The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

Street (images)

Nettar

New member
Here are a few photographs from a series that might be titled "Breakfast in Kolkata." You can tell it's winter. All are taken using a NEX-5N with ZM 18/4 lens.

The gentlemen in the first image are all saying to themselves, When is he going to stop focus-peaking and take the picture? Doesn't he know that autofocus cameras have been invented? Nettar
 
Here are a few photographs from a series that might be titled "Breakfast in Kolkata." You can tell it's winter. All are taken using a NEX-5N with ZM 18/4 lens.

The gentlemen in the first image are all saying to themselves, When is he going to stop focusing-peaking and take the picture? Doesn't he know that autofocus cameras have been invented? Nettar
Nettar: Nice impressions of Kolkata's street live. Guess, you can't take pictures there beeing undiscovered, since peoples are very curious, what you are doing? :)
Those are a veritable gain for the thread. So, please, keep sharing your impressions!
 

Nettar

New member
Thanks for your kind remarks, Hermann. Actually, the issue you raise is particularly interesting to me. Most "street photographers" like their subjects to be unaware of the camera, but for me it is always a bonus if at least one of the subjects looks into the lens. Indeed, I tend to edit out other images. For me, the character of an image changes, for the better, if there is a link between one of the subjects and the viewer. I think I am in a substantial minority here -- I suspect that the great majority of street photographers like to shoot incognito, and indeed, I believe that more than a few photographers insist that "true" street photography should be like that.

Sometimes I ask my subjects to pose. I don't pose them, but I ask them to adopt a pose. (But it wasn't like that in any of the pictures I've posted so far.) This seems to reveal personality traits of the subject; are they formal or relaxed, for example; are they aggressive or gentle.

I think you will understand, Hermann, if I say that I like very much the posed images of August Sander. Nettar
 
Thanks for your kind remarks, Hermann. Actually, the issue you raise is particularly interesting to me. Most "street photographers" like their subjects to be unaware of the camera, but for me it is always a bonus if at least one of the subjects looks into the lens. Indeed, I tend to edit out other images. For me, the character of an image changes, for the better, if there is a link between one of the subjects and the viewer. I think I am in a substantial minority here -- I suspect that the great majority of street photographers like to shoot incognito, and indeed, I believe that more than a few photographers insist that "true" street photography should be like that.

Sometimes I ask my subjects to pose. I don't pose them, but I ask them to adopt a pose. (But it wasn't like that in any of the pictures I've posted so far.) This seems to reveal personality traits of the subject; are they formal or relaxed, for example; are they aggressive or gentle.

I think you will understand, Hermann, if I say that I like very much the posed images of August Sander. Nettar
Nettar: That's a really interesting point, you're discussing here. Personally, I assume, it doesn't make sense to be dogmatic about that (as that doesn't make sense anyway), and of course I share your passion for the environmental portraits of August Sander, a great artist for sure.

But since pictures always tell/proof more than words, two divergent pictures, I took in Italy, may elucidate my take on that question: :)


"Facades", Imperia, Liguria, Italia


NEX-5n with Kit Zoom @ 18mm & f/6.3



"Padrone", Imperia, Liguria, Italia


NEX-5n with Kit Zoom @ 27mm & f/6.3
 
Rainy evening in Beijing. Both with NEX-5N and ZM 18mm. Nettar
Nettar: At first, thank you very much for the kind words/feedback!

I like your attempt in those images and how you indeed captured the (rainy) atmosphere, (to my taste) particularly in the second one.:thumbup:
 
Last edited:

Nettar

New member
Thanks for your kind words and critique, Hermann. I'd like to see more of your work, and more generally I'd like to see Vivek's "Street images" thread stay alive. Surely one of the attractions of NEX cameras is the discretion of use offered by their small size. More than a few of the images in this thread, perhaps including yours, would not be possible using a larger, more aggressive camera.

In physics, the "observer effect" argues that we can't measure (some) systems without affecting the system itself, and it's just like that in photography -- with a large, conspicuous camera we may not be able to photograph people without significantly changing the way they respond. However, looking down into the screen of a small camera has a rather small, nonthreatening impact on our subjects. Nettar
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Slow speeds (1/6s handheld) did not deter me. I failed to pick up a reasonable sized EF 50/1.8 today and had to do with the zoom.


Untitled by Vivek Iyer, on Flickr
NEX-6, Speed Booster, EF 28-80 zoom at the long end f/4 and 1/6s
 

Nettar

New member
Slow speeds (1/6s handheld) did not deter me. I failed to pick up a reasonable sized EF 50/1.8 today and had to do with the zoom.
Agree about the speeds, although you are doing better than me with a 50mm lens! My main problem with low shutter speeds is movement of the subject. Nettar
 
Last edited:
Top