Street shorts - C&C welcome

[DiskoJoe]

Not too shabby. There is a bit of promise showing.

 

[manaheim]

Yeah, I hate to say it but the composition and such in the second batch seems fairly... off.

Shooting people in the street can sometimes be "cheating" because you can basically find someone really interesting, and as long as you compose them well in the shot, you have a win. It's basically what amolitor is referring to, minus the exploitation (assuming you're not shooting a homeless person, that is). That said, I don't think that most of the subjects you showed us were interesting enough in themselves to carry the image... and then your composition of them didn't add anything either, so in the end you're left with a "not that well composed black and white of some random person". Probably not what you're striving for.

Of course, all that said, I once suggested that someone else on this forum was posting snapshots rather than anything that I would consider having any serious credibility as artwork and was ripped to shreds by about ten people for even daring to suggest it, so... *shrug*

 

[DiskoJoe]

^^^^

You have to start somewhere.

 

[The_Traveler]

Street shooting is hard - especially for someone relatively new to the camera.
The shooter has to be experienced enough to know how to make exposure changes quickly, to see when shot situations are developing and to get in the right position to get the shot.

 

[thetrue]

Not to be an ass, but when I saw the title I thought it was a mistake. After seeing the first set, he obviously meant what the title implies.

 

[manaheim]

^^^^

You have to start somewhere.

And that means what, exactly? Obviously, you have to start somewhere. You have to end somewhere, too. Do you even know this is where he started? Is where he started relevant? Does where he started in any way affect the nature and quality of the compositions? What about the choice of shooting homeless people?

Seriously... what was the point of this?

 

[fjrabon]

They're moderately above average street shots. They're well exposed and in focus. They're compositionally mediocre. They're just random pictures of random people doing completely mundane things. Perhaps you personally enjoy that, but it's not going to engage anybody.

I don't even think the original photos were particularly exploitive. What I think happened was that their deviation from normal was the ONLY interesting thing about those images, and thus it was amplified. The picture of the larger woman became a picture of a fat woman being fat, because that was literally the only thing for the viewer to notice in the picture.

Good street photography is 'of' people, but it also supposed to communicate something more as well.

 

[josephchen]

Very cool photography, black and white is best to express street photography, check this pic..this is from my collection

 

[LazyFrog60]

Thanks - I guess I better stick to nature photography . I just thought I'd had a go at this and see how I did. I guess bugs & birds are more of my "thing". I'll leave you with a final few - these are family (so be kind).

1




2




3




4

 

[manaheim]

There's nothing wrong with trying a new thing, and there's no reason why you should run away from it just because some people on the internet didn't like you stuff. Also don't internalize a bunch of bickering between people as harsh commentary on your work. Photography is a harsh learning curve, and every new subject opens up a whole new pandoras box of things to learn and struggle with. What's more is street photography can be a heck of a lot of fun and an interesting challenge. People are interesting, and you can find people doing fascinating things that make just great pictures. Stick with it.

From what I see, you need work on the basics. Lighting, flash use (your family shots have a lot of dead-on flash which is harsh and unflattering), composition, etc. These are things that will affect ALL of your work. Focus on the basics and you'll do yourself many favors.

Stick with it.

 

[The_Traveler]

^^^^^^
What he said.

But you must know what you are trying to show and that must come through in the image.
Just reproducing what is in front of the camera doesn't do anything.