First time at street photography

jeveretts · Jul 14, 2014

I know these are chock full o' issues. But I would still love to hear what you guys have to say.

mmaria · Jul 14, 2014

what's the point of these picture (not portrait ones) ?
what were your attentions while shooting these?

AlanKlein · Jul 15, 2014

Nobody looks poor.

mmaria · Jul 15, 2014

I would ask you the same questions I asked in my first post...

sorry, someone will tell more

sashbar · Jul 15, 2014

To be honest, before offering any critique I would suggest that you should try to be a bit more critical about your own images. That would be a good start.
It is really difficult to give a constructive critique here other than giving a basic advice - learn composition, learn how to use light, watch the light, try to shoot during "golden hours", when the light is not that harsh etc etc. And think more about what (and how) you want to capture. So far these images give an impression of a guy with the camera walking around and shooting everything that he thinks might be interesting on a screen. It does not work like that. Street shooting is a very demanding genre. I would recommend you to buy "Chasing the Light" by Ibarionex Perello. It will give you some ideas.

weepete · Jul 15, 2014

I like the first one, that guy has definite warmth but an almost incredulous look. The first thing I would say is don't be afraid to turn your camera to portrait orientation, it's called that for a reason. Ditch the sepia tone too, it adds nothing to the shot.

Shoot wide, crop, then crop again. Show us something interesting you saw (or in other words think about the subject and what you want your photo to say).

jeveretts · Jul 15, 2014

sashbar said:
So far these images give an impression of a guy with the camera walking around and shooting everything that he thinks might be interesting on a screen. It does not work like that. Street shooting is a very demanding genre. I would recommend you to buy "Chasing the Light" by Ibarionex Perello. It will give you some ideas.

Yeah, that would be me. Very good advice, thank you very much. I am going to buy that book right now.

weepete said:
I like the first one, that guy has definite warmth but an almost incredulous look. The first thing I would say is don't be afraid to turn your camera to portrait orientation, it's called that for a reason. Ditch the sepia tone too, it adds nothing to the shot.

Shoot wide, crop, then crop again. Show us something interesting you saw (or in other words think about the subject and what you want your photo to say).

I also have the unfortunate issue of learning post processing, while learning the basics of photography. I get that, when I first did these pictures, I applied the "warm photo filter" and I thought it gave it an "old" feel. But more and more the monochrome starts to look better, and those "warm" ones feel just kinda... "peachy".

I guess part of my problem is I get up in the morning and say "I am going out to take pictures", then I walk around looking for that shot or moment, which is very elusive.
I have had a much more comfortable time doing some nature stuff and other odds and ends... I posted a couple here
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/just-fun/364785-few-i-recently-took.html#post3278322

I felt a lot more comfortable shooting this "regular" stuff. When I try to do street stuff, I really feel out of my element.