Streetwalker

Tim Kamppinen

...but not that kind. My normal thing is portraits and weddings but this shot presented itself so I took it. I was actually coming home from shooting a basketball game homecoming dance at the local high school, when I saw this person walking down the sidewalk. I drove down a few blocks to a good position and took this photo out of the window of my car. I'd love to get some feedback on it:

Qarik

nice moody shot..well processed. I will be frank because I know you can take it Tim, it's on the lower rung of the good ladder.

Richard

I like the mood, too--a solitary figure in the cold and snow. There a couple of problems for me. I think silhouettes work best with very crisp edges, but the glare obscures the right shoulder and arm. Maybe you could fix this, dunno. The other thing is that I think you should have been somewhat closer. A certain amount of distance is probably a good idea to render the feeling, but I think the subject is too small here to carry the weight of the shot.

Tim Kamppinen

Richard wrote: »

I like the mood, too--a solitary figure in the cold and snow. There a couple of problems for me. I think silhouettes work best with very crisp edges, but the glare obscures the right shoulder and arm. Maybe you could fix this, dunno. The other thing is that I think you should have been somewhat closer. A certain amount of distance is probably a good idea to render the feeling, but I think the subject is too small here to carry the weight of the shot.

Hmm, I had other shots with no flare, but I chose this one intentionally... I guess I liked the "walking into the light" look that it made. As for the distance, I agree, closer would have been better... this is actually cropped significantly as it is, and I was shooting at 200 on a crop sensor to begin with. I do like the compression though... I don't know, I think either really close (so I could shoot wide and still have the subject be fairly large in the frame and exaggerate the perspective) or just a bit closer so I wouldn't have had to crop it at all would have been best. I'm not sure shooting it at, say 50mm would have been an improvement. But then again, I don't know that much about street photography to begin with.

Qarik

I just noticed..it appears crooked too.

Richard

There's no magic focal length. In this one, probably just a bit closer would have been fine with the lens you were using. I don't think there's a tilt problem here. The verticals are somewhat inconsistent--the buildings are straight but the street sign and iron around the trees are slanted. There's nothing you can do about that--if you correct for some, the others will be out of whack. The flare is just a matter of taste, I suppose, so if this is your favorite, then stick with it.

damonff

I like this a lot Tim. The myriad tones as well as the white sign (that kind of looks like a tilted square, well, it is) make for a well lit, geometric shot. I also love the flare coming from the side of the body. I think this is well done.

fmrnykr

I like the shot a lot. Yes, there are some things that could be done better, but this is not the type of shot where you can ask/tell the subject what to do.

Job well done under the circumstances.