River Street Festival (street)

[BCampbell]

I've been practicing my street photography lately, we have a lot of outdoor festivals and fairs in my area which gives me good opportunities for busy crowd shots. I like street photos that have many small details so it may be better to look at this larger. Any feedback is appreciated. edit: did not include gear or exif info because I don't find it particularly relevant, it's on flickr though.

[MrJones]

I'll be harsh, what is this a picture of? is it the mom shouting at the kids? the mom taking care of the stroller or the young girl's butt?
you've got too much going on here, nothing seems to stand out and be the center of the photograph.
and here is your EXIF data (found on the flicker page for the picture under actions):
Camera Canon EOS 5D
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/11.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 100

why are you shooting at f/11? this is the reason everything is sharp and nothing stands out. if you shot with a lower aperture value of let's say, f/4 or f/2.8 - the DOF will be shallow, the focus will be on your subject and not in everything in the picture will be sharp and clear.

again, sorry if I'm too harsh but I do believe you learn the best this way.

[BCampbell]

Thanks for the pointed questions. I'll take them one by one:

"what is this a picture of?"
It's a picture of the scene that was in front of me. I saw the baby in the center's expression and gesture first, and as I got closer the rest of elements fell into place. So yes, it is about the baby, it's also about the mom and the woman yelling and the pink outfit/purse. Like I said, I like photos with many details, so I try to shoot a scene that has more than one thing going on (at least, sometimes I do, this was one time).

"you've got too much going on here, nothing seems to stand out and be the center of the photograph"
Well, yes, that's kind of the point, as I said. I want the viewer's eye to move around and I want to show that this was a busy scene with more than one thing happening at once.

"why are you shooting at f/11?"
A few reasons. One, I'm using flash and 1/200th is the max sync speed without using high speed sync. So I set Tv to 1/200th, and at ISO 100 aperture was f/11. That's only the technical reason though, I did want a narrow aperture because I do want "everything" in focus. Again I'm trying to show a busy scene, and I want you to be able to make out the guy smoking in the background for example. Yes I could blur things out but I don't want to strip out that context. "the focus will be on your subject", sure, but I don't only have a single subject, I think that would be boring. Third, I'm trying to show the scene as it looks, and our eyes don't work that way; when you look around, do things further away look out of focus to you?

"sorry if I'm too harsh but I do believe you learn the best this way."
I appreciate the effort, but I'll be a little harsh back. This is an attenpt at street photography, and it doesn't sound like you understand the genre. So, thanks for the comments, but they don't really address the issues I'm looking for.

[fais54]

I don't know much about street photography, but from my understanding of it, I think I can say you've got yourself an interesting picture here. Everyone differently has personality and it's interesting to look at, but the only thing I dislike is the girl in the pink. The fact that she's closer than everyone else and her position throws it off a bit for me. I understand that this wasn't a planned picture, but that is the only thing that I don't really like.

[sk66]

IMO the problem is that the purple outfit lady dominates the scene and draws the eye. For a "busy feel" where you want the eye to move about a lot, everything needs to have a relatively even weight.

Generally, with street photography you want an intimate connection with *a subject* even in a busy scene. I don't get that here although it's "better" viewed larger.

[BCampbell]

OK, thanks for the input.