:32:18 pm »

James, Yes! I can feel disagreement approaching from all sides, but to me the B&W goes to the guts of it. The color was simply distracting. I really like it. It's good street.
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2012, 06:48:24 pm »

Thanks very much Russ!

anybody else have an opinion or has Russ covered all feedback necessary on this batch? 

James
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2012, 12:12:47 am »

I agree with Russ right down the line.
As far as color goes, I believe that if the color isn't an essential element of an image, you are better off with B&W. I don't think the color helps in either the second or third shots.

I also agree that it would help to have some detail in the man's hair (#1) and the ground in #4.
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Rob C

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2012, 05:10:45 am »

Not at all; Photo 2, in colour, is better (IMO) but two contradictory things happen in it: the colour shot makes the picture-within-picture more interesting because it looks to be an old, classical image and gives the girl a sense of intellectual gravitas because of it; the overall colour is killing the picture for me. I'd work on trying for a more 'natural' overall colour. The b/w just looks flat as a pancake.

Cannes, Shot 1, is not the way you show it. Of course it is, but that's not what I like to remember about it; I'm a sucker for its glamorous image, not the Parisian 'reportage' version which you will find all over Europe.

Shots 3 and 4, the street portraits, are perfectly good for what they are, but they miss the element that makes them different. Without that, they are just 'more of the same', as everyone else with that sort of desire produces.

Shot 5 is just a terrible exposure of two kids on a bike heading for an accident.

Let me stress: this is only personal reaction and, like all other suggestions about another's work, has no value beyond that.

You really want advice? Just do what you want to do and the hell with the rest of the photographic world: it's as confused as everybody else.

Rob C

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2012, 05:21:54 am »

Thanks for the feedback Rob and Eric - it all helps!

Looking at Photo 5, reworking from the original, I can get good detail on the cyclists, but my main problem was the faces, they were heavily back-lit. I brightened them a little.



I'm sure it's my inexperience talking, but I actually like the overexposed higher contrast look, I like the kids expression and the simplicity of the backgroung.. BUT.. this is exactly why  I'm posting! to get get good feedback, maybe spark a little debate and learn! :)

Thanks again!

James
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Chris Calohan

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2012, 10:23:02 am »

Perhaps go to a more vertical crop and eliminate some of the right side of the frame.
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Rob C

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #9 on: August 19, 2012, 11:33:13 am »

I think the bike kids are much improved; I'd probably be tempted to go a teensy bit darker yet overall, and I wouldn't weaken the weight on the right: the shadows and even the faces lead to the right - you have to leave them somewhere (space) for the energy to go. Lose space and the mood becomes claustrophobic, despite the open road.

Of course, regarding the brightness/whiteness of the shot: it all depends on whose monitor it's viewed - we are not all well-calibrated, I guess, nor do we all like the same things...

Rob C

Chris Calohan

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #10 on: August 19, 2012, 12:44:33 pm »

While I agree as to the direction the boys are looking, I have to disagree as to losing that little bit of space to the right. The boys are actually looking back toward the mid-bottom right which has ample lead-out room and will prevent any pre-emptive claustrophic results if a little is taken from the frame. IMO, humble as it may be... ;D
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Rob C

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #11 on: August 19, 2012, 01:15:16 pm »

While I agree as to the direction the boys are looking, I have to disagree as to losing that little bit of space to the right. The boys are actually looking back toward the mid-bottom right which has ample lead-out room and will prevent any pre-emptive claustrophic results if a little is taken from the frame. IMO, humble as it may be... ;D


That's okay, you just don't suffer the same phobias as do I; couldn't cope with long trips in a Mini!

(Haven't done any in the Fiesta, either, which must be telling me something.)

Rob C

Chris Calohan

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #12 on: August 19, 2012, 01:35:26 pm »

Minis are oddly enough, quite spacious inside..lots of glass around you and no car nose to deal with (slope fixes that). I've driven mine over 7,500 miles over a two week period and it was quite lovely..I also have big fat leather seats in mine which drives up the comfort level substantially.
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RSL

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #13 on: August 19, 2012, 01:40:48 pm »

I agree with Rob that the kids need that road to the right, but I don't think I'd go darker globally. The kids faces look right to me. What I'd do is grab the burning wand in Photoshop and set it to highlights, then burn in a bit more texture in the road to the right. But on my calibrated screen it looks as if it doesn't need much burning, and, as you go past the depth of field into bokeh territory there's not going to be much detail to recover anyway. I think it's pretty darn good just the way it is. Kind of reminds me of Elliott Erwitt's French kid on the back of the bike with the baguette.
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designpartners

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #14 on: August 19, 2012, 03:34:37 pm »

Hi All,

Thanks you very much for time and effort - I've found all it very constructive!

I think I'll do this again! :)

James
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Rob C

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Re: selection of street photography.
« Reply #15 on: August 19, 2012, 03:42:37 pm »

Minis are oddly enough, quite spacious inside..lots of glass around you and no car nose to deal with (slope fixes that). I've driven mine over 7,500 miles over a two week period and it was quite lovely..I also have big fat leather seats in mine which drives up the comfort level substantially.


No car nose. That's something I hate not being able to see: just as with the missing rear corners, these are huge flaws to modern design that hide your extremities! Crazy stuff, in the worst sense of crazy. Why is it thought admirable that you are denied sight of where your car starts and finishes?

Leather seats, fat. The best seats I ever had were hard Recaros in my X1/9; gripped you like a vice and held you firmly and, consequently, comfortably. Could drive for hours (and did) without a sore ass or fatigue. Of course, I was a lot younger then... Come to think of it, the standard sports seats in my one-time XR3i were also very good; drove back and forth across Europe quite a lot without stress. The Fiesta seats feel too short; also, the pedals and the seat (adjustable height etc.) don't seem to be on great speaking terms: I find it possible to slip over the top of the brake with my foot, which has never happened before in the past 31 years that I've driven Fords. As a result, I find myself changing the seating position time after time.There's probaly just a degree or two that's wrong, but it counts!

It's like cameras: they got to the stage of having a perfect design and then they changed it all.

;-)

Rob C
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