A Street Photography Critique with Limon Fan
In this episode, Melbourne-based street photographer Limon Fan joins me to critique a set of reader-submitted street photos. We go through everything from a golden-hour beach shot to a glitched-memory-card experiment, and Limon closes by walking through one of his own photos, taken in Melbourne during the pandemic lockdowns.
Find Limon: https://www.limonfan.com
A Street Photography Critique with Limon Fan
In this episode, Melbourne-based street photographer Limon Fan joins me to critique a set of reader-submitted street photos. We go through everything from a golden-hour beach shot to a glitched-memory-card experiment, and Limon closes by walking through one of his own photos, taken in Melbourne during the pandemic lockdowns.
Introduction
Hello everyone, welcome back to the channel. I am today with Limon, photographer based in Australia. Hello Limon, thank you for joining me today.
Thank you for having me, I'm excited for this.
Perfect. So the idea behind this is that in our community we submit photos every week, and I would like to show you some of them, and I would like to ask you for your maybe constructive opinion, maybe something, how you would treat the photos if you took them. I also know you have a YouTube channel, and you do also street photography, if you want to share a little bit about that.
Yeah, so I'm a Melbourne based photographer, mainly do street photography, I'll be moving towards more portraits as well, you can check all of that out on my Instagram, and also I've restarted my YouTube channel, where I go out and document the process of me taking photos and hang out with my friends, so you can definitely check me out there. And I also have Lightroom presets that are based off the photos that I edit, so if you want to edit like me, you can go check them out.
All right, anyone who's watching can find this in the description. So let's take a look at the first photo.
@gettons
So this first photo, with the sunset, we have one, two, three, four kids playing in the water. This is really nice, actually, I love the contrast from the colors of this photo, especially because it's taken during what I assume is golden hour, so when the sun hasn't quite set yet, but the lighting is really dynamic, and has a really nice, what's the word, ambience, or aura to it. And I love how this photographer has used a fast shutter speed to capture the little particles of water bouncing up as the kid is just splashing around playing, so it's a really nice photo, compositionally really well done. I love how natural it is as well, which I do love about photography, how you can just capture a moment in time, you can capture the excitement, maybe the emotions of how the kids feel.
What are your thoughts, Martin?
Yeah, I like, you know, composition wise, the separation of the subject, how it's easily recognizable what's going on, and overall a summer feel of this. You probably, I don't know if in Melbourne you take some beach shots as well, I saw you mostly taking street shots, right, maybe mostly night photography. When you look at this, edit wise, would you, because I know you do a lot of Photoshop edits, Lightroom edits, is there something you would change, if you know this came out of your camera, would you consider giving it a different feel?
I usually gravitate towards a softer look for my photos, even if there is strong contrast, as displayed in this photo, I'll probably bump up the shadows a little bit more, so you do get a bit more detail in the kids themselves. But then again, it's sort of asking what do you want from the photo, for example, as you can see the sun is behind all the subjects, so do you want to make this a silhouette photo, or do you want this photo to have a softer look? It really depends, I think, on the photographer's intent, and I think this photographer captures this moment perfectly, with the way he's edited the colors, because I think it's nice having the silhouettes, but for me, I usually prefer having a softer look, so that's all I would do, to be honest.
All right, moving on to the next one.
@fjaviertrigo
Yeah, this photo, let's see, this is cool. I believe this is some European city, I'm not too familiar with those trams and the background, but I love the coincidence with all the colors, so it's mainly showing off blacks and yellows, which is really cool, that's not a very typical color combination if you think about it. In terms of composition, I wouldn't say it's anything super special, it's mainly just capturing a moment, which I like, and that is literally just what street photography is, just capturing and documenting people, I guess. So yeah, I think it's nice, the contrast is also really cool with it as well.
What are your thoughts, Martin?
Yeah, I think composition wise it's not as clean as the previous shot, especially when we consider the separation of the subject, so it might not be as easy to look at as, for example, the previous one, or maybe some of the photos we're going to look at in the next minute. I like the idea of the colors, especially those parallel lines of the pavement, plus you have the kid, plus you have probably a sweatshirt, a t-shirt of the woman under the coat, which is yellow, and, as you said, it's not really a common color composition. I think it needs some work, but I think the idea is interesting, color wise, I guess.
Yeah, I think composition wise, something that this photographer may struggle with is picking an actual subject, it kind of looks like, just from the edit itself, they're trying to make this woman in the black fur coat the subject, but because there's very little separation, I'm kind of drawn towards the tram first, and then looking at this person with the coat, and then looking at the child, so it's a little bit all over the place, but I still think it's kind of cool.
All right, moving on to the next one.
@seat1aflyer
Interesting, this is a very interesting photo, there's a lot of subjects, and I feel like, in that sense, this photo requires you to take a look at it for a long time, because I think compositionally it's nothing really that special, like it's just people, if that makes sense. So if you have a look at all the individual people, it almost tells its own story, for example, the first thing you're drawn to is this person holding a mirror and looking directly into the lens, which is really cool, it's got some yellow or orange paint on his forehead, so that sort of brings up the question, like, what's this paint for, what's the purpose of it, is it maybe some sort of artistic or cultural part of life for those in this place, if that makes sense. And then you have the child underneath that, which is pretty funny, I don't think there's too much to say about that, but then you still have the people, so this person in the back holding onto a bag, coming up onto the shore, which is kind of cool, I'm kind of drawn towards that, because you're asking the questions, what's in that bag, where's he coming from, this is basically all water behind him, how did he get there. And you still have little characters behind, so this person above the umbrella towards the left, standing there, looking at the lens as well, with the same yellow paint on his forehead, so you're just kind of confused, it's like, that's so weird. And you have this slightly older gentleman sitting towards the far left of the frame, just being there, looking super peaceful, has his eyes closed, and you're kind of wondering, is he meditating, is he talking to someone, or what's going through his mind at the moment, because a lot of things with street photography, I find, it's hard to capture someone with a smile, so when someone does smile, a lot of things run through your mind, in terms of what that person's feeling. So, this is, I think, compositionally, this photo doesn't necessarily have all the right elements to it, like you can tell the horizon line is crooked, from where the sea is, in the little landings, but I think the individual elements of this photo really give it so much more character. What are your thoughts?
I kind of like how everything kind of falls into place, in terms of the layers, there is nothing really that I would say is badly misplaced, even the guy sticking out of the umbrella, you would usually say maybe that's not a visual thing you might want, someone sticking out of something, but in this composition it kind of works, because also all the people are in this orange, they all wear orange, or have something orange, and this orange vibe goes through the whole photo, right, we can see the guy in between the legs has an orange t-shirt.
Yeah, I agree with you, the colors are really bright, which make a very big impact to the scene, especially compared to the colder, less contrasty, drab background of the sea and sky. So it definitely has that really nice coupling contrast, which I like. Let's take a look at the next one.
@framedbykshitij
This, in my opinion, it's a photo that I really, really like. I've been starting to get a lot into softer images as of recent, and obviously because this is street photography as well, you can definitely see the urban elements, and there's so much fog and stuff, which is really cool, it just gives such a deep atmosphere, and, how to describe it, it really makes things look very mysterious, which is really cool, like especially at the top here, with this frozen banner, and those buildings and that line of buildings, you can see how soft all the clouds and all that fog is, and then you just have this person standing with the umbrella, looking very mysterious, because he's basically just a shadow, which is really cool.
Yeah, well, that is really nice. I'm not too sure what's happening here with this banding.
I believe that might be because of the way the photo, either the photo was taken, or maybe someone messed something up in editing, so I'm not too sure why there's this banding towards the left side.
Can you see that as well, the stripes?
Yeah, yeah, I've just noticed that, I have to say I haven't really noticed it before, now that you talk about it. I don't know if that's like an edit thing, or maybe if this was shot through glass or something.
Yeah, it's possible as well, I think.
So for me at least, these stripe things are quite distracting in the photo, because apart from the whole general scene, that's the first thing my eyes gravitate towards, which is not what you want. If this photo didn't have those stripes, it would be an amazing photo. A lot of times these stripes either come through where you're taking the photos, so it could be a reflection, or it could be during the editing process, and when it's the editing process, you do have to be very careful to make sure you don't get those discolorations and separation of colors. What are your thoughts?
I agree with a lot of what you said. Maybe one thing I would add, if I would be nitpicking, is that I would maybe like to have a little better subject in terms of separation, maybe see a leg spread, like a separation of the person walking, so the silhouette would be more recognizable when you first look at the photo. I think it would look, I wouldn't say better, but just a better separation, so it's easily recognizable, I think the picture would greatly benefit from that.
That's true, if you got the whole body of the person in, rather than just maybe the hands, maybe the legs.
I'm going to be holding the umbrella like this, I mean, we can probably assume it's a person, it's just a little awkward position, you know, shot from behind, walking away from us, not from a profile. I don't want to say everything has to be from profile, but I think a stronger figure to ground would be awesome in this photo.
Yeah, that is true, but another thing to remember as well, with street photography, a lot of times you can't just randomly ask this man to pose for you, because that's interesting, you can, but you just have to go ahead and take the photo as best you can, honestly.
Oh yeah, that's definitely more of a photographer composing what he can with what he has, so definitely coming back a bit more and making sure he gets the full body, and maybe he shoots upwards a little bit more, so that the umbrella is a little bit higher, maybe to cover up that negative space that you can see between the top of the umbrella and where the bright part of the sky is, maybe he could diminish that a little bit as well, and with doing that he could also get the legs in, and maybe the person with the umbrella might change his or her pose, and might also give you another shot. So it's one of those things with street photography, I believe, if you've found a shot that is really cool, for example, like this scene here, you take a bit more time to set it up, so you stay there a little bit longer, and you just get some different angles of the scene, and try your best to work with what you have. I think that is what separates a good street photographer from an excellent street photographer.
Yeah, I agree with that. All right, so let's take a look at the next one.
@filmstockcowboy
Okay, well, interesting, this looks like it's taken on a film camera, there's a lot of grain, and the colors are very reminiscent of what I see usually in film photography, which is cool, I guess. I mean, there's really not too much to this photo, it's two guys wearing the exact same t-shirt, which is kind of funny, you're probably going to assume that they know each other, or that they're, I don't know, that they're twins, they literally look like twins, to be honest.
Oh yeah, right, one's just wearing a hat and glasses.
So that's pretty funny, and then you can see, I think what's funny about this photo is actually you can see behind them are two or three people looking at these two people with the same t-shirt on, which I think is pretty funny. There's not too much to this photo, I think it's more just a funny moment captured of these two people wearing a t-shirt, and you can see in the background people looking at them, I think those characters are like a cherry on top of the cake, it doesn't really mean that if you catch interesting characters the photo is going to be interesting. I think if they were caught in some sort of interesting situation, then you would be like, all right, this photo is nice, and on top of that you have those characters, which are kind of funny, or interestingly looking, just like that. I think it's a snap of two guys who, by accident, or just willingly, wearing the same clothes, which I think is something that helps the photo, but overall the feel, if you imagine they would have different clothes, or they would look differently, it would just be a photo which, composition wise, has a lot of negative space on the top, it doesn't really do anything for me, maybe crouching down and taking the shot from below to get them above the horizon, maybe to separate them, maybe to get something different. It seems to me like a snap of semi-interesting characters, but it doesn't make it, the shot is not brilliant just because you found an interesting character, in my opinion.
Yeah, I do agree, I think it's a photo taken without that much consideration, you just see two people wearing the same color t-shirt, and you're like, oh, that's kind of cool, when you just take a photo and there's really not that much thought behind composition, thought behind, the colors are interesting, you have a combination of green, right, of the green flowers.
Yeah, so I think the scene has some kind of potential, maybe with those guys, but probably not shot like this.
Yeah, I do agree with you. All right, moving on to the next one.
@cmazmanian
Okay, so this is a portrait of a girl in a subway, I believe. Interesting, I'm just having a look at the colors in general, I do believe a lot of times in subway settings the colors are very yellow, due to the, what is it, fluorescent light, yeah, and it sort of gives off a really interesting look, very reminiscent of film color grading, I believe, which is nice, and I definitely do see those characteristics here too. I wouldn't say there's anything particularly special about this photo, it's mainly just a picture of a girl, she doesn't look very posed, in the sense as, like, a photographer, I don't know if this photographer is working with a model, or if it's just a random girl on the street that he's taking a photo of, it's a little bit ambiguous in that sense as well, I don't know if the background matches her, in a sense, like if you're trying to take a portrait. Another thing that I'm looking at now is that she is wearing an AirPod, so she's listening to music or something, so it looks like she is a commuter, traveling on the subway, so she actually might be a random person, I'm not too sure. There is definitely a lot of nice separation between her and the background, because the background's basically nice and blurry, but there's not too much to this photo, if that makes sense. What are your thoughts?
Yeah, I think just like you mentioned the AirPods, I can see this maybe like an airport ad or something like that, you know, like people wearing AirPods in different places. I like, you know, the separation in terms of depth of focus, it's probably properly focused on the eyes, I also like that this is probably not wide open, this might be a little bit less open, in a sense that very often when you shoot like this close, wide open, you get the eye in focus and then the nose and ears are out of focus, very often when you have, I don't know, f/1.8, or 1.4, or even 2.8, and this seems to be maybe a little less, in a sense that the whole body is in focus, which I actually like. And composition wise, I don't really mind it, I wonder if standing just 90 degrees to the wall wouldn't make it better, just with the green lines, but then again I don't know if the photographer wanted to use the handrail, or just didn't want to spend that much time with her, to relocate her to somewhere else, maybe with a more plain background it would look better, but then again we don't know, they might be people in the background, there might be a train she's waiting for, and it might have been done very, very quickly. Overall, I think a nice photo.
Yeah, I think you have to take out what it is, I believe, I'm just going to assume that this photographer approached this girl to ask for a portrait and just took a photo really quickly, with not too much consideration, not too much care, it's just a random shot at the moment photo. I don't think this woman is a model, she just posed very naturally for this photo, which is nice, so it's very candid, and it definitely shows through the raw elements of this photo, and I think that's probably what makes it a bit cooler of a photo, but apart from that, there's nothing incredibly special about this photo.
At the same time, in terms of editing portraits, would you consider maybe balancing her skin for the yellow light, to cool it down a little bit, or would you just keep it like this because of the environment?
I personally would color correct it a little bit, but I wouldn't try to take away from the fact that she's shot in an area with very orangey and yellow lighting, and I do like the color grade on this photo, and I think her skin tones look fine, I think it's just a different way of approaching this photo, and I still think it works really, really well.
All right, let's take a look at the next one.
Martin's photo
Oh, Japan, ah, Japan. I visited Japan, and me and my friends always make a joke where, because we've all visited, we severely miss this country, because it's just a photographer's playground, it is insane the amount of street photography potential everywhere, it's just honestly amazing, so this definitely takes me back. I believe this is taken in Shibuya square, the main area, you can see the Godzilla poking out in the sort of mid-upper-left section, the very, very classic shot to get when you're there. I've actually taken photos here as well, and this person has definitely taken a bit of a different approach to what I did, back in the day, where his shot, where he's come back a lot further out of the scene, and taken a photo with, I believe it looks maybe an 85 millimeter, quite a bit more of a telephoto lens, of this place, and you can see a very clear separation between the ground, with those stripes, and the lights, which is cool to see, so it shows off a massive sense of scale, which I like, because this is generally what you see in Japan, Tokyo, and it's insane. I think this is a really cool photo, in terms of the way he structured it. I do think, in terms of editing, it looks very much unedited, which is quite surprising, because I feel like a lot of people these days, if they're shooting photos of Japan, they'll love to make Japan look more cyberpunk, and have more like classic blue in the shadows, or orange in the highlights, or if it was up to me, I would make all of those signs glow just a little bit more, to add a bit more atmosphere, but at the same time it's a very standard shot, if that makes sense. What are your thoughts?
Yeah, I think moment wise, it's nothing really special, in a sense that this is happening there all day, every day. Maybe composition wise, when I look at the right side, top down, there is this car, which, if it wasn't there, I mean it's almost there, almost not there, so I don't really, but you can't really crop that, because you would crop the sides too much. What I like about this is how the stripes are kind of, not echoing, but, you know, on the building and also on the ground, which are kind of connecting this. I think for someone who has never visited Japan, this might be interesting, like, wow, this is really different than, like, medieval Europe, or London. Other than that, I think it's a pretty ordinary scene, I guess.
Yes, it is definitely a very ordinary scene, because the first instinct I had with this photo was, it definitely just took me back to how Japan looks like, this is what Japan looks like, and that's it, this is what you'll see with your own eyes. There's nothing special about the composition or anything, like, yes, it's nice, but there's nothing that evokes a certain emotion that Japan does have to offer, it's almost a little bit in a sense of, kind of, service level, because you see how busy it is, and that's almost about it, to be honest.
All right, let's take a look at the next one.
@steezenphotos
What is going on here, sorry, I'm just going to have a little look around first. I think the background story of this, because the user submits the photography from time to time, is that the photographer got some kind of glitch on the memory card, which resulted in this type of photo, and then decided not to rely on the glitch anymore, but recreate this kind of design in the photo, in Photoshop later. So this is like a process shot, I believe, at the beginning there was a shot which was a result of a glitched memory card.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really cool.
That's actually a really cool story behind it, because from what I can see, this photo was taken in Japan, there's a lot of Japanese characters, and Takashimaya, that's something Japanese as well. I love how he took an unfortunate circumstance and flipped it on its head, and made something interesting and unique, which I really respect. Obviously a lot of it doesn't make any sense, like for example there's random black bits in the sky, and there's light rays coming through, and just absolutely making a mess of the scene, but it's just cool how it's all just parallel lines going up and down, and it's almost like a mirror world has been flipped, and you start to see the blend of the two worlds, which I think is a cool concept. The colors are beautiful, honestly, I really love the soft blue tones, and the pinks and the reds mixed in as well, along with some of the greens to contrast with everything, and just the softer highlights and how they bloom, that's a really cool aspect, but in terms of storytelling, there's too much to it, in a sense, on a surface level, but it's just a really visually engaging photo. What are your thoughts?
I don't really have too many thoughts about this, because, yeah, I think, design wise, it's interesting, but even though it was taken on the street, this isn't really a street photography genre, this is more like street photography meets Photoshop, this kind of cyberpunk, I guess. I like it, it's not this Cartier-Bresson kind of stuff, it's more like this modern twist on photography.
Not necessarily true, I think you're definitely right about that. Let's take a look at the next one.
@thegirlwholeftthefridgeopen
Oh, I feel like I need to look upside down for this, what is going on? Okay, so from what I can see, I believe it looks like one of those Asian countries.
Oh, it's Korea, yeah.
Yeah, so this was taken, I believe, in a Korean park, and what I know about Korea, and a lot of Asian countries as well, is they have these parks with a lot of this training equipment, I've noticed that a lot of older people will go and use that equipment to do some exercise. So I have no idea why you would want to go upside down on one of these contraptions, it looks kind of fun, but on the idea of fitness I don't think it makes much sense, but it's still cool though. Anyways, going back to the composition of the photo, I think it's a very interesting take, so he's got the ground at the top of the image, and he's got the trees sprouting underneath, and obviously that's just the regular photo flipped upside down, so you can see the two subjects, or the two people, in the foreground doing this, using these machines, and one of them, I believe it's an older woman, she's got her hands up in the air, which looks really funny, compared to the guy who has his hands crossed, his fingers crossed, which is really, really funny as well. And then you also see a person in the background as well, which is oriented the right way according to the crowd, which gets you thinking, oh, that's how the shot would have looked if it was taken the right way around, if that makes sense. I think it's a really fun image to capture, and it definitely captures the culture, and what people do in their spare time, especially in this area in South Korea, it's just a very interesting photo, I believe. What are your thoughts?
My first thought was maybe the photographer wanted to resemble something like characters from maybe an anime show or something like that, if you imagine those trees being like, if those characters were kind of flying, especially the one with their hands up, and then the other one with their hands like this, or like this, which is often kind of like this pose, you can maybe see in anime. So it gives me this kind of vibe that it's supposed to resemble something funny, of course it's not, but so what gives this idea away, which I think was the main idea, is that I would love to have maybe better separation of the subject, in terms of the depth of focus, let's imagine we would have both characters in focus, and then the rest would be out of focus, then we could better see this idea of those characters representing maybe this thought. And also the person standing behind them kind of gives this away, so I think this is missing maybe that person in the background not being there, and the separation of the subject being, by the depth of focus, a little more precise, and then I would say, okay, this is really funny, this juxtaposition of characters, not doing something like that, but because the photographer saw the juxtaposition of the trees, right, resembling some kind of, I don't know, you've probably seen some anime stuff, like people flying. So I think that would be, it's almost there, I think there are some elements that would need to be adjusted, as I said, but I like the idea, I think overall it's a funny photo. I wonder if it was flipped the right way, if it would have a different idea and maybe different impact, and then the person in the background, I wouldn't mind it at all, because the orientation would be okay with that.
Edit wise, I think it's very, I don't know, maybe stretched, there are a lot of very bright and then also very dark areas. What are your thoughts about the edit on this?
I mean, it's a black and white image, so it's nothing super, there's no color, so we can really focus on the subjects themselves, which I think sometimes is nice. I remember reading about something where a lot of photographers prefer shooting in black and white, because it shows off more of the actual scene, the characters in the photo, rather than focusing on the colors, so I think the black and white element does do that in this photo, where you're mainly focused on the two characters in front of you, which is nice. There is definitely a lot of contrast, with dark shadows and bright highlights, I believe this looks like it was taken at midday, where there was, you can tell as well at the top, where the ground is, there's a very long shadow on the ground, along with that, there's just one section that's completely covered in shadow, so it definitely looks like it was taken during very harsh lighting conditions, and to be honest, for me at least, editing photos with harsh light conditions is not that fun, because it's very hard to work with. So I do like the idea that this was black and white, and this could even be a film photo as well, we actually don't know.
Oh yeah, but I do like it.
Let's take a look at the next one.
@Kevangogh
Okay, interesting, this is a bit more of a thought-provoking image, where you see a chair, and it's very, what's the right word, it looks very old, broken, it's been used a lot, and then you have this child staying right behind it, and so this child, you can only see their eyes and their arms really, and then you see some clothes being laid there. So my initial thoughts with this photo is that it looks like this photo was taken in a less fortunate area or country, there's also quite a lot of rubbish as well, you can see there's almost a small pile of garbage towards the back right corner of the scene, and there's people hanging their clothes on this bench as well, and the fence also looks quite broken towards that back right corner, so that's the initial thoughts I'm getting. And this child, sorry, is looking quite frightened seeing this person with a camera, and this person taking that photo, so those are my thoughts. It's definitely, composition wise, it works, because even though there's not that much separation between the foreground and the background, in terms of the depth of field, what you do see is a distinction in the chair itself and the darker green background, and so your eyes are definitely drawn towards this bright orange chair, with this child standing behind the wooden pillars, and then you see the background afterwards, which I do like, so it's definitely taken with quite a lot of intent. So what are your thoughts about them?
So I would probably go for, when I saw this, I thought maybe the intent was, you know, the boy is kind of hidden, and you just discover him the longer you look at the photo. So if I saw a scene like this, I would probably approach it in a style where I would shoot it landscape, and maybe try to include something next to the bench, let's imagine some kind of interesting situation just next to the bench, maybe two people arguing, or someone walking, so that would be the first thing that draws your attention, you would look at the picture and you would see that, and then slowly, as you would look at the picture, you would discover this boy, and it would be kind of like, in England they have this, Where's Wally, or something like that, you know what I mean.
Yes.
So this would be like, okay, so here is this interesting situation, and, wow, look, there is a hidden boy behind the bench. So just like this, I think this gives away the trick of discovering this hidden boy, or this hidden child, behind the bench, because it is the only subject in the frame, right, kind of like photographing Wally straight away, like, here.
Yeah, yeah.
So I think it's an interesting situation, I'm not saying the execution is not what the photographer wanted, I'm just thinking maybe it would, for me, make better sense if it was something like that. And I'm not saying there was something interesting next to the bench, or it was possible, I'm just kind of theory-crafting.
Yeah, yeah, I get you, yeah. All right, let's take a look at the next one.
@sacks
Okay, so very interesting, in terms of the shadow work, it's basically just bright colors, and this person has just been turned into a silhouette, which is something that I would never do, in my opinion, but I think for this type of photo it just works really well, because it seems like it's taken in very harsh lighting conditions, and I do like that. I love how it has a love heart, like that yellow love heart is there, and that red and the blue, all the color blocking with the black background, makes a very interesting scene. What are your thoughts?
Yeah, I think when I first saw this and commented on it during the live stream, I said I think, and then the photographer said he was waiting there for maybe a few hours or something like that, so this is the best shot he got. I thought it's nicely executed, and the woman is just picking the chair, let's imagine we could have a silhouette of a bear kissing in the heart, or next to the heart, I think it's a great shot. I can imagine maybe better subjects were not available at that time, so this is the best the photographer got, I still think it is a great shot.
Yeah, I think it's also a very impactful photo. Let's take a look at the next one.
@adelmonoarsiddiqui
Oh, okay, I believe this is what looks like a nun.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, and then you have this very dark aura, and then you have these bright, sun rays coming through the window, and the shadows, and Coca-Cola, and the food there, I don't know, I'm not exactly too sure what the food is, but wow, those colors are very, very interesting, the way it's highlighted, kind of colored in, like a very cyan, almost orange tones as well, very interesting. I don't know if it's a true photo, but it's just very cool, it has a really nice atmosphere. What are your thoughts?
For me it resembles, if you know those classical paintings, of a nun sitting under the window, and then I like how those paintings are usually very perfect with the light, with the composition, everything is proportionally perfect, and now you have this modern twist of this lady, a woman resembling the nun, with a Coca-Cola bottle, and with everything a little bit similar, like that, but not quite, because she's out of focus, the scene, it gives this feel of a modern interpretation, maybe this was taken with a mobile phone or something like that, so I think it's kind of a funny recreation of, I think, a classical scene, paintings, I guess.
All right, let's take a look at the next one.
@zoximage
Okay, so a black and white image, we have a person riding their bike, looks like a delivery driver, which is okay, and then I'm more drawn towards the actual background, though, with those arches and those two circles, because it almost looks like a face.
Yeah, I think that's what the main focus is.
And then this person on the bike is just an extra addition to the scene, which is kind of cool. It definitely looks like it's taken in very harsh conditions, which, using a black and white color grade for it, I guess, that works to allow the subjects to speak for themselves. Overall, I think if you've waited just a second longer, or if he had a faster shutter speed, he would be able to capture this person directly in the middle of the photo, but that would have been just a little bit more impact, because it would have been very symmetrically perfect, with those two trees, those two windows, the arch, and the person as well, so slightly missed opportunity there, but still a very, very cool photo. What are your thoughts about it?
I think even though the subject has a lot of circles, the symbols, like on the bike and also on the back, which kind of echoes the eyes of the face in the foreground. I think, ideally, I would use the face itself, because it looks kind of like a scary face, right, with those two eyes and then the open mouth, so imagine getting there, like, a subject, I don't know, like a kid who is screaming for some reason, or something like that, which would kind of make this appeal, and I'm not saying it's possible in every situation, I'm just thinking about, even though the subject is great, it's just a guy riding a bike, and it doesn't really have anything in common, except the design of the bicycle and the eyes. So I think it's a nice shot, and I can imagine at a place like this to have some kind of incredible shot, and then it depends how much time you are willing to spend to wait for a situation like this.
That is true, I do agree with you there. So let's take a look at the last photo.
@limonfan
Okay, this last photo, okay, so this is my photo, taken...
So, what do you want to know about this photo?
This photo was taken in Chinatown, Melbourne, where I'm based, taken on a telephoto lens, first of all, a 105 mil, which is my favorite lens to use, and I believe during this time we would have just come out of our second lockdown, and so at this point I was quite tired, I felt a little bit jaded with taking street photography as well, but I still decided, you know what, it's better to go out and just take some photos and see what I can get. And so this photo here is of a man, he's got a cigarette in his hand, he is looking at his phone, you can see he's got his mask around his ears there, and it's just tucked under his chin, so you can definitely tell this was during Covid times when this photo was taken. So this shop that you see behind him is a shop that's been in Melbourne for a long, long time, this Chinese grocery store has been here for a while, and it shows as well, because there's so much graffiti, it's so dingy, there's a lot of dark, if you can see it on the ground towards where his feet are, there's a lot of black, I don't even know what that is, like mold, it's very grungy, dark, dirty, and you can see, behind him where the actual shop is, there's a whole bunch of jars with a bunch of spices in there, and a lot of Asian ingredients, a lot of Asian writing, and a very interesting light, the lighting was very fluorescent on top of it, but there's also a giant neon sign towards his right, which definitely gives off more light as well. So I do like this photo, it definitely captures what I feel like Melbourne was at the time, where it was quite dark, people were tired and sick of lockdowns, but there's still quite a lot of brightness in the photo, because I prefer my photos to have a lot more of a softer look, so I did an effect in Photoshop that brings out this softness in the highlights, it looks very dreamlike.
Yes, it's very dreamlike.
So I think also, during this period, when I was taking photos, I was hoping for more, so I believe that at that point Melbourne was coming out of these lockdowns, it's very tough, everyone's tired, but people are still looking to have ambitions, and to bring themselves out, and so I think that's where that element sort of comes from as well, when I was editing this photo.
Closing
So, thank you, it's an interesting story, and thank you very much for coming today, and joining me, and for your critique.
No, I enjoyed it, I really enjoyed it, thank you for having me on, I really appreciate it.
All right, so have a great day.
Yeah, you too, man, I'll catch you around.
