one of my favourites in bangkok street series

[tyasa81]

Hi, as per title says... please tear it up and see if i've missed anything... no need to be shy... i can take hard critiques...

the idea is to take photographs of people in a foreign land in their context that i can immediately tell by looking at the photograph in 5-10 years time... an environmental portrait of strangers so to speak...

#1 - is composition ok? does the cut of part of the musical instrument detract overall?
#2 - how's the colour/exposure? did i miss any?
#3 - does this photo give sufficient story and/or impact or just another blah shot...

[S_Sanyal]

to take photographs of people in a foreign land in their context that i can immediately tell by looking at the photograph in 5-10 years time

Hello tyasa, I think the idea and approach is great and I really appreciate the initiative!
though the picture is nice-ish as it is, I have a few observations: perhaps you could ponder over them:

- i love the Camera-right child's expression as he's engrossed completely, Camera-left child's bemused expression and consciousness of the lens takes away a bit from the documentary or street-candid feel.

- while i like blurred backgrounds as much as the next guy, in the objective of your picture i.e. to show context, it doesn;t work for me, especially with your PoV in THIS frame; I'd consider the context and clarity on it paramount even though you say you're trying to photograph "people"(strangers)

- Composition wise: the black patch (Camera-top-left) distracts me from the very vibrant and nicely-busy background, throwing the photograph a bit off-balance.

THIS would be one case where a frontal shot might have been better, don't know if you've already returned from Bangkok, if you haven't or even for your forthcoming shots, try that, it may be interesting- because in the current frame the eye is led into a blurred background as your subjects are sitting bang in front. It would have definitely helped to include the complete instrument too!

Nothing of what I have said above relates to any "rules" per se, but relate to THIS particular photograph. I think I'd like to add one last tip that a magnum photographer I have lot of respect for, and had the fortune of meeting, shared with me very recently (I'll quote him):

"When we take pictures of people in the street, unless we have a very strong reason, there should be ground beneath their feet/ base , it literally works at grounding the picture / people in its context." something to think about, yes?

Hope this helps, thanks for reading the long lecture script. But as your intent is great, I think your photographs should be stronger!
Cheers

[tyasa81]

Thanx s sanyal.. A meaningful critique ive been looking for.. Thank u for writing it all.. And indeed theres lots of food for thought... I cant express how grateful i m other than i'll read it again and again.. Grounding ppl is something i've recently started doing and make an effort to do so with my little child.. It can be tiring to get down to such an extend but the pictures more often than not shows a definite improvement somehow.. I'll have to take todays lesson and reflect on that more.. Thank u..

And also to share a bit.. I read in a magazine.. Street shots you have to get close.. Then you'll get a response.. Whether its a disapproving glance or a smile, it'll always make a better connection than nothing at all.. I did get both a disapproving glance in this, and a smile in the other... Both are my favourites out of all the street shots.. Im on an ipad now and cant share the other pic.. So have to wait till next time..

[S_Sanyal]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, You're very welcome. I just thought since you can view even if not post
I'd illustrate my points through some of my own work..some of these had been put of for critique right here on DPS

- Candid w blur(railway station):
Calm in a rush | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Low point of view:
(Dog's view)
Dog's world | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Shallow:
(subject aware)
A longing for home | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Frontal candid:
(Cheap Student joint)
Great food at Ratan palli | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

None of these examples I feel are technically perfect or anything of that sort (I'm still learning, some are film, some digital), but attempt to capture the spirit of the place (genius loci) which is what it seems you're trying to do...in this regard, you'll note that I've broken some of the very guidelines I gave you, which I'm illustrating to merely prove that there's no hard and fast rule about grounding or candids, as long as you capture what you want -the essence and capture it for impact or remembrance!

[tyasa81]

Hi S Sanyal, i remember the "longing for home" picture here... i think that's a very powerful pict... and i do get what you mean there's no hard and fast rule... i'm not going to suddenly shoot all grounded pict at f11 to show all the locations in all it's sharp and distracting glory... i mean, in some respect, once you've been to a place, and taken a photograph there, you can make sense of those blurry objects... hehe.. plus we have to have an artistic leeway... otherwise the photos aren't worth looking at in 5-10 years

it's just what you've given above is some food for thought to use in some situations... which is most of the reason why i asked for critique in the first place... i'm not in bangkok anymore and might not be for quite a while yet... so most of the advice i wish to take from critiques is having a discussion of sort on what to do for next time most probably in a different city and location... most of the times i dont get that kind of discussion with 1 picture, so i post lots of pict for critiques hoping to find some semblance among the many inputs on various picts... what you did here is much more than my expectation... and i thank you very much for it

anyway, here's my most favourite pict... it might be that the lady in the picture is pretty, but her smile, grace and talent with the instrument and obviously friendliness in welcoming us tourist when asked for a picture with a simple nod and smile pretty much sums up most of the feelings i felt being a tourist there in that country (except dealing with the taxi drivers)... but otherwise a very enjoyable trip with friendly people in a colorful city...

[S_Sanyal]

This one's fantastic! And a beautiful woman too
And yes, somehow although subtly, the mat she's sitting on does add to the overall composition of elements.
Great going and all the best!

[kristenh]

Hi, Tony. regarding the first picture, would you consider just cropping the boy to the left out entirely and making it a vertical shot of the very beautiful, very engrossed little boy. i think this pic and the one below suffer b/c of their complicated backgrounds (although i was quite impressed, on the first one, that you chose the exact correct dof to get the boys in focus and the background blurry). i had neverheard s sanyal's advice about grounding before, but i will certainly keep that in mind myself. regarding the lower picture, i would crop that one too (i'm a cropper) right at the far left end of her instrument, omitting the little statue. in my view, your eye gets confused if there are too many things to look at. also, the face of the woman down below looks underexposed to me, no doubt b/c of the very light background. but both are certainly very nicely executed, clear, crisp, and the colors are beautiful. it must have been a great trip.

[tyasa81]

hi kristen... thank you for your critique... as for the first picture, i dont think i can crop it like that... if i look at it carefully, i think the "sticks" he uses to play is sharper than his face... the dof loss is gradual and normally it's not noticed because the left boy is sharp and then the eye travel to the other boy which is less sharp but sharp enough... if it's just the right boy, i think the misfocus will be too apparent...

the second picture critique... now that you said it, yes i think the woman might be underexposed a little... i'll play with the crop and see if it's better... thanx kristen