Street Photography and the Ricoh GRD III

[Jorge Ledesma]

Hello Forum,

My name is Jorge and I've been a silent reader for a few months. After much discussion with this great digicam - GRD III. I scooped one up myself and started shooting. I've had several other small compacts - Canon S90 and Lumix LX3, but none have proved so useful in the streets. I'd love some positive criticism in post processing and the image itself. Glad to finally be here officially. Thanks

 

[claacct]

When you edit your photographs try to make your selection based on some criterion e.g. beauty, composition, lighting, subject interest, social commentary, something that is of interest and makes it worthwhile to look at the photo. "So what?" images are those that you look at and ask yourself so what? why should I look at this and why the photographers wants me to see this.

No matter what gear you use, if your images fail the so what factor, they fail as photographs, so next time you went out to take photos try to capture one of those points that i posted.

If street photography was easy, we'd all be shooting like HCB, but we're not. So just because someone points the camera and presses the shutter it does not mean the photograph is interesting, there has to be something more, any gorilla can go and shoot blindly with a camera, there might even be some lucky shots but its not going to work in the long term.

 

[silverbullet]

My trip to Cyprus with a Ricoh GRD3 was really fine. People had nothing against me even they were aware of the camera... ;-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36573929@N00/4279681334/in/set-72157623097883441/

but my Pen E-P2 is fine too....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36573929@N00/5023647528/in/set-72157625031362422

as claacct pointed out, a 'streetphotograph' should have a certain hook and should not demonstrate the capability to estimate the distances for hip-shots.... 🙂

 

[Jorge Ledesma]

When you edit your photographs try to make your selection based on some criterion e.g. beauty, composition, lighting, subject interest, social commentary, something that is of interest and makes it worthwhile to look at the photo. "So what?" images are those that you look at and ask yourself so what? why should I look at this and why the photographers wants me to see this.

Thanks very much, sage advice definitely, I will keep that thought very close to my shutter next time. "So What" it makes perfect sense. Thank you.

 

[Jorge Ledesma]

as claacct pointed out, a 'streetphotograph' should have a certain hook and should not demonstrate the capability to estimate the distances for hip-shots.

Excellent shots! thanks for the tip. Hook and So What are most definitely important but also very subjective.

I really like this shot of you http://www.flickr.com/photos/36573929@N00/5038607390/in/set-72157625031362422/ I think it captured the moment just right. Cheers

 

[nightfly]

I think with a wide lens like the 28mm on the GRD, you need more going on in the photos.

I see why you made each of these photos, but I don't think they have enough compelling things going on in them.

Of the 3 number 2 is the most interesting to me, but I think it might have been more successful if the shutter speed was slower and had a little motion blur. As it is, it looks a little frozen to me.

This is a personal thing, because I'm so used to shooting 35mm but I much prefer the 3:2 aspect ration to 4:3 for street photos. These feel a little too tall to me.

I just started using the GRD III for street photos myself and haven't quite gotten anything I love out of it yet, but it certainly has potential. It's not he cameras fault.

These two are as close as I've come:

 

[Jorge Ledesma]

I see why you made each of these photos, but I don't think they have enough compelling things going on in them.

Of the 3 number 2 is the most interesting to me, but I think it might have been more successful if the shutter speed was slower and had a little motion blur. As it is, it looks a little frozen to me.


I would say keep shooting, these feel like photos that are on the way to becoming something more compelling.

Thanks Nighfly, I really appreciate your candidness, #2 was also my favorite. I will most certainly try that tip with the slower shutter speed, its noted. Thanks again.

 

[v_roma]

This is very good advice. My own approach to the "so what?" question is to mentally replace the subjects with family members and friends and ask myself if the picture would still be interesting. That is, if the people in those photographs were your aunt, cousins, father, would you still find it interesting? This really helped me put things in perspective initially. I think particularly with street photography, we can get caught up in the thrill of taking pictures of strangers but that is obviously not what makes a street photograph good/interesting.

When you edit your photographs try to make your selection based on some criterion e.g. beauty, composition, lighting, subject interest, social commentary, something that is of interest and makes it worthwhile to look at the photo. "So what?" images are those that you look at and ask yourself so what? why should I look at this and why the photographers wants me to see this.

No matter what gear you use, if your images fail the so what factor, they fail as photographs, so next time you went out to take photos try to capture one of those points that i posted.

If street photography was easy, we'd all be shooting like HCB, but we're not. So just because someone points the camera and presses the shutter it does not mean the photograph is interesting, there has to be something more, any gorilla can go and shoot blindly with a camera, there might even be some lucky shots but its not going to work in the long term.

 

[Jorge Ledesma]

These two are as close as I've come:

I really like the 2nd one and I think it would work well monochrome, it has a certain surrealism to it that makes it very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jorge Ledesma]

This is very good advice.

Indeed, I've read a lot of books about photography and in particular the whole philosophy of the decisive moment but the simple "so what" encapsulates well the whole notion of something to say. I love the family member analogy here. I think for me the family members might make it less interesting to me just because of the fact that I have some a personal connection.

I think particularly with street photography, we can get caught up in the thrill of taking pictures of strangers but that is obviously not what makes a street photograph good/interesting.

You're so right. I think its very easy to caught up in the moment and be trigger happy. Not sure if its a rite of passage for new photographers(aficionados) or just naivete but its definitely something to keep in mind "shutter abuse" lol.

 

[nightfly]

With the purchase the camera I also bought Lightroom 3 which I'm still learning my way around. So far I can't really make anything black and white that satisfies me.

However over the weekend I took advantage of a Nik Soft sale and ordered a copy of SilverEfx which everyone seems to love so I'll give a shot when I get that.

I really like the 2nd one and I think it would work well monochrome, it has a certain surrealism to it that makes it very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jorge Ledesma]

With the purchase the camera I also bought Lightroom 3 which I'm still learning my way around. So far I can't really make anything black and white that satisfies me.

However over the weekend I took advantage of a Nik Soft sale and ordered a copy of SilverEfx which everyone seems to love so I'll give a shot when I get that.

Excellent choice, I have Lightroom 3 but I much prefer Aperture 3 and have consolidated my images in the latter. I find A3 so much easier to manage than LR. I initially struggled with LR but never seems to really get it but maybe its just me. I also checked out the Lynda.com course on A3 and its really helped me a lot with my workflow. I have not check but perhaps they have something on LR to get you started as well. I'm a big proponent of these types of tutorials. They really jumpstart your productivity bigtime, now I'm vested in A3 and I'm learning more and more.

Silver Efex Pro 2 was an instant purchase for me. I also scooped up HDR Efex as well and maybe latter I'll get Viveza, they integrate very well with both LR and A3.

 

[mrware]

Jorge, a site that has helped me is Phil Douglis' Pbase site about travel and expressive photography. He lays out galleries around a particular photographic theme and goes into detail on each shot. It's a lot of good info.

http://www.pbase.com/pnd1

Keep shooting, that Ricoh is a great camera.

 

[Jorge Ledesma]

Jorge, a site that has helped me is Phil Douglis' Pbase site about travel and expressive photography. He lays out galleries around a particular photographic theme and goes into detail on each shot. It's a lot of good info.

http://www.pbase.com/pnd1

Keep shooting, that Ricoh is a great camera.

MrWare, thanks very much, I will definitely peruse that site. 🙂