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Islandcrow · November 8, 2011

So, the whole street photography thing is a bit new, but also exciting for me. I've always found pictures of people far more interesting when it's a portrayal of their day to day lives. Please feel free to give me your thoughts.

bfjr · November 8, 2011

It's a fine start.
I would like it in B&W and a crop to loose the two white balls/lights in background.

Islandcrow · November 9, 2011

Yeah, I know most of you guys are definitely partial to B&W for street photography. Not sure if I always agree, though in this case, that was actually my first thought, but I ended up not liking it as much. I just feel the colors work well in this one, but I'm certainly open to other points of view, so here you go. . .

RSL · November 9, 2011

Crow, The problem with the color version is the girl's brigt knees. They're the brightest point in the picture, and her shorts are almost the complement of her legs, which emphasizes the knees, so your eye jumps to them immediately. That's not where you want the viewer's eye to jump. The focal point is the girl's pointing finger and the device she's pointing toward. In the B&W version your eye jumps first to the girl's white shirt, since that's the brightest point, but it immediately moves down to the focal point. From there, there's a very nice diagonal made by the gaze of the guy leaning over her that takes your eye up to his face. The two people make a pleasing triangle that's enhanced by the fairly shallow depth of field. Most of this is lost in the color version because of the distribution of colors. For the most part composition in street photography is about masses, lines and angles. As Cartier-Bresson pointed out long ago, you can't get away from the inflexible rules of color relationships whether you're painting or photographing. B&W takes you away from those problems.

I should have added: It's a very good shot. So here. It's added. Good shooting.

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