Shots from Chinese New Year, LA, 2017

[SearchingForElysium]

Basically my first time doing genuine street photography. Shot all on my Nikkor 50mm 1.8. I have my own critiques below. Not sure if people do that around here, but I probably will be doing that often.

Wish I was just a touch closer for this one. Would've made the DoF a touch more shallow, and the people on the left wouldn't be as distracting. I think they help frame the girl a bit, and serves to give you an idea of who she's smiling (would you call that a smile?) at. Kept the crop a bit wide to keep the shot airy.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/phototac0/

Also wish I was closer for this one, again for the DoF. Would've been a little awkward though. I tried to bring more focus to her, attempted to blur the people behind, though LR doesn't seem to work well for that. I'm not sure if the framing works, she's kind of looking off into nothing, but what do you guys think?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/phototac0/

Really like this one, personally. Maybe I should've moved to the left and got a lower angle, to catch what he's looking at, but it is what it is. His girlfriend is a bit hidden too.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/phototac0/

 

[Trever1t]

Nothing about these say anything in regards to the New Year or Tet festival. That said, with street photography you want to try to capture a part of a story, some particular event or emotion.

 

[mgblunt]

I agree with Trever there's not much context to these shots.

 

[Inklingforsake]

Here are some of my shots from the Chinese New Year in New York, 2017.

Yes, you want to get closer.

 

[SearchingForElysium]

I can see what you guys mean, though I will say that the specific festival we went to was no more than a glorified carnival.

@Inklingforsake Those are lovely shots, thanks for sharing.

 

[Derrel]

Getting good shots at a fair or carnival or street fair is sort of a science, and sort of an art, and sort of a craft; it takes a lot of things to go right to make good photos from uncontrolled, random people and events. It requires social sensitivity (or lack of it?), courage to shoot in public, and the ability to see and to then quickly frame up the shots. One suggestion is to figure out what focal length and distance YOU feel most comfortable working with; a longer lens can make things look voyeuristic, or it can separate people from their surroundings; I've seen a lot of good street work/journalism done with 135nn and 180mm and 300mm prime lenses, and I've seen a lot of good street work/journalism done with 20mm,24mm,and 28mm lenses; in the middle are the 35,50,and 85mm lenses. Each of these three types of lenses creates different "types"of street scenes.

For the beginner, the 85mm and 105mm short tele type prime lenses keep him outside of the public space of people on the street, and to an extent so does the 50mm lens when used on an APS-C sensor. The long, compact primes like 135mm and 180mm keep you in the 20 to 80 foot range, where people might not even be aware there's a camera pointed at them.

If one looks at the photos that Inklingforsake posted, there are multiple" types" of street photos. Not everything shoukld be shot from 10,14,20 feet away and with a wide-angle lens length. It's easy to pick out the telephoto perspective shots in the collage. They add a huge amount of interest, by narrowing down the focus of who or what is in the photos.

 

[KmH]

A note about fast, f/1.8 is fast, 50 mm prime lenses:

Most of them deliver their sharpest focus only when stopped down a stop (f/2.5) or two (f/3.5).
They often start losing their sharpest focus from f/11 to the smaller apertures, like f/22.
In other words, they only deliver their sharpest focus in a range of apertures somewhere between wide open and their smallest aperture.

A Derrel alludes to there are several advantages to using a longer, telephoto focal length.