Street Market Shots...C&C Please

[istaycrisp]

Hi All,


Took a trip to Bullring Market in Birmingham today for my first attempt at street photography. It was full of interesting people, a great atmosphere, and genuinely a great place to shoot. I was armed with my new Nikon D3100 which I am really enjoying. I would love to see what you guys think...

1)

2)

3)

Thanks for your time...

 

[Ron Evers]

The white balance is off, it needs warming up.

Why does everyone look so glum?

 

[istaycrisp]

The white balance is off, it needs warming up.

Why does everyone look so glum?

Hi Ron, thanks for your comment! I purposefully created that effect because like you said everyone looked so glum. I thought it had given the shots a better 'mood'! Appreciate your time though!

 

[Patrice]

Photographing a market is an opportunity to have some fun, test your skills, and exercise your imagination. Will you tell the story of the market or will you tell stories of individuals at the market? Each will require a somewhat different approach.

Ron has indicated the odd color balance/processing style. Markets are vibrant busy places full of drama and action, I would likely do as Ron suggests and warm things up a bit. But hey, your image - your choice, up to us to make up our minds whether we like it or not.

Image 1 is lost on me, I don't get the 'story' you are telling.

Image 2 is soft.

Image 3 is not bad, IMHO. It would be nice had you included what the gentleman in the mid foreground was looking at. The back of the lady in the immediate foreground is distracting to me.

 

[istaycrisp]

Hi Patrice, thanks for taking the time to reply! The feedback is definitely helpful as like I said it was my first time out on the street, and also one of the first times using my new camera.

As far as getting a story behind the shots I found it really difficult! I saw a lot of shots that I would've loved to have captured but blatantly taking photos of people that didn't necessarily want to be photographed was actually quite unnerving! (Did anyone else find this when they started out?) So the shots I ended up with were more on the sly from the hip than carefully composed. I love the idea of capturing people going about their general day to day lives but maybe it will just take some getting used to!

As far as the colour of the shots goes I still have the unedited files so can easily resolve that!

Thanks again!

 

[dakkon76]

I don't mind that you took down the saturation/vibrance on these shots... I agree, I think it helps to mirror the mood. It's consistent, so it makes it look somewhat intentional. Have to agree with softness though. All of these look to be a bit soft; #3 may be some motion blur. I would suggest rather than trying to capture a large scene like this, maybe try and pick out what you want your subject to be. As Patrice said, maybe use the market to try and tell a story. Head back there and look for the most gloomy, depressed-looking people you can find and get some tight crops of them. Doing that, and keeping the look that you have here, would give you a pretty strong set.