Street portraits

[kmb]

Hello,

I haven't photographed too much people on the streets (or elsewhere, for that matter), but here's a few photos from yesterday. I'd love to get comments on how to imporve my street photography skills (note that this set is intentionally tightly cropped portraits only, I'll have a go with a wide angle lens later).

1

2

3

4

 

[wolfepakt]

Dang you found some unhappy folks! Great pix though!

 

[darin3200]

You've got a nice style

 

[LaFoto]

Again I am struggling with the fact that you are depicting unsuspecting children in portrait style here AND publishing their photos in the internet, while I am not sure you got release for these by anybody - but that may well be because laws on photos of people (even if they are in a public place) - and most of all children! - are so much stricter in Germany than they apparently are in the States. I know I know... we've had these discussions often and in many different places up here on TPF before. And I am very influenced by the comparatively strict laws on people photography in Germany.

No problem at all ever (not even from my German point of view) with the performer. Since she is doing a public "act" of sorts, even our strict laws would state that exposing herself like that, i.e. performing, automatically means that some might take her photo then, and in performing publicly she silently agreed to also having her photo taken and published.

Not so with the three children here...

Which does not (!) diminish the QUALITY of your photos AT ALL. Nothing against that. Nothing at all. They are all GOOD. (But I even asked my own brother yesterday if he were ok with pics of his kids being shown in this forum - and without his ok I would not even show you photos of my nephews and niece!!!)

 

[terri]

These are wonderful images - you have beautiful tonal range here and your composition and DOF is excellent in all of them.

What's your gear? If these are digital B&W conversions, they might rank among the best I've seen. :thumbup:

 

[Jovian]

I love your work. Street portraits are among one of my favorite things, but yet, I still am yet to really be happy with any I have taken. I love what you've got here, great job!

 

[ThcGunSmoke]

may i suggest healing brush for portraits?

i know its nice to not have to edit! but for a few id personally sugest you do!

hiding ppls "zits" i dunno how to spell achme(sp??) and or faceial(sp) beauity marks can result in the pictures looking much nicer

just a suggestion!

**Edit**
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54515

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54515
as u can see! it makes the images that much nicer! these are just examples of what can be done! if u have a problem with this let me know and ill unhost the pictures

 

[LaFoto]

(Shhhh, listen: for as long as people have not clearly put up a OTE to their pics, we've made it a "rule" on TPF not to edit a pic and post our edits without getting a PMed OK to that by the picture author, ok? Hence I changed your edits to mere links for the time being).

 

[kmb]

Hello,

Thank you for the comments.

I'm from Finland where these photos are taken. It is legal to take and publish pictures of people taken in public here (with certain restrictions related to "awkward" situations). It is very much seen as a direct consequence of freedom of speech (this is not only my interpretation, but a lawyer's who wrote about the subject in a photo magazine) and freedom of artsitic expression in the Finnish law.

That does not mean that I haven't spent considerable time thinking whether it is "morally" ok to publish these pictures (in addition to being legal). To explain all the reasons would take considerable amount of time, especially since English isn't my mother language, so I won't bore you here. Just know that I didn't publish these pictures without thinking about the dilemma. Also, I don't take pictures without permission if the situation does not require it (in these pictures, the situation required it - "oh there's a nice moment, I'll go and ask permission to take a photo" does not work when that moment lasts for two seconds).

About photoshopping: I regularly use photohop to remove distractive detail which is not a part of the subject being photographed - especially stuff from the backgrounds of concert photos. However, I'm not keen to remove "flaws" from the subjects in these pictures, as I don't see them as flaws, but things that add personality to the person. Note that for me, the point in these photos is not the visual appearance per se, but to capture fleeting moments of life (sorry if this wasn't a relevant reply to the ThcGunSmoke's post, I can't see the edits).

Thanks for the opinions and suggestions

 

[Unimaxium]

Great shots. I especially love #3.