Street photography - suggestions, comments, criticism

[ElSapo]

I've recently been trying to shoot a lot more of I guess what you'd call "street photography." The result has been less polished, but more spontaneous.

Overall, I'm fairly happy with the direction my stuff is heading in. But that said, I'd appreciate it if people could take a look at my site and perhaps give some feedback. General thoughts (or specifics) would really be appreciated.

As an example of the type of thing I've been doing ...

http://www.teamwetdog.com/indexes/streetnight.jpg

Any comments - either here or on the site, would be appreciated.

Thanks -

Robert Walton
www.TeamWetDog.com

[1-thought]

take a ton more.

I like it, but seems a little grainy.

you can really use the light sources to "paint" some nice images.

whats the settings here?
exposure? time? size etc?

[modern]

im no professional or anything but my eyes just battle for whether im gonna look to the right or left there is no real focal point. it is like there 2 images almost. maybee if you sshow more of the building or the street. i like the picture other than that. it has a good night life feel in my opinion. im a sucker for night shots. I definitely want to see more pictures from you.

its a good start, keep trying new things.

what kind of camera do you have?

-garrett

[ElSapo]

Modern said...

my eyes just battle for whether im gonna look to the right or left there is no real focal point.

I think that's probably true -- or would be, moreso, if the area on the right weren't so dark. But depending on how you mean it, I kind of think that's a good thing. I like pictures that keep your eye moving: as long as it's moving toward something, that is.

If you keep looking around this frame because you don't see anything to look at, that's a bad thing. If your eyes keep moving because there are different elements to take in, that's good quality.

I think, anyways.

I think the picture I posted here is probably close -- I really like the two blurred figures, personally. But I also wish there was just a little more going on, in the right side of the frame.

Good thoughts, thanks. And you don't, by any stretch, ever, need to be a professional to offer good criticism.

1-thought said...

I like it, but seems a little grainy.

Yeah, and maybe too much so. I've had two prints made (that I haven't gotten back yet). In one, I left the grain/noise, and in the other I reduced the noise and lost some detail. I should get the prints back today, and I'm curious how they look.

I actually like a lot of grain in my photos, but that's picture to picture and personal taste maybe. And at the same time, sometimes it can be too much. And funny how with film it's "grain" and with digital it's "noise."

These are digital, shot with a D70 and the Nikon 12-18mm lens...

Thanks for all the help so far guys. It's good to get feedback...

Robert

[bugg_house555]

Hey. It's looking good. Keep posting stuff, and I will be sure to check it out.
See you in class.

[ElSapo]

A closing note (I guess) on this image... I got the prints yesterday, and the non-grainy/noisy/pixilated image looks much nicer. The area on the right also has more detail in the print (although it's still fairly random detail).

The end result is a print I like a lot. I had it done 11x14 with a few inches border on the edges - part of me thinks I could have gone bigger, but that size is so affordable up against the 16x20s I've made in the past. I hate that printing is cost-prohibitive, but then again I also hate that I wasn't born wealthy. Ah well.

Robert Walton
www.TeamWetDog.com

[Jucas]

Interesting photo. I have been shooting alot of street photography for awhile now. I think the most important thing in street photography is a sense of storytelling.

Elsapo, could you flip that image horizontally? See how it looks then. We (in western society) have a tendency to look at something from left to right. When your highest light and dark contrast is on the left part of the frame, we meet that first, then our eye looks for a secondary focal point to the right and there is not anything there in this case.

What equipment are you using?

-J

[elsleepycrab]

i like the grainy quality of the photo quite a bit but i would have to agree with modern, i wouldnt put a line straight down the center of the photo, it creates a sense of being shot on the fly without much thought, if your going to split the picture have the line slightly to the right or more commonly slightly to the right. Hope that helps and keep up the good work. I would really like to see some more of this sort of photography

-sleepy