Some candid shots from Brighton

[wildman]

Was in Brighton for a over the weekend. Weather wasn't great so didn't fancy braving the pier and sea front. Had my camera while walking around the town and took a few, best results are below

1. One boy and his dog

2. Sailor Boys

3. On the bench

4. Togs in the wild ?

5. Survey Monkey's

6. Brushing your hair

7. Sitting in the sun

 

[wildman]

Number 2 is win.

2 were fun. they clocked me and then gave me a pose.

This has minimal PP as generally I don't keep the forced pose shots as I like the candid style better. But these guys were actually fun and I think rather mullered at the time.

 

[wildman]

I'm not a fan of these 'street' or 'random stranger' photos that folk seem to be into lately.

pointless post is pointless ?

why bother coming in when thread clearly states they are candid. That's like asking someone to punch you in the balls and then complaining afterwards that it hurt. If you don't like them then don't bother posting or looking rather than just putting a +1 drivel post in. its quite simple really.............

 

[wildman]

it is very off putting. - OP, please don't ruin your photos with gimmicky Photoshop plugins.

Will try o give some proper feedback after a meeting, but to summarise:

Be very careful with composition, most of the photos are lacking here. #3 has so much more potential but the composition is very boring.



Look for a story. You can't just go out on the street and take photographs of random people doing boring things. You need to create a piece of art such that the viewer is intrigued and thinking about the subject of the photo. It takes a long time to get even 1 good candid photo, don't expect to get a whole set after a single outing. Maybe set your sights on 1 good portfolio photo per month.

I guess its an attempt to try and create a shallow depth of field where the background was all very sharp, such as the first picture.

The OP did say he used minimal PP, but I think that is more than a minimal change.

Thanks for the feedback. I know my skills are lacking in street work which is why i osted here looking for some constructive analysis of where I am getting things wrong.

The weird motion blur thing is where I passed a radial blur filter across the background layer to try and create a more shallow DoF to bring the subject out more, but I think i did not do a very good job. The original photo's had too much of a sharp background as I think I stopped down too much on the aperture bringing to much into focus.

Lesson 1 learnt from this is to use wider aperture and try and get composition right in the camera rather than trying to make something out of a poor comp later in PP

 

[wildman]

You're cropping pretty tight for a lot of them too. How did you find going out and taking pictures of strangers?

The first few minutes / shots are still quite nerve racking as it feels like you are doing something wrong or illegal, but then you kind of just blend in and look like a tourist.

Its a part of photography I would like to get into more and actually do better at. Its gets mundane doing still life / landscapes after a while