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Little Take-Aways From My Virtual Street Photography Workshop

 

Be discriminating when you shoot reflections.

I laughed when Vineet said he had seen every manner of reflection possible. I have seen a lot of what I call “walking through” photos during my time as an Inspired Street Photography Admin. I understood completely what he was saying. The coded message I took from it was that you have to be careful that the reflection photo you are taking is not trite. I hear you, Vineet. But if you do take these kinds of photos, stop your exposure down 1/2 stop. That actually makes complete sense. I have known for a long time that you get better reflections on backgrounds that are dark. It just did not occur to me that I could influence that by exposure.

The photo below, that I took in 2017, is my go-to example of how different a reflection appears against a dark and a light background.

You are good enough that you do not have to use a shallow depth of field.

Gosh, I don’t want to start a street photography war with this one. I do understand what Vineet was saying to one of the workshop members who is clearly good enough to not need shallow depth of field to manage the backgrounds. To use a kind of a coarse analogy, put on your big girl pants and shoot f/11-f/13, or in my case, with a small sensor, f/8-f/11. Be the photographer you need to be to manage the background. We are street photographers, for heavens sake.

Big black trash cans are tacky.

And, yet, this picture got through the review. The black car helps balance the black trash can.

White spaces of any kind are distracting, so beware a strip of light sky at the top of your image. Cell phones are cliche. Look at it as a challenge. Find pictures to take that do not include cell phones.

Don’t leave holes that have no interest.

This flawed photo is not one I will ever submit to Vineet. It speaks to photographer error that I mention in the next paragraph. Notice there is space on the left side but not on the right side. There is a white eye snag with the man’s shirt on the right side. There is a hole, a chasm really, of no interest in the center of the picture. What I did find interesting was the repetition of the Predator’s hockey team theme in the shirts and the sign.  People going in a common direction also adds interest.

I am glad I did not delete the picture because I see an opportunity for juxtaposition. I will work on that on another game day of the Predator’s.

Crop so that you eliminate the impression of photographer error.

This is not a small issue. I notice that I see a number of off-putting crops that leave more space at the edge of the frame on one side than on the other side, including in my own pictures.

This is the original picture that I took. There is plenty of photographer error, which is a pity.

I cropped once. The spacing on the right and left side was still different. I cropped again. Which crop do you like best?

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