Returning After 6 Years

[streetcamcraig]

Hi all. I used to frequent here years ago when I was a young teenager, and remember this being such a lovely community. Well I've recently got back into photography, street to be precise, and wanted to make contact again.

I just bought a new camera, a Fuji X-T4, which reignited the spark for it. I took some photos the other day that I want to share. I've only had time to edit a few of them so I'll just share the ones I have for now.

Thank you,
Craig

(p.s. the edit of the photo of the lady eating in the restaurant - how can I improve it?)

 

[Jeff15]

Hello and welcome, very nice shots ...

 

[Hardus Nameous]

A polarizer could help with the reflections in the glass.

 

[cgw]

Try using your flippy LCD like a WLF. Next best thing to the "Cloak of Invisibility."

 

[cgw]

(p.s. the edit of the photo of the lady eating in the restaurant - how can I improve it?)

Crop bottom to where the window frame intersects the table. Crop a bit to the left.
She looks perturbed because you were too close and lingered futzing I'm guessing to get the shot. With a 50mm equiv and all those mp, I'd have backed up, gone for wider frame, then cropped. Work on pre-visualing. It involves slowing down and watching--not hunting with
the camera. Learning to dance with prime lenses--and zooming with your feet--takes some practice. For street, those flip-up LCD screens are killer. I've shot lots of medium format street with WLF cameras. That head-down, non-aimed posture draws little attention for not looking aggresive or obvious. Reflection can be tamed with haze reduction in post that mimics a polarizer.
Watch a maestro at work:

garry winogrand - Google Search

 

[Golem]

A polarizer could help with the reflections in the glass.

I just tried that and it does nothing.
Seems to have no effect during edit.

Using the PL during the original exposure would possibly allow strengthening of the reflections to add even more ambience, but theres plenty of ambience already. I might crop the the bottom somewhat, but otherwise its really the best shot in the set and I wouldnt do much to it in post.

The reflections MAKE that shot. In post I might just deselect the narrow strip that has no reflections and bump up the contrast (and maybe sharpness) of all the reflected imagery.

 

[smoke665]

Welcome back!

When faced with glass reflections you can either minimize them or embrace them as a creative element as in a similar resteraunt shot Reflections Of Conversations Changing perspective, will effect reflections, move around, study the scene before you raise the camera. Polarizer effect is highly dependent on the direction of the light, and not always effective. Another method that works in some situations is to put the camera next to the glass an cover your head/camera with a jacket (that would have really freaked her out ).