Manchester Street Candid

Dylexsic Gyu

Dylexsic Gyu

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Tommy
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Caught this shot at the weekend in Chinatown in Manchester.

Just thought I would share and see what you think :cool:

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This is a very strong image, great monochrome tones, lovely light and a very timeless feel, I love this sort of shot. A very well executed street photograph in my opinion.
 
Thats a great image much more than the normal candid !!!
 
Love the atmosphere of the picture. It gives me a feeling of New York with the smoke and the style of the buildings.


Hope you don't mind, and I'll remove it if you do, but I had an edit.

First I noticed that it wasn't straight, so straightened it. ;) The street sign stood out a bit, so I cropped it out so it could possibly be anywhere.

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I was also tempted to darken the light shining on the right hand side casting a shadow from the street sign, but didn't.
 
Love it, absolutely love it. Although I'm inclined to agree that straightening the buildings strengthens it somewhat. I think perhaps I may also have experimented with making the buildings in the background even lighter, to give it an even more enhanced stylised look, but even as it is, it's just a fantastic shot. The walking man adds so much to the photo too, what great timing to have spotted him and grabbed the opportunity.

Great stuff.
 
It's better straightened up but I absolutely love it!

I don't have the confidence going out with my camera in general most of the time, I need to man up and aspire to work like this (y)
 
Thanks for the great response folks! I love trying street photography but I've not had many keepers in the past.
I am more than happy for you to edit and your right, it looks a lot better like that. I actually forgot to straighten too, doh!

I'll be re-editing the RAW this way or similar, probably getting rid of the street sign too as you have said. Distracting.. :)
 
Stunner. I love the emptiness of it.
 
I absolutely love this image!

A couple of things that I think personally would improve it but are just little details...

Straighten it as someone else pointed out
Clone out the stop or give way sign
Clone out the street lamp on the left and the CCTV camera in the blown sky as that's a an area of the pic with no detail and the way they are in it kind of detracts slightly and makes it less 'clean' IMO
Leave the street sign in as it looks great

Awesome shot though... well done :)
 
amazing love the tones ,again I would love to have the confidence to try street photography .
 
The light is what makes this image. Straighten and crop is all that's required. No need to clone anything out, the details give context and time to the image and in no way are distracting. I'd crop just above the street lamp in the sky and a tad off the bottom and right. It'll make the guy a little bit larger in the image and draw the eye in there. I'd slightly dodge the tree and chimney at the end of the road to lessen the detail.

Very well seen image.
 
I like it a lot! I'm not sure it needs straightening (it almost gives a feel of movement), and anyone local will appreciate the street sign. I agree with Trevor that something could be done to lessen the detail at the end of the street though
 
Again, many thanks for the great feedback! :D

I have took it back into Lightroom and had a go with what a few have mentioned and tidied it up a little. I decided to keep the street sign in though.

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As for the settings used, taken from the exif as I cant remember.. :bonk:
Focal Length 35mm
Shutter Speed 1/500 sec
Aperture f/5.6
ISO/Film 250
 
Teshi said:
Stunner. I love the emptiness of it.
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I was about to say... how the hell did you get that?? You'd have to be stood right in the middle of princess street to get a view of St James St like that. This must be very early in the morning... or you'd be bus-made pancake by now :) Could be a long lens though from the other side of the road... it does king of look long... but even so... St James street with ONE person on it? That's rare :)


Great shot though!
 
35mm isn't very long is it David :thinking:

I like this with the sign in it, maybe because I can relate to it and the location
 
Great atmospere and feel to it. One of those few shots that turn up here and stand out by miles. Well done:)
 
I think this is an excellent shot, particularly the corrected version and can well imagine it well printed at A3. Very good. Just one of those moments when the light is great as it casts that shaft in the street and fills in from this side too.

As for people defining it as a 'street' photograph, well it's taken in a street and it's a great scene but it doesn't meet the generally accepted criteria for 'street' photography which tends to depict instantaneous moments, interaction of subject and environment, much closer to subject etc. which is where people seem to confuse random snaps as 'street'. Not a criticism at all, the image is very good in my estimation and a great urban scene.
 
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What a great shot. Much better now straightened and to be honest, I actually quite like the square crop, although I like it rectangular too. I don't think the bright bit of sky matters at all. Sometimes, in life, some things are that bright. There's nothing to say everything in the frame has to have detail in it.
 
Pookeyhead said:
I was about to say... how the hell did you get that?? You'd have to be stood right in the middle of princess street to get a view of St James St like that. This must be very early in the morning... or you'd be bus-made pancake by now :) Could be a long lens though from the other side of the road... it does king of look long... but even so... St James street with ONE person on it? That's rare :)


Great shot though!
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I don't know Manchester very well, so I can't even recall what street I was stood on as I took it. I was out shopping and decided to take the camera for a walk down some side streets and stumbled across China Town. I wasn't stood in the middle of the road, it wasn't that busy either. I must have just been lucky as it was about 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. Haha..
 
Thank you all for your feedback, I might have to get it printed now haha..
 
Joshwain said:
You should after all the work you've put in to it (y)
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Actually that's an interesting point...many people don't get them printed. It was club photography that started me printing to such large sizes, getting them mounted and trying to get the best blacks, control highlights etc. Many people are selling themselves short on their images by just giving them a quick edit and posting here or on Flickr or filing them on a hard drive.

This could look a really good image printed well on decent paper.
 
I love the look of this, quite ironic with one person and two CCTV cameras trained on him.....
Then I noticed something else, and it may just be me being dumb, but where was the light coming from to produce the shadow from the road sign, when the sun was coming from the other direction, and there is a shadow in front of the sign itself.. Was there a large window on the other side of the street that was reflecting back towards the sign?
 
Terrific shot, good atmosphere. So much stronger for the presence of the pedestrian for scale and interest. Straightening was necessary but, although I see the point about the sign, the original composition was correct (in my humble opinion) because it allows a Rule of Thirds, to frame that fantastic light show against a darker setting.

Really well done, my personal assessment of a great shot is when I say "I wish I'd shot that". But that probably says more about me than your shot :)
 
I have never even noticed about the light and the way it's hitting the sign. That's why I am not a photographer I guess haha, but very good spot! I have no idea why. Maybe a security spotlight of some kind shining onto the sign?

I am still quite surprised with the response on here.. Not had much attention on any other website.. 500px, Flickr etc. Truly grateful of all your comments and critique helping me to step my photo game up haha :LOL:
 
Very nice shot indeed!

I'm currently working on a personal project, shooting 10 films over the next few months in manchester of the streets. If i could have a set with even a couple to a standard like this, I'd be happy!
 
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Ash. said:
Very nice shot indeed!

I'm currently working on a personal project, shooting 10 films over the next few months in manchester of the streets. If i could have a set with even a couple to a standard like this, I'd be happy!
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How are you getting on with the project? Id be intrested in having a goosey when its done..
 
Not sure how I missed this post.
Fabulous image. The type most peeps would love to be able to capture.You will always get different responses on images, you will never work it out why they are popular or not.
For me it was spot on as you posted other than the straigten thing as for taking things out____why would you.
The complete picture is just awesome with georgous light and is full of atmosphere again not very often seen.

Merry Christmas and I hope you capture more in the future.

Gaz
 
Fantastic effort!
 
very nice shot, the original shot defiantly needed straightening and looks much better since you have done that. The person in the shot combined with the mist/haze is what makes it for me! Very nice shot that I would be proud to have in my library.
 
Dylexsic Gyu said:
How are you getting on with the project? Id be intrested in having a goosey when its done..
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Thanks :)

the project is going well! (other than the recent rain and cold-ish weather, as can be expected in manchester haha) I've currently shot around 6 rolls of film if i remember correctly. the aim is to shoot around 10 to 20 rolls (all B&W) by april / may kind of time, and then select the best 10 - 20 shots, and hopefully get them featured somewhere. I'll post them up here too!

I've shot a lot of different locations in the city. the affluent areas of deansgate, the northern quarter, castlefields etc, as well as the more run down areas of salford, moss side, disbury and more in order to capture a vast array of shots from the whole city, rather than just targeting one demographic. The aim of the project is essentially to show manchester today, and the people in context with their surroundings whether it be old, traditional architecture, or the modern business area's that have sprung up in recent decades.

I'd highly reccomend anyone into street photography to try a medium - long term project out. It's changed my style of shooting, and because I feel as if i've shot 'everything' in manchester, it's certainly made me more open to new techniques, and made me more experimental and creative with my shooting in order to get something different to what i've already got!

Hopefully there are a few images in the final set as powerful an image as the one you've taken in the first post! :)
 
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