Istanbul Street Candid Photography with my Pentax K-5 - C&C welcome

While I do most of my street photography with my E-M5, the Pentax K-5 does well for wide angle shots and I'm confident I'll be using the 15mm 4.0 Ltd more and more for this
















--
Gregory Dziedzic
istanbulcandids.com

Love the "grainy" film-like look.

Nice shots! I like people responding to the photographer...When I, too, was there, men looked more preoccupied than the women.


Regards, Nick

These are really great! Were you relying on autofocus, or pre-focussing and trying to hold thecamera the right distance from the subject?

Thanks for sharing,


Matt


--





... interested in .... photographs? Heh? Know what a mean? Photographs? (He asked him knowingly). Nudge nudge, snap snap, grin grin, wink wink, say no more, say no more, know what a' mean? Know what a' mean? http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/home#section=ARTIST&subSection=183820&subSubSection=0&language=EN

Some of the objects does not look to happy beeing photographed. Especially the young man in number two. I noticed the samr myself now and the. People just don´t understand the fun of taking Pictures.

Thank you all for the comments

By the way the rest of my istanbul candids can be seen there:

istanbulcandids.com


@arpikusz

What I do first, generally, is that I batch process the pictures of a shooting session using Lightroom B&W preset number 3 and then I fine tune individually those I find worthy. It's a nice preset, quite contrasty, film like indeed, but it's still possible to get even better contrast and push the micro-contrasts (clarity) especially so because the RAW files of the K-5 (and to a lesser extent those of the OM-D E-M5 as well) are indeed very maleable thanks to their incredible dynamic range.

@Nipan_51

Well in most cases they didn't see me actually, or maybe looked at me as a strange passer-by. For candid I find it better - obviously - if the subject has not noticed me, or at least not me as a photographer.

@ KL Matt

Yes prefocused. Stopped down enough to have a deep enough enough depth of field. I remember these were shot during a sunny day, so I could have nice enough dof (f/8) and fast shutter as well. Even when the light is sparse I pump up the IS in order to be able to keep on zone focusing. Anyway I like a bit a grain for street photography.

@ Kriztian

I'm pretty sure none of them have seen me indeed. Wide angle, fast speed, walking past in a blur. Never taking the camera to my eye. Basically they saw this guy passing by fast with something and his hand and... oh wait... did he just?... naaaa...

I am sorry Greg, I do not see other than technically good pictures of faces / people in the streets. I personally think that street photography should aim to tell a story, what about composition and interaction? Here you have just shown what you are capable of doing with an aperture of 8, a wide angle and snapping away without really knowing what you are doing or rather catching. You could actually have been anywhere doing that. You can of course be lucky that way, but....Just my opinion.

Hi Ivar,


I see your point and you thank you for sharing it. I have no narrative intention at all in this series. It's more like a collection of lonelinesses. My idea is to reach a certain truth, and "catch" the intimacy of people as they are walking their way lost in their thoughts, in their bubble. I'm drawn toward specific faces/attitudes and in a way I see this work as a self portrait. I feel there is a community of emotions/attitudes going through all these pictures and constituting a kind of backbone or background to the series, but a mistake I've made - and since corrected - was to give titles to all the pictures, and as i understand this spoilt the viewing experience for many.

All the best

Ivar Dahl Larsen said:

Ivar Dahl Larsen wrote:

I am sorry Greg, I do not see other than technically good pictures of faces / people in the streets. I personally think that street photography should aim to tell a story, what about composition and interaction? Here you have just shown what you are capable of doing with an aperture of 8, a wide angle and snapping away without really knowing what you are doing or rather catching. You could actually have been anywhere doing that. You can of course be lucky that way, but....Just my opinion.

Click to expand...

Hi Ivar,

If you're judging this series against masters of the genre with a similar aesthetic (high contrast B&W street images in bright sun) like Trent Parke, I suppose one could claim there is more going on in Parke's work regarding the physical surroundings of the scenes (architecture, landscape, light intersecting with people). Notice I didn't say that necessarily means his images are "better" (although I am a huge fan).

What I'm seeing in this series is people with their street faces on, in their own worlds, but up close and personal. There is an intimacy in these images that touches me. I agree the background/scene could be more interesting, the full street context isn't always being captured in the background, but the images still moved me nonetheless. Maybe the less involving background is even part of the reason why. The young man I found particularly good, keep going back to that image. These are a little like candid portraits, but yet more interesting because of the street context.

Would concentrating more on backgrounds and surroundings while in the process of capturing these images take away from the intimacy of the moment? I don't know, but quite possibly. I do know I look forward to the next round of images from our fellow forum member! And: enjoying street photography and as of recently owning both the K5 and DA15, I'm going to try out his technique (f/8 zone focusing, medium ISO) myself and see what I can do with it. I imagine the split second these captures happen in to be extremely difficult to also have the background in mind. You are not standing still, holding the camera in place and waiting for a subject to wander into your chosen background, you are mixing, walking, flowing with the people on the street, grabbing moments as they happen. It shows in the images, but IMO in a good way.


Matt

I like the style and PP.

Hi Matt,

thank you very much. You've expressed very precisely what this is all about




@ Leopold: cheers!

Hi, sorry for not being able to answer before. Not that your views need to be answered but…With all due respect and out of politeness. We all have different opinions as photography is a very subjective exercise. In regard to involving backgrounds, it may have a disturbing effect or not at all, depending on how you do it. I also complimented Greg about his technicality of the shots, but as I said, I do disagree with how he has done it. Just a matter of different opinions. I do not mean that I am the only right one here, but again different opinions and exchanging ideas can always be of good as long as we are polite about what we do, wouldn't you say? Take a look at some of the masters like for instance Elliot Erwitt among others. However, I have now left all my FF gear, have some MFT gear and by next week I am a proud owner of a K5 I hope. All the best to you all.


Vagrant love


just getting there


turning a blind eye


a balance in life


looking good eh?


hiding from the sun


fancy shoes

Just click on them, also the ones that do not show, I just want toshow some of mine as to emphasize what I mean. Cheers.

--
idl

Hi Ivar,

you obviously are a great photographer. Particularly like "looking good, eh?". But we just don't take pictures of the same thing or with the same goal. Anyway, taking this series to a photography magazine in two weeks. Let's see what happens

I like the life in your shots Greg

Good luck with the magazine

Of course we are not taking the same kind, so I hope you were not offended by my expressions. It is after all a matter of taste. Thanks for the comments and all the best to you.

Ivar, the first one is the most amazing.

Getting great street photos is a matter of right time, right place, and, quit wits.

Examples:



But, walking around with a wide angle lens set at hyper focal is another approach. Will it give interesting enough results? It depends on luck and patience, and, then patience again sorting out a lot of not so interesting pictures the find the pearl in the haystack. (I might have mixed 2 sayings there).

Generally, I found the OP photos quite nice. The B&W treatment is good. (I've never tried doing B&W conversion, so I don't much about that).

greg57 said:

greg57 wrote:

Hi Ivar,

I see your point and you thank you for sharing it. I have no narrative intention at all in this series. It's more like a collection of lonelinesses.

Click to expand...

Greg, your subject matter and post remind me of Pamuk's idea of "Huzun."

For lack of a better link: http://cambridgeforecast.wordpress.com/2006/10/12/orhan-pamuk-istanbul-the-concept-of-huzun/


Have you read "Istanbul" by Pamuk? I'm asking because what you seem to be trying to convey is something along the lines of melancholy, and you may make this connection explicit if you submit your work.

Thank you very much for you very insightful message One River. It recently occured to me that these portraits were more than just portraits of passers-by. I cannot but not also see a self-portrait in it. People have also mentionned the "soul" of Istanbul.

Definitely have to read this novel.

By the way One River, you nickname definitely rings a bell. Was it on dpreview, mu43, Facebook... can't seem to remember?

One River said:

One River wrote:

One River said:

greg57 wrote:

Hi Ivar,

I see your point and you thank you for sharing it. I have no narrative intention at all in this series. It's more like a collection of lonelinesses.

Click to expand...

Greg, your subject matter and post remind me of Pamuk's idea of "Huzun."

For lack of a better link: http://cambridgeforecast.wordpress.com/2006/10/12/orhan-pamuk-istanbul-the-concept-of-huzun/


Have you read "Istanbul" by Pamuk? I'm asking because what you seem to be trying to convey is something along the lines of melancholy, and you may make this connection explicit if you submit your work.

Click to expand...

There may be two of us, because I don't post in those forums. My screen name is the title of my favorite book.

Please do go read "Istanbul" when you can. I think it would compliment your vision very well.