street photography

[Tito87]

Originally Posted by ccting

For me, photography is more for rich people..to spend their time..You need so many expensive equipments...

I am all for freedom of expression and liberty, but come on! You're just confusing people. And I'm not just talking about this post-- I've been reading your ramblings for a while. This was just the straw that broke the camel's back! You can take a good picture with a P&S, if you know what you're doing People come here to learn or to share what they know. If you want to do either one, that's fine. Otherwise, shut up and go learn how to use the D5100

[ShaneH]

Originally Posted by graciousness

Wait, your ISO is 64?? Am I missing something?

Technically, I think you need a lot more exposure on your subject. I would normally suggest fill flash, however, I don't think it would be appropriate here so I suggest increasing your ISO. I don't know why your ISO is at 64- I really don't understand how your Exif (even on flickr) could pull that number, but I would have started at ISO 400 with this photo, being you are trying to expose for dark skin. Also, this photo is underexposed as it is, anyway, so yeah, I think 400 would have been a good starting point.

What's your shutter speed on this? Faster shutter speed, at around f/125 would have been a good starting point for this type of shot, too, to avoid motion blur.

graciousness- The ISO range is from 64 to 6400. Although at the higher range it really does suck. :-) When taking picts I've always tried to keep it as low as possible. I really haven't enough about what to sent what to where. My technique so far has been to take a truckload of picts of something at all different ranges (ISO, and aperture) and see which ones I like best. I've recently started paying more attention to what things are set to.

I really appreciate all the feedback from everyone. Lately I've taken notice of the street photography of others and I felt that I was kind of getting into a rut with my pictures. I like taking shots of nature and closeups and abandoned buildings, but I thought I'd branch out. As of yesterday I was able to buy myself a true DSLR (Nikon D3100) and am really looking forward to getting my hands dirty with it. Although I still love my p&s. And if anyone has more critiques I'll gladly listen to the wise council of those more experienced than I.

[inkista]

One thing you may find with an SLR is that it's not great for street photography, being relatively large and conspicuous. A lot of street photographers prefer smaller cameras, such as P&S cameras, mirrorless compacts, or rangefinders, or cameras that don't have to be brought up to the face and can be composed with at waist-level, such as TLRs, or cameras with flip-out LCDs. A lot of street shooters learn to stop down and scale focus, and to shoot from the hip.

Cartier-Bresson used a Leica rangefinder. And I see on Flickr that David Solomons has just gotten himself a Fuji X100.

You may want to keep the Coolpix for this (and macro shooting) for a while.

[ccting]

Originally Posted by ShaneH

graciousness- The ISO range is from 64 to 6400. Although at the higher range it really does suck. :-) When taking picts I've always tried to keep it as low as possible.

My old point and shot camera has ISO 80. But the lowest ISO seems to have very poor performance. If i am not mistaken, If an iso lower than the standard ISO of your camera, the performance will be poorer. (ISOs that are rated as "low"). Sometimes the "low" ISO is not stated in the camera Manual.

I believe in what Gracious's statement - the balance of ISO and exposure. Who knows some noise are positive for the outcome!