First Foray into Street Shooting, C&C please

TiCoyote · May 7, 2009

I wandered around my little city shooting yesterday. Some of them are a little blurry because I was trying to shoot so fast. They're also a little noisy because they're zoomed way in, and then cropped and enlarged.

1

2

3

4

5

Gotta love the Paula Abdul T-shirt

abraxas · May 7, 2009

I'm wondering, if these were someone else's shots and you were looking at them for the first time, what would your comments be?

blash · May 7, 2009

I'm not really sure what to take from this.

sauce839 · May 7, 2009

None of these people seem interesting at all and the photos seem to have any real focus on what they are doing. The photos look like they were taken while you were in mid stride while walking down the street and really not stopping to study the person doing anything... "oohh, look... some old guy and his bags"... 'snap'...

or

"gross, that chick is wearing skinny jeans"... 'click'.

Keep trying, and google street photography and see what inspires you. I know its tough to find interesting people in the core of the city, but most city's have an area that seem to attract a lot of 'street' people. Whether they are homeless, or street performers, vendors, skaters, etc. Try shooting those instead of a group of punk kids sitting on some stairs.

Sjixxxy · May 7, 2009

They're also a little noisy because they're zoomed way in

Try zooming out and getting closer to the subjects before shooting. Images that have the telephoto look like these have rarely get much respect from avid street photographers.

woojiebear · May 7, 2009

abraxas said:
I'm wondering, if these were someone else's shots and you were looking at them for the first time, what would your comments be?

i'm wondering the same thing, sorry :S

tim.bennett · May 7, 2009

They do look very zoomed. softish out of focus even. Would guess this is because you were quite far away from your subject. What the shots miss is what's actually going on.

For Example pic 4 looks like they are rushing somewhere. Taken wider at a trainstation with other passengers and if possible a train it might have said more.

An i'd say 3 might have had something more if you got his face in.

The best tip I have ever had. When shooting street. Go wide and get close. you can choose to interact with the subject or not.

I always get nervous when i go out street shooting. And I always get shouted at at least once. But when you get closer the results are so satisfying.

boomer · May 7, 2009

Sjixxxy said:
They're also a little noisy because they're zoomed way in

Judging by his other threads about cropping, i'm guessing he cropped some of these pictures. That said, i think a few of them are showing distortion because they are cropped too much.