A young girl in the U-Bahn

Young girl

in the U-Bahn

 

Here you have one of my attempts to do street photography, showing,

in the same image, the place and the people. Now is your turn. What

is your opinion about?

 

I do appreciate your opinions.

It really bothers me that the girl is blurry and somewhat out of focus. what is the story you are trying to tell here. Kevin

I found this shot different but boring. What is the point exactly? Why the blurry girl? Why this composition? Also, poor use of such a wonderful film. The shot has a yellow cast and poor contrast. I think you're heading in the right direction in trying to be different and original just try to do it with more purpose in mind first than just a "shoot from the hip" concept. And if you use NPH work on getting a better scan or better lab to do your developing, or use a filter if the yellow was caused by the lighting. Might have been better in black & white (?) Much street photography is.

I had some more fun with the shot. Hope you don't mind!

Of course I don't mind!

 

Kevin, I had two subjects: the girl and the Underground station. I wanted the two because the "Alexanderplatz" alone is boring, but I didn't want to focus on the girl. For me she was only the 'average berliner' who gives you the impression of Berliner youth, so, I focussed on the name of the station.

 

And, Rich, about the colour, when I visit one city I decide which way is the best (for me) to capture the mood of the city. When I visited Lisbon I 'saw' that my pictures had to be in black and white; when I was in Berlin, I 'saw' that I needed colour film. Perhaps the colours are not pleasant for you, but it was the way and the tonality I saw in the scene and I happy with them.

 

This said, I appreciate a lot your comments and encourage you to add more opinions about this photo if you like or criticize other Berlin photos here:

 

Berliner photos

 

Thank you a lot.

 

 

I like your idea of presenting the girl as an average berliner'. Unfortunately in this picture every time I try to focus on the name plate my peripheral vision draws me back to the unfocused girl. First of all, this makes the picture seem like two pictures. Secondly, this gives the impression of an unintentionally out of focus picture. Maybe moving behind the girl, bringing both subjects closer to each other would have allowed my eyes to see the whole picture at once.

I love Berlin.

Personally, to get the blur effect I would have relied on a long exposure with motion blur rather than the unfocused approach, because the unfocused girl is begging to be cropped out. It disturbes me and makes me want to reach for a Berliner Kindl. But therin is the art, I suppose.

Frankly, I like the way the composition and light draws my eye to the blurry girl... to me it communicates intention, not an unintentional mistake.

 

However if I were from Berlin I might be slightly offended at the portrayal of people from Berlin as faceless. :-)

 

Whether you like it or not, the girl is the subject. She is clearly in the foreground and much more dominant than the sign. The station name on a metro platform doesn't work as a primary or co-primary subject. The girl should have been in focus and not falling out of the edge of the frame. However, if you thought the sign *and* the girl were boring, why did you bother to press the shutter? Street photography, like any form of photography, must be well thought out and not just a random press of the shutter.

Why in the world does the girl being the subject of the shot mandate that she be in focus? If she were nice and sharp the photo would just be another ordinary snapshot of a person. As it is it's saying "Look at this subject. She's blurry." I think that's a far more interesting thing to do.

 

Barry,

 

for me, the girl is not the subject of the photo, as I stated previously. As you point out, she is "falling out of the edge of the frame" and not in focus. The sign is in the other side, in focus and closer to the centre of the image that the girl. For me the subject is the station, with the sign, the puzzle-styled wall and the girl. I didn't think that the sign and the girl were boring, so I pressed the shutter. Let me say that I thought out the image, I composed looking throught the viewfinder and I decided to focus on the sign and the wall, letting the girl consciously "blurred". I know you disagree with my decision, but it was not a "random press of the shutter" at all.

 

I am sorry you don't like the image but I still do. And think of the good implications of the "blurred" face: I don't have to have model releases (just joking).

 

Thank you again for your comments.

I like the photo. The idea with leaving what everybody takes for main subject out of focus is one worth having. I'd only like to object to not having the girl as a whole in the frame. The way it is now, it just seems like the girl happened to unintentionally walk into the frame, and you happened to unintentionally press the shutter release.
- "Och, Verzeihung"
- "Macht nichts. Und jetzt gehen sie bitte gütigst aus dem Kader raus."
If she was to be seen as a whole, I would have thought anything type of: "Aha, she's the main subject, but she's blurred - the photographer wants to tell me the city/location interests him more than some nobody - or does he want to say that individuals lose their individuality in a big city?"... And so on. Here, I wasn't so sure about it.
If you care about an advice: if you do anything that looks like technically bad photography (out of focus, under- or overexposed, blurred), make sure everybody can tell right away that it's intentional, and not possibly think you can't operate your camera or the camera is broken down - which most of non-photographer casual point-and-shooters will do. As an example: a former girlfriend of mine wouldn't believe me my russian Zenit SLR at the price of 90 Euro is photographically superior to her 300 Euro-automatic-zoom-gadgety point and shoot, so we took photos of the same motive, a tree in front of a dense foliage of bushes. As the prints came out she triumphantly said: "Look! There you have it! Mine's sharp overall, and the background on your photo's all blurred." Now, you might expect your public to know about depth of field and using it to emphasise something, but the mechanisms of viewing are always the same, and the first impression is very important. My first impression is described by the above imaginative dialogue.

Maybe the whole subject would benefit of B/W instead of colour film as the former would stress the wall pattern. Nice shot anyway.

I liked the photo on b/w as richard's done... IMHO I don't need to see the model pure... I am looking at the wall... the texture... somehow, I find this shot different and good for my eye... keep it up Oscar.

The subject of the photo is the wall. The woman enhances the photo by creating the space between her and the sign - the space that includes the hypnotic pattern. No, the colors are not beautiful - neither are they distracting - they are subtle and they work in this context. Where this my shot, I likely would have choosen B&W to emphasise the wall pattern.

Perhaps the girl is meant to be seen as a traveler and that is why she is not sharp, she is on the move. I like the shot, I also like Berlin. Jim