On the street in Minsk, Belarus

[PrevailingConditions]

I don't do much "street shooting" so I'm hoping to get some feedback here. I caught this between the office and hotel on a typical gray, cloudy day. Is there anything here? What could improve it? C&C cheerfully accepted.

Thanks,

PC



Here's the larger size

[MB1]

At the size we see here the woman is too small a part of the entire image. Might be different with a much larger version.

Cropping from either the top or bottom of this image will really change the feel in different ways both good and bad but it would make the woman the main focus. Right now I think this is more of a pix of a town rather than of a woman walking in nasty weather.

[AgingEyes]

It's a street photo all right. At this point, how you want to crop it depends on what you want to tell. But then, isn't that true for all other type of photos, too? :-)

As a pic of a street, it's OK I think.

I would consider cropping the bottom a bit.

[Frog]

The only problem I see is the woman centered horizontally but if you crop much bottom it loses the feel. I think it does portray a dismal gray day quite well.

[PrevailingConditions]

MB, AgingEyes, and Frog,

Thanks for commenting. I can see where the shot would be better if the lady were more prominent, but I'm always hesitant to get too intrusive on someone walking down the street. I guess I have to get over that if I want to do more street shooting (or do things from further away with a long lens). How do you street shooters address this?

PC

[GB1]

I agree that the woman is probably too small in the frame. She is the center of attention here, as your focus denotes. I think I would crop in and also remove some of the wet sidewalk foreground, which is OK but (let's face it) doesn't add anything to the shot.

Overall PC, I feel it's a successful image.

[AgingEyes]

[snip] but I'm always hesitant to get too intrusive on someone walking down the street. I guess I have to get over that if I want to do more street shooting (or do things from further away with a long lens). How do you street shooters address this?

PC

Sometimes, you may find nobody actually pays attention to you for whatever reason. Perhaps you could start shooting like you're shooting something else before your target comes into your sight. Then when the time is right, press the shutter. Your target might even think he/she gets into your way and apologize to you, too ;-) Or they just keep walking by. I like to use wide angle, 24mm (135 equivalent) to be exact ( that's the only wide angle I had) for its wide coverage and depth of field. Your target could be in your photo without knowing about it even if he/she's close by, relatively speaking.

Then of course, you want to pick your target. I know a guy got into a fight shooting in the street. He was probably targeted anyhow. No serious injury but camera was toasted.

I'm sure there're other ways to do it (like some prefer tele for street photos).

[PrevailingConditions]

AgingEyes,

Thanks for the feedback. I imagine that it comes with time and practice.

One additional wrinkle in this situation was that I was told a number of times that I wasn't supposed to take pictures in certain areas and I was a little paranoid about that too. I guess the spirit of the Soviet Union lives on with certain people. I didn't really run into that, but it's what I was told by my hosts.

PC