Hi Dave,

Thanks for this fantastic street candid. Great mood, expressions, gesture caught at the peak of action. I can feel that guy's gaze. Technically, the tone is a bit "down"--no clean whites make it feel heavy, although as a monotone it's a good way to camouflage drab overcast lighting (don't know if that's what you had, just speaking from experience). I think this image marks the occasion perfectly.

Excellent!!!!

Very nice indeed. Can we see it in B&W rather than sepia? Also, a tiny bit tighter cropping may lessen the distraction from the back (?) of the character behind the man on the right.

It is a little bit dificult for me to get portraits . This one's good and I see it in B & W not sepia . I just wanted to thank you for yesterday's lesson :)

Really great shot. The DOF combined with the compostion/subjects makes this shot work for me. Well done!

very interesting faces! The guy on the left has quite an imposing presence.

I know you want to hear some negative comments (at least from time to time, I suppose), but with this picture I can just say: why haven't I taken it. Only one little remark: as you will know by now I am sensible for details. There are two little things I would have tried to do different: the first is the medaillon of the smoking person wich is too bright for me; I would have tried to darken in some way. The second and more important is the very light gray spot under the finger of the same person: I think that this one is asking too much the attention. But that's really all.

Did you talk to them before taking the shot?
How far away were you?

opa: I agree, but I'm too tired to edit it again tonight ;-)

m: yes, I spoke to them first, then took the shots from about 12 feet away.

Great- I love this, the black and white suits it perfectly. Do people like the man up front find it odd when you take photographs of them? Would you mind giving me a few tips about it, like do you start up a conversation with them or... what not? Just curious and it might be helpful to me in later years.

Thanks.

Chelsea: I don't know if they find it odd but everybody I've asked recently has been fine about it. Some have asked why I'm taking their photograph, or what it will be used for, but all of them have been ok about it. Last summer some of the people I asked said no, but it's no big deal. Just ask them :-)

Very cool candid camera. Nicely blurred background. Nice timing... "in the moment"

the lines and light of the man smoking directly draw my eye's attention, and the fact he is out of focus is rather opposite to the visual layout of the photo.

i love short depth of field use, and if you try covering the right-most half of the smoking man, (his hand and cigarette mainly) then the detail of the thoughtful man's face is not lost by the distracting blur.

the composition is a good one, i feel that the depth of field takes away from the composition in this case. i really love this quality of black and white. you have me itching to get my hands on a digital-slr.

Dave: Great candid. The guy's expression and the smoker in the background really make the image. I was wondering: Did you talk to this guy, explain what you were doing? Or just shoot and move on? He looks like someone who you might not want to piss off. :-)

While I love your landscapes, I am truly impressed by your portraits. They are always so expressive and interesting and candid, three criteria I think are tough to meet when shooting random people in the street. Very very well done.

David, fabulous shot. I was curious to know if you could (only if time allows) put some sort of "tutorial" up to show us your post-processing methods for different types of images: black and white (such as this), colour, etc.

I'm intrigued, while we've discussed your methods previously, to see a more in depth view on what you do. Thanks!

they look like brothers. impressive portraits. great expressions.

Pictures of people are my favorite. I noticed that you take a lot of them. Do you usually ask permission first? You should write a little bit about your methods for us. Nice picture, and nice site. Simple; I like that.

I continue to enjoy your photography, David. Don't have enough expertise to be critical of your shots. Thanks for sharing them!

The bw is great here. Just right fot this subject. The composition is really good with the LH man " paying attention" to you. My worry is a bout the other guy Given that they are both paying attention to you might it have been better to move the DOF to include the other guy? Or is that possible with the long lens?

beautiful!

Hi Dave

The comment earlier by opa is very valid and I guess that is what you are looking for and will help us all take better photos.

Putting my designer head on for a minute, the entry into the photo is great classic position of main subject large in the frame with eyes and nose placed in a position which fits with the golden section. What opa is saying is that the medallion and the grey spot is just is sending the photo out of balance (asymetrical dynamic balance that is) because once the eye has navigated the main subject the second guy is spoilt by the glare off that medallion. (it's not the medallion itself or the position of it, just the fact that it is glaring)

Just stick the finger tips of your hand over the offending bits and see how that guys expression pops out and he instantly becomes more unified with the picture.

Anyway thats my take on it, but as always I often don't have the time to consider all the fine details in my pictures and I suppose therein lies the problem. Perfection sometimes has to take a back seat.

So if you get chance dave could you post this again just to test opa's and my theory.

John

I've been reading the comments over the last few days with interest and I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this but...

'A typical chromasia type shot' should be whatever you want to post. I think it would be a shame if you conciously or subconciously changed or restricted your shooting style to suite the perceived taste of your audience. Remember that people leave comments on photoblogs for lots of different reasons. Some want their daily fix of eye-candy, some want to feel part of the photoblog community and contribute, some want to just say thank you, and some (dare I say it) just want a free link to their own photoblog.

Keep shooting and keep exploring.

Dave,

The left guy keeps staring at me. I love this picture looks so alive.

very nice, david. good bw conversion as well.

Nice photo. The peoples are interest. Very interest. :D

~and the street photography keeps coming (!!!)...str8 b&w works well here, the tones are appealing and the detail on the subject to the left of center is very nice...I am not too keen on the comp. as such though, the bg and the man to the right just seem out of place and distracting IMO...and shots of just the subject right of center, he is defintely the COI in the frame, or at least from my perspective as a viewer...~

More of this Dave, this is a great shot.

Is this a father and son picture?

I think that this shot is absolutley lovely. I wish that I was brave enough to start photographing people. Superb!

Your exif states f 5.6 - did you do lens blur in PS? I noticed on some other of your photos to have blurry backgrounds without going down to 3.2 or less.
Do you post process?

Thanks everyone.

bob: yes, I spoke to both of them beforehand.

Nick: for some time I've been thinking that I need to put up some general post-processing notes or a FAQ, but at the moment I don't have time. It's on my list of different things to do.

peterv: yes, I could probably have got them both in focus if I'd shot at 70mm rather than 200.

robin: your point is a good one, and I agree that I should post what I want to. What I meant though is that I was looking for something that used to be what could be called a 'chromasia type shot' - hypersaturated, clean, graphic. But having read your comment I've realised that I haven't posted anything like that in quite some time so I can see why you might have thought I meant something else.

Beth: most of the time, if you ask people, they'll say yes. And if they don't it's no big deal and they probably won't be offended.

Tibby: at 200mm there's not much DoF at f/5.6, and I don't use lens blur. To be honest, I've not tried it. Typically I work in 16bit mode and lens blur only works on 8bit images so I haven't used it.

Just wanted to tell you that this inspired me to go out and photograph strangers, and while it was a real challenge to walk up to people on the street and ask for photographs, it is so very worth it.

And about the photo, I think it's a great capture. It looks relaxed and natural, and I really like the shallow DOF. The guy with the cigarette makes a lively background element and adds narrative as well.

gah. am insanely jelous!