Streetphotography: Review thread

<p>Mark, I am with Fi here. I do not see a connection between the man and the displayed wares.<br>

Fi, this is a nice picture of a bridge with 2 persons walking on it. I like the glow emphasizing the bridge. My criticism is that it is a simple documentation of a scene.<br>

I find making compelling street photos to be very difficult. I feel that much of my criticisms also apply to my feeble attempt.</p>

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<p>Robert G, Eric A, thanks for your kind comments. I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread but I had a deadline at 4 PM this afternoon and had been working towards it.</p>

<p>Robert, I'm truly impressed with how well you "read" / guessed the story behind the image I posted at Jan 10, 2010; 09:28 a.m. You put it together almost perfectly. The closer / larger woman was an actor in a silly "murder mystery theater" performance that my wife and I were attending in an adjacent room. The character that the larger woman played was that of an over-the-top, loud, *very* opinionated maid.</p>

<p>This type of show requires heavy audience participation and strong interaction between the cast and the audience. The smaller, younger woman in back of my image was a guest who had seen the performance before and who had been teasing "the maid" by throwing out extra little clues, asking too many leading questions, etc. With unscripted drama, a great flourish, and a great deal of humor, while always staying in character, "the maid" escorted the younger woman out of the room and temporarily "detained her so that the investigation could continue". Given the humor and obviously unscripted nature of the evolving situation, I saw a photo op coming, so I followed them outside and fired off a couple of frames.</p>

<p>Thus, Robert G, your initial guess that the the woman in front was a maid was correct. In addition, your interpretation of her expression as "Don't you dare!" is equally correct (ie, "Don't you dare say another word to give away the ending...". Your interpretation of the expression of the younger woman along the lines of "Help, get me out of here" was also amazingly on the mark. </p>

<p>I know that one of the endearing aspects of street photography often is the ambiguity of trying to guess what is happening, why people have the expressions that they have, etc., but fortunately, this was one of those rare situations where we actually know what happened and thus can check our powers of image capture and subsequent interpretation.</p>

<p>Cheers,</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I should comment on James Owen's photo, also. Apparently James posted his photo when I was posting my review of Jose's bar image.</p>

<p>I see a person who's live a rough life. I see tired, glazed eyes, rough skin, and stains on the cuff of the sweatshirt. The hands are rough, but they hold the cigarette delicately. The person seems cold and mildly amused by the idea that someone is taking their photo.</p>

<p>It's a low-contrast shot and possibly a tad overexposed. I wonder if boosting the contrast might make it look a bit more dramatic. James gets high marks for filling the frame and not wasting space.</p>

<p>Mark H - Thanks for your comments. I think I agree with your idea of cropping the FDNY box out of the photo.</p>

<p>P N Chong:<br /> This image has a somewhat surreal feel to it. The person on the left is the subject I'm assuming, appears to be lauging maniacally at his/her players they are controlling on the field. I wish the silhouette/shadow of this person was a little sharper around the edges, as it would give this figure more command over the image. Other than that though, I like the grittiness that the contrast gives to the photo, and it makes the field the players are playing on into a sort of apocalyptic wasteland. The strong, foreboding shadow reminds me of Lee Friedlander's image with the shadow of the man's head (presumably his) on the woman's back. It's a really cool image, although I'm not sure what's "street" about it. Was it taken in a stadium/field? Or am I way off base?<br /> Anywho:<br>

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3172/2985693236_354b347d6e.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></p>

<p>Thank you James for taking the trouble to comment. Much appreciated. I agree that it would be great if the shadow could be sharper. This picture was taken at night while I was out strolling. They were playing in a lighted field. If I remember it correctly, the chap was making an "urghhhhh" sound because someone missed a goal!</p>

<p>I hope I am doing it correctly and say something about James picture.I will entitle it "Headache".You can see on the board that the game is at the end and somehow the players are annihilating each other.<br>

Modern dressed Fidel Castro against Leonid Brezhnev. Very good!!</p><div></div>

<p>@ Mihail.... Nice - gotta like street food, no matter what country. Personally, I might have cropped just to the right of where the wall goes into shadow. The different texture and tone of the back wall is a little distracting. And maybe a level adjustment to bring down the almost blown-out whites on the woman's shirt and the basket cover.<br>

The big question - did you have lunch...?<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2465/3983589257_951f7996d7_b.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="820" /></p>

<p>Really like the photo of the woman and the action. I do find myself wanting more 'context' of the surroundings however, so it leaves me a bit wanting. Other than that, I enjoy it very much.</p><div></div>

<p>@ Steve H... Point taken. Context is food stall in Bangkok with very low light. Wide aperture pretty much blotted everything around the women. Focal point was the knife, which the woman used to cut fruit at an amazing rate. <br>

This one better....?<br>

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3029/3066062215_76453e5934_b.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="820" /></p>

<p>@ Steve P:<br>

Sweet photo. Like everything about it. Dynamic range is great. Tells a great city story with many interpretations. Classic Street photo in my book! But not so fast...want to hear your critique of my pic post. Cheers!</p>

<p>Interesting scene. The young food seller seems about ready for the lady with the list to make up her mind.....</p>

<p>OK, first of all thanks to all that contributed here. Both the amount and enthousiasm come as a surprise because when this idea was started again by Clive last year the response was far less but then sometimes it needs the right moment in time to be picked up on.</p>

<p>There have been some remarks about the format and I've received quite some good and constructive ideas to change the format somewhat. First of all let me make very clear that I'm in no way connected to PN in whatever official capacity. The moderator of this forum is Jeff Spirer. I'm just one of the people who hang out here regularly and who happened to pick up on Clive's idea, that's all. However, since I was already planning to start off another such thread next Thursday I'm going to run these ideas by Jeff because I know from experience there are some issues to adress.</p>

<p>First of all this can't be a second critique forum so as far as I'm concerned the basic idea will remain the same. However, this site is about exchange and discussion is and should be stimulated <strong>as long as it is on topic</strong> . Also I would like to discourage any gratuitous thank you's. Let's just agree that they are a given besides which it would most likely lead to a feel good, pat on the back thread and there are already too many of those. Most importantly, remember if you receive a critique/comment realise that someone made a conscious effort to analyse your photo which, as I know all too well from experience is anything but easy.<br>

As promised I'll put up some pointers. However these will by definition be debatable. Use them if you want to structure your comment somewhat or just neglect them</p>

<p>Anyway, I'll run these ideas by Jeff ASAP and hope to see you again next Thursday.</p>

<p>take care</p>

<p>Ton:<br>

I like this thread. I do rather enjoy the interaction on it. It is very interactive and stimulating. Much of my time lately is very taken with a project I am working on; so, I do not have that much time to long onto PN. However, when I do as you can see, I come join you all here. So, I wish to thank you for your efforts put into getting this going.</p>

<p>thanks James. But what I did is inconsequential. After all, all I did is start this thing again. It's what we all do that counts, really. Good luck with your project.</p>

<p>@Steve Porte, the photo really pops, and I love photographed umbrellas no matter what. the scene is very classic, and well caught in terms of the man separating from the crowd and stepping in front of the bus. Was it cropped from a larger shot? It seems very detached. Still, I think it's a good photo <img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/2674066500_861d1a171e_o.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>@Steve Porte, the photo really pops, and I love photographed umbrellas no matter what. the scene is very classic, and well caught in terms of the man separating from the crowd and stepping in front of the bus. Was it cropped from a larger shot? It seems very detached. Still, I think it's a good photo <img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/2674066500_861d1a171e_o.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>I couldn't for some reason caption the last photo, which I usually don't, but, I think "Snowbirds" would be appropriate. It's a warm weather term for visitors from colder climates....:>}</p>

<p>@Steve P - I like the Thai woman's knife at the neck of the older lady. I can imagine her spending every day cutting fruit with the mother-in-law and with that slightly gritted teeth grimace she has, thinking, "I don't know how long I can go on working like this." <br>

@Barry - I like the capture of the stance of the girl on the right, showing that she's with her friend but obviously also waiting for someone (who's probably in the restroom), but otherwise I'm afraid this one doesn't do very much for me. I think it's because their faces lack expression, which obviously isn't helped by the fact that they're wearing sunglasses.<br>

Here goes...</p>

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<p>thanx David, did you notice the one on the left appears to be holding the flag pole?</p>

<p>I did, but it didn't feel as though that was the intention of the composition as your eyes are drawn away from it as you follow the girls' gazes. If girl-on-right had been looking at something in girl-on-left's hands (or even just at her) and the whole flag had been in the picture, then I feel it would have made a stronger image.<br>

So many IFs though... ;-)</p>

<p>Cool, thanx David.</p>

<p>@ Barry F... Not a crop - long lens. Umbrella's eh? This from apartment at street below.<br>

@ David T... cute shot. Obviously relaxed. I might have cropped as tight on the circle as possible for more focus on boy. MHO only.<br>

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3072/3066902806_32d3553c19_b.jpg" alt="" width="1228" height="984" /></p>

<p>I'll try to do some catching up here:<br>

Looks like no one did David's picture: I love the vignetting of the circle, great colors, nice capture of the kid with the (?beer) bottle. I would have lowered the perspective a little, getting more of the roof and less of the ground.<br>

Steve's: nice perspective, just the right framing. This would almost work better in B&W, in color a bit more saturation of the blue of the coat and maroon of the umbrella would help.<br>

Just an idea--if everyone also posted the images to their galleries, further detailed discussion could take place there.</p>

<p>Here's mine:<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/10506050-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="680" /></p>

<p>I like the subject matter and the gritty, dusty B & W documentary look. For me (and I'm a newbie at all this), there seems to be a lot of street to the left that doesn't add to the message. I would have liked to see more of the shadow from the man's bicycle and if you could have shot slightly more to the right and slightly lower (but leaving some distance in the background for context) to isolate the man and his hapless beasts--maybe that would have emphasized him more as the central figure. Makes me wonder about those poor animals and where they ended up a few hours later! Here's mine...I have a thick skin and want to learn, so please lay it on!</p>

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<p>I like Daniel's color palatte vary much -- the muted grays, browns, and flesh colors. Remindes me of some contemporary paintings. (This is picky, but I think the black border takes away from the photo.) Quite a curious moment also, with the women so obviously engaged with each other, and the strange figure between them. Odd that they are wearing warm clothing and he is shirtless. The strong vertical line is nice, too. Over all, I find this a compelling picture.</p>