Black and White Photos around NYC . Critique appreciated!

[chiyeung]

Tips/Critique appreciated!

1.

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

 

[dxqcanada1]

I like the first image with some of the people looking in the opposite direction to the arriving train.
The others are not that strong.
The last one is just boring.
One thing that stands out is how muddy the tones are. You need to work on getting the high, low, and mid tones balanced ... work on your curve.

 

[The_Traveler]

IMO, The first one comes closest to being a good street photograph, nice symmetry and the balance of looking for the train on one side and the train arriving on the other.
The rest are just 'pictures' with no specific object of interest and nothing obvious that you are showing to us.

The reason for conversion to B&W is not to make the pictures more 'important' but to remove the distraction of colors from diverting the viewer from what you want to show them.
It's not clear in these exactly what you want the viewer to see and why.
The conversions aren't very enjoyable and they, especially the 4th one, look sort of 'crunchy'.

NYC is one of the best places in the world to do street shooting.
Keep it up; this is a decent start.
Make certain to know exactly why you are taking the shot, exactly what you want us to see and why that is worthwhile and interesting.

Lew

 

[chiyeung]

Thanks a lot for the critique. By "muddy", what do you mean exactly?

 

[The_Traveler]

I didn't say 'muddy', someone else did but since you are interested.

Snow and open sky photos are probably the most difficult to expose well. The dynamic range is so great that a single exposure can't get everything exposed correctly.
Look at the last photo.
Most of the snow doesn't look white and the sky looks a medium grey but even so, lots of patches of snow are blown out.
There isn't that feeling of clarity and brightness one gets on a snowy day. (and if the day is dull, why are we taking the picture?

Notice the amount of grain in the open sky in the screen shot from a Noiseware app.



Shot 6 is a complete mystery, you've framed out the lower part and the upper part of the buildings and yet not given the viewer a real center of interest.
Decide what you are interested in and frame the shot around that.

It's encouraging that you are aware that there are things to see.
Now just learn to define what is interesting you and frame around that so the picture doesn't seem arbitrarily chopped and the viewer is comforted that he understands the picture.

 

[The_Traveler]

In terms of composition #2 is probably the best.
My eye enters the scene as it usually does, on the left, and then follows the steam across and up.
I would level so that there is a distinct black, rather than grey, in the lower left.
That gives a bit of mystery and makes the bright metal in the mesh stand out.
I would remove the bright spots on the ground and that sliver of bright at the top because they attract they eye.

Remove distractions, emphasize important stuff.

Nicely seen and caught.