C+C street photography picture

S.W.Keegan

Any comments and tips welcome, I like the composition of this pic but I'm also a bit new to editing software so any tips welcome. I was thinking of cropping out the front row as they might be an unnecessary distraction?


Street Performance Festival by Sean Keegan, on Flickr

dazftw

I don't usually like cropping but I reckon you're right with cropping out the people in the foreground. It's not so much a distraction, its just you only have a small portion of them in the frame! A wee bit more and it would have added to the composition.

leche solara

Cutting them all out will cut a bit off the street performer's wheel

dazftw

leche solara wrote: »

Cutting them all out will cut a bit off the street performer's wheel

Not if he cuts out the guy on the right, start just to the left of his head.

pullandbang

Personally I'd leave the people in front - adds some foreground interest and perspective. I would however cut out loads of that blown out sky. It adds nothing to the shot.

S.W.Keegan

Thanks for the tips folks. Yeah i was thinking of cutting from the guy on the right foreground though i'll lose the carousel... Yeah there's a bit too much sky i think i'll crop from the top of the tree on the left. Thanks everyone!

AnCatDubh

Health warning - all the following is purely IMHO - take anything you can from it and throw the rest of my opinion in the dumpster

I think it can be very difficult to post process some images. Where it works you need to previsualise the end product knowing the limitations of post processing (or indeed your own abilities to post process). This is why you'll hear a volley of opinion in favour of getting it right in camera which stacks up against the volley of opinion which says you can do anything after the event in post processing. The answer here depends on the individuals skills, tools and abilities.

For this to have been a great shot - at least of a kind, you'd have needed to get yourself into the front and then decide what view point you wanted - i'd recommend to drop low shooting upwards including the road to give some of the foreground context. It will distort the image a little but in doing so should add some drama.

The other thing (and this depends on what you are trying to achieve with the shot so i could be very much out of order here) is that there is no emotion conveyed through the image. It's detached. The guy eh, on the bikey thingy, is facing away at least that all you are seeing is the back of his head. Does that make it interesting ? imho, no given that he appears to have been the object and subject of your composition.

If on the other hand, the gazing faces / crowd / audience were the subject then the shot hasn't worked imho - in that there is no engagement of the image with the subject. So either ways again imho, you need to get closer in your composition to the subject whether that is the biker or the crowd, and consider what engagement the subject has with your composition and resulting image. You may need to move your perspective entirely to achieve this.


The sky is your enemy here too as mentioned by previous contributors.

I can't get any atmosphere from the image - no movement, excitement, comedic performance, character, happiness, boredom, or well anything.

So overall, it hasn't hit too many marks for me i'm afraid.

On the positive side, the lines of the buildings in the background left and right make a nice leading eyeline for the viewer. This brings the viewer to a place. As the photographer you need to capitalise on this thinking, the viewer is going to be here so what are you going to have there for them to see - all within the limitations of the physicals of the scene.

All that said, with photography - if its captured something for you of the day, of the atmosphere, of the spirit, that YOU experienced - then, it probably is a successful image in its own right.

peckerhead

Agree with ACD (posts crossed). For once, I'd go for a tight enough crop, maybe even a square print to emphasise those converging diagonal lines.


It's a pity you couldn't get a bit closer, and maybe a foot or two to the left so you could see the Pepper Canister church, instead of it being partly obscured by the unicyclist.

S.W.Keegan

Thanks ACD that post helped a lot. I'm still new to photography so any and all help is appreciated.

Yeah my initial idea was to try get the performer framed nicely between the row of houses while getting the crowd to create a kind of frame around him. He was moving around a lot so it was difficult though Maybe I was just trying to get too much in!

I posted this pic looking for c+c cause i thought there was a nice idea somewhere in this pic and because I'm still a newbie I thought a pair of fresh (and more experienced) eyes would help!

schlaps

I would agree with most of the comments above,

I would frame it slightly different, more vertical to remove club orange thingy and also put emphasis on the unicycle.Untitled.jpg

Also if you were to kneel down or take it from a slightly lower perspective, you could get the heads in the foreground, without the uninteresting tarmac.

Would have liked to have seen the unicyclist's face, back of heads are never memorible