First Attempt

[KaPOWitsCHRIS]

Normally I do landscape and cityscapes but yesterday I tried street photography for the first time and here's what I got.

 

[cgipson1]

Too many images to critique... usually just two or three will more responses.

 

[jowensphoto]

The second is the strongest of the set.

 

[KmH]

Putting a blank line between each photo helps to present them.

Far to many to be asking for C&C. I guess you don't realize how much work it would be to do a good critique of all of those photos individually.

Posting 1 at a time is best for C&C.

 

[fjrabon]

Not bad for a first go at street photography.

Can you please number them? way too hard to make individual critiques as is.

In general a lot of these just had way too much going on, and in focus. An image with too much in it in many ways is the same as having an image with nothing in it.

Notice that your two strongest images, the woman and the duck, and the single man in front of the wall, were also the images with the fewest visual elements. That's not to say that less is always better, but you definitely tended to skew on the 'too busy' side of things with your compositions.

In street photography a lot of times the people are moving enough that you mostly have to stake out your background first, and then wait for a subject. Cities are hectic places and if you aren't very conscious of your background, you end up with too busy backgrounds in almost all your photographs. It's sort of backwards from normal people photography where the subject is established and we hunt backgrounds. In a lot of ways this is part of what HC-B meant by 'waiting for the decisive moment' stake out your ground, know what you are looking for, and then... just wait for it.

 

[KaPOWitsCHRIS]

I didn't want to post a few pictures over several threads in fear of getting into trouble for spamming or something like that since they're all from the same shoot. All critiques are welcome - I was aiming more for comments as whole set and maybe the odd individual one. I'll know for next time.

Not bad for a first go at street photography.

Can you please number them? way too hard to make individual critiques as is.

In general a lot of these just had way too much going on, and in focus. An image with too much in it in many ways is the same as having an image with nothing in it.

Notice that your two strongest images, the woman and the duck, and the single man in front of the wall, were also the images with the fewest visual elements. That's not to say that less is always better, but you definitely tended to skew on the 'too busy' side of things with your compositions.

In street photography a lot of times the people are moving enough that you mostly have to stake out your background first, and then wait for a subject. Cities are hectic places and if you aren't very conscious of your background, you end up with too busy backgrounds in almost all your photographs. It's sort of backwards from normal people photography where the subject is established and we hunt backgrounds. In a lot of ways this is part of what HC-B meant by 'waiting for the decisive moment' stake out your ground, know what you are looking for, and then... just wait for it.

Thank you for the tips. I was more focused on getting the shot as things can change in the blink of an eye. As I said, I am used to photographing static objects in the form of landscapes, so a lot of the basic photographic thought process went out the window like rules of thirds etc.

 

[fjrabon]

Thank you for the tips. I was more focused on getting the shot as things can change in the blink of an eye. As I said, I am used to photographing static objects in the form of landscapes, so a lot of the basic photographic thought process went out the window like rules of thirds etc.

Yeah, that's the challenge with street photography. You have to think about your background, or all that "chasing the shot" does no good, because the subject just falls into the background.

 

[Forkie]

Far too many for C&C, but the first thing that grated was the B&W conversions. They're very, very grey and there aren't many blacks and whites.

 

[fjrabon]

Far too many for C&C, but the first thing that grated was the B&W conversions. They're very, very grey and there aren't many blacks and whites.

You seen later period HC-B? Some of his later stuff makes these seem stark in comparison.

 

[rlemert]

Putting a blank line between each photo helps to present them.

A prime example of how this helps: When I first looked through these I thought #1 and #2 were different parts of the same picture, and I was wondering "what's wrong with that poor little guy underneath those giants at the base of the fountain?"

 

[Haya.H]

Not bad for a first go at street photography.

Can you please number them? way too hard to make individual critiques as is.

In general a lot of these just had way too much going on, and in focus. An image with too much in it in many ways is the same as having an image with nothing in it.

Notice that your two strongest images, the woman and the duck, and the single man in front of the wall, were also the images with the fewest visual elements. That's not to say that less is always better, but you definitely tended to skew on the 'too busy' side of things with your compositions.

In street photography a lot of times the people are moving enough that you mostly have to stake out your background first, and then wait for a subject. Cities are hectic places and if you aren't very conscious of your background, you end up with too busy backgrounds in almost all your photographs. It's sort of backwards from normal people photography where the subject is established and we hunt backgrounds. In a lot of ways this is part of what HC-B meant by 'waiting for the decisive moment' stake out your ground, know what you are looking for, and then... just wait for it.

Putting a blank line between each photo helps to present them.

A prime example of how this helps: When I first looked through these I thought #1 and #2 were different parts of the same picture, and I was wondering "what's wrong with that poor little guy underneath those giants at the base of the fountain?"

These were exactly my thoughts. But I enjoyed them