My first attempt at street photography with the Oly 12mm

"It takes time and a thick face, but to start try one of the most common tricks to build up your confidence - letting someone walk into your frame.  If you notice some interesting character, dressed in a good colour to add contrast to your picture, etc, just point your camera a little in front of their path and get everything set up right and then just click when the person or persons walked into the right spot of your picture.  People would think you were trying to take a picture of whatever was there before they walked up.  Use zone focusing, a high ISO and get everything ready for the shot, and even take a shot before and/or afterwards to look like you are interested in a shot of the scene and not of them them."

This is an excellent hint.

panolympus wrote:

completelyrandomstuff wrote:

give him/her a break, it's the first time. You are unnecessarily mean and provide no constructive criticism.

I was replying to a poster whom was being snooty. Don't know how you could misinterpret that. I think the op did a great job in these photos.

Great job? Come on. The photos are simply random snapshots as it appears, taken on streets. There is no situation depicted, which could make any of the photos interesting to an audience.

The OP wanted to have criticicism, not kind applause for results, which honestly aren't worth presenting. Most of the images are taken from a boring shooting position at eye's height, pointing slightly downwards. Some images have reflections, which disturb the content, and which shows that the OP did not really spend a lot of time before pressing the shutter. The OP should think about being more flexible in its shooting position and more thoughtful about a possible audience, before shooting a scenery. Boring sceneries usually don't make good images, at least when taken like the OP did.

In my image library, none of the images would have been a keeper.

completelyrandomstuff wrote:

"It takes time and a thick face, but to start try one of the most common tricks to build up your confidence - letting someone walk into your frame.  If you notice some interesting character, dressed in a good colour to add contrast to your picture, etc, just point your camera a little in front of their path and get everything set up right and then just click when the person or persons walked into the right spot of your picture.  People would think you were trying to take a picture of whatever was there before they walked up.  Use zone focusing, a high ISO and get everything ready for the shot, and even take a shot before and/or afterwards to look like you are interested in a shot of the scene and not of them them."

This is an excellent hint.

Good advise.  I have some more.

Personally I find if you are not confident then most of your shots will look like spy/paparazzi shots and feel distant.

Here are some rules I live by.

1.  Just go ahead and just do it (even if it's in their face).  If they object.  Then apologize and delete the picture in front of them.

2.  Dont' take pictures of other people's children without asking permission

3.  Sometimes asking people will result in a better photo than sneaking it.

4.  find a good background/composition then wait for the action to come to you.  This take patience.