Street Photography: Chesapeake Bridge, Virginia

MarcoDG · Aug 17, 2012

Hi, this is my first time here on TPF! Glad to join, the community here seems just great.
So here is a couple of photography I made on a trip to Virginia. We stopped at the Chesapeake Bridge.

Chesapeake bridge, Horizon par Marc-Olivier Dutton-Godard, sur Flickr
18mm on 60D, f/14, ISO 100, 1/80s

Chesapeake bridge, Quai des pêcheurs par Marc-Olivier Dutton-Godard, sur Flickr
50mm on 60D, f/5, ISO 100, 1/1600s

Les pêcheurs par Marc-Olivier Dutton-Godard, sur Flickr
18mm on 60D, f/5, ISO 100, 1/1600s

L'homme aux 7 cannes à pêche par Marc-Olivier Dutton-Godard, sur Flickr
18mm on 60D, f/5, ISO 100, 1/640

Curieuse par Marc-Olivier Dutton-Godard, sur Flickr
50mm on 60D, f/2.8, ISO 1000, 1/50s, some split toning added through Lightroom

So, first of all I would like to have your opinion and thoughts about the photographies. They were RAW files processed through Lightroom. Each photos are taken manually.

Here are some question I am asking myself: I have been doing a lot of black and white, and I have a hard time figuring the perfect balance between having details and having great contrasts. For example, in these photographies, I made sure the sky wasn't too white, because I didn't want it to take the attention away from the subjects. But I fear this may give a flat look to the pictures. On the other hand, sunlight in the afternoon gave me harsh shadows to work with and I wanted to make sure that I didn't loose too much details in the clothing and such. What are your thoughts on that?

Also, about the last picture. I often make pictures at night or in low light condition. My monitor is calibrated, by the way, with a Spyder. I am on a laptop too, so the angle of the screen sometimes make pictures a bit darker or a bit lighter to me depending on the angle of the monitor. I fear that sometimes I see things in a dark area of a photography that others see entirely black (because they told me and I had to readjust the photos). How do you make sure that dark areas aren't too dark? Is a laptop monitor not really good for editing photos?

Any tips about color adjustment would be nice too

Thanks for looking and reading!

DGMPhotography · Aug 17, 2012

These look really good! I'm still a newb myself, but you've definitely come to the right place! TPF is an awesome place for photographers. The first shot seems a bit too "busy" to me what with your hair all flying about, but maybe that wasn't a serious shot, or maybe I'm wrong. As for your last shot, to get the perfect contrast you would have to think about HDR, or just experiment with some gamma adjustments. Just my 2 cents. Have you heard of Photomatix?

PhotoWrangler · Aug 17, 2012

#2 and #4 are your strongest 'street' photos. #2 makes me wonder what he has on the end of his line, and #4 makes me wonder what he he is looking at. These two tell a story and engage the viewer.

#1 is just he back of her head, #3 is hard to tell what they are doing - the story isn't obvious enough, and #5 is just a tad too dark to know anything.

MarcoDG · Aug 17, 2012

DGMPhotography said:
These look really good! I'm still a newb myself, but you've definitely come to the right place! TPF is an awesome place for photographers. The first shot seems a bit too "busy" to me what with your hair all flying about, but maybe that wasn't a serious shot, or maybe I'm wrong. As for your last shot, to get the perfect contrast you would have to think about HDR, or just experiment with some gamma adjustments. Just my 2 cents. Have you heard of Photomatix?

Oh it definitely was a serious shot. I thought there was something quite organic about her hair, octopus like, which I felt worked with the ocean setting. About HDR, I feel it would take away the realism of street photography, but I have never tried it, so I will look into that. Thanks!

ChristopherCoy said:
#2 and #4 are your strongest 'street' photos. #2 makes me wonder what he has on the end of his line, and #4 makes me wonder what he he is looking at. These two tell a story and engage the viewer.

#1 is just he back of her head, #3 is hard to tell what they are doing - the story isn't obvious enough, and #5 is just a tad too dark to know anything.

Interesting point of view, especially about #3. I thought it was self-sufficient. About #1, I thought the composition with the head and then the rocks was interesting, both pointing toward the infinite of the ocean. About #5 well that is just too bad and what I often fear about darker settings for photography. Thanks for commenting!

jaguaraz · Aug 17, 2012

I love the lines in #4, the poles have symmetry as does the railing. The guy looking over the edge is made even more interesting by the fact he is on the railing. Great composition.