A couple of candids from today

I love taking candid people shots. Here's a couple I took today while out and about in London.

Both shot with a 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM lens on a Canon 40D. Post-processing: tweaked fill light, highlights, and shadow in Picasa. Mild soft focus effect in Picasa on the second one. Saved at 85% quality in the Gimp.

Click the picture to go to the Flickr page where you can see the large version.

Beautiful Tourist
1/400 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 500, Av mode, fl:300mm, partial metering

This one was taken in Trafalgar Square where I was sitting with my latte. A strikingly beautiful young woman (the photo just doesn't do her justice) was sitting about 15 feet to my right. From that distance her face filled my frame when I zoomed fully to 300mm.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/2​426310122/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/2​426317280/

No. 2 is a real gem. I do think it s need some PP but I'm noi sure what (being that I'm new to PP). Great work.

#2 is great, very patriotic.

#2 is great. Wonderful sneak capture.

#2 is great!

Thanks for your comments, everyone, I value your opinions. So I'm interested to know what you think of #1. It's one I like a lot myself and I wonder if I'm just too close to it to know if it's good or not.

I think it's the soft focus or dreamy feel in the first image that throws me off. Particularly under her chin and then again from her hair towards the top of the frame. I don't know if this is post processing or the result of the image quality saved for upload purposes.

I find her sunglasses distracting, but realize there wasn't anything you could do about those. The bright reflection in the lenses catches my attention and draws me away from her eyes. Just holding my hand over the top portion to "crop" the sunglasses our of the shot makes a huge difference for me. I know you're supposed to leave space above someone's head and not crop it out of the frame... but sometimes you do what you gotta do. Perhaps darkening the lenses would help.

I am also distracted by her cut off ear. I think the spacing in front of her is excellent, but find myself looking at the sunglasses first, and her eye and ear compete for my attention second. With the sunglasses out of the picture, this doesn't bother me as much.

I certainly think #1 has potential. The fact that the image evokes emotion from you says it all. As it stands right now, I think I lose that emotion because I am not instantly drawn to the expression on her face. With some editing I think you can change that focus and show others what you saw when you captured it.

I hope that helps!

Did you ask her permission or told her that you took her picture? I wonder what others think about that. I hesitate to do that myself unless they can't be recognized. There's becoming so many issues with privacy here in Canada. Please don't take this as criticism, I do like your pictures.

intrinsicvalue: Thanks for your comments. This is the kind of feedback that I really value.

swoCanuk: The law here in the UK allows anyone to take a picture of anyone else who is in a public place. I didn't ask her if I could take her photo as it would go against the whole idea of taking a candid shot. And I didn't tell her I'd taken it as by the time I'd chimped the shot and checked it was OK, she was gone.

I take quite a few candid shots wherever I happen to be and quite a few of my subjects notice that I've taken their picture and most of them give me a free smile in addition. Only twice has anyone asked me if I'd taken their picture and in both cases I hadn't. In one of those cases I hadn't taken a picture at all, I'd just been metering the sky and the scenery. If anyone were to ask me to delete the picture I've just taken of them I'd show them the picture and tell them why I took it (to get better at photography and for my Flickr account) and ask them if they really want me to delete it. If they do, I'd delete it straight away and show them that I had no more pictures of them on my camera. If anyone were to request that I remove their picture from my Flickr account, I'd do that too.

I certainly don't take your question and comments as criticism; it's a valid and important subject for discusison. When it comes to taking photos of adults in public places (especially places like Trafalgar Square where everyone and his dog is taking pictures) I will always come down on the side of those who want the freedom to take pictures. I agree that there are areas of contention such as the harassment of "celebrities" (I have only taken pictures of them when they are either performing or doing the photo/autograph bit) and photographing children (I just don't).

When it comes to people taking pictures of me (as long as it's in a public place) I don't mind at all as long as they don't expect me to buy them a new lens...

I really like #2. It makes me ask a lot of questions. It might be better if I didn't know that he was watching a play. I thought maybe he was grieving for fallen comrades or something.

#1 does nothing for me because it doesn't relay a story.

ijohnson wrote in post #5376222
I really like #2. It makes me ask a lot of questions. It might be better if I didn't know that he was watching a play. I thought maybe he was grieving for fallen comrades or something.

Yes. Many people have said that a good photo is one that tells a story. I don't quite agree with that. I think a good photo is one that allows you to tell a story, even if it's not about what was actually going on at the time the picture was taken.

ijohnson wrote in post #5376222
#1 does nothing for me because it doesn't relay a story.

Thanks for your comments. It's always useful to know what kinds of pictures people like and don't like.