arthury Posted May 14, 2007 Share #1 Posted May 14, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hello all, I know that there are a few street photography books out there but, I am looking for one that talks more deeply into composition for street/human photography. I would also be interested in composition techniques for humans in general. Thanks for sharing, Arthur Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted May 14, 2007 Posted May 14, 2007 Hi arthury, Take a look here Composition Book --- human photography. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
frc Posted May 14, 2007 Share #2 Posted May 14, 2007 "I would also be interested in composition techniques for humans in general." This is more a religious question than a photograpic one, this could better been asked to a priest. On streetphotography, look for social interaction and typical moments, it's about content, not form. Google "streetphotography" and you are in heaven, no books needed here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted May 14, 2007 Share #3 Posted May 14, 2007 Look for tension or harmony between the subjects and/or their environment, and between themselves too. Avoid the trap of thinking that just clicking the shutter when there are people going about their daily lives will result in something of interest to others - which isn't the same as saying it won't be of interest to you. Learn to edit and reject shots - this is hard! Learn to be happy if you take one really good shot a year. Remember that every shot could have been better somehow, try to find out how and why. Learn to see and not just look. Be inquisitive, it's good to want to know what's around the next corner. These don't just apply to street shots of course. One other thing that might sound a bit daft. If you're walking around take a look behind from time to time. The light will be totally different and you may see something you would otherwise have missed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted May 14, 2007 Share #4 Posted May 14, 2007 I've written a couple of articles about this that might be of interest to you. As Winogrand often repeated, "Every picture is a contention between form and content". Cheers, Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted May 14, 2007 Share #5 Posted May 14, 2007 It was all geometry to HCB. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicar7 Posted May 14, 2007 Share #6 Posted May 14, 2007 In the broad sense, there is not anything particularly different about composing for portraits or street shooting than any other composing. It all reduces to the abstract structure of the image and your understanding how to use the elements and principles of design in building an image in the viewfinder. But for books.... Michael Freeman's new book on design comes out in June from Focal Press. It is an update of what, to my mind, has stood for years as the single best book on visual design in photography available in English: "Image," published in the 1980s by Collins and Amphoto. I have every reason to believe that his new book will become the new best available in English, and the best available currently in print. If you read German, I would also recommend Harald Mante's "Das Foto," due out tomorrow in a revision of his 2001 book. Thorsten Andreas Hoffmann has a good book on B&W design. Both of these are published by Verlag Photographie. I wish there could be found an English publisher who could affiliate with VP to get these books into English. Mante published two books in the 1970s that made it into English that are classics: "Photo Design" and "Color Design." "Das Foto" updates these and adds considerably more information. The only other fine writing on design in photography in English is long out of print. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
popum Posted May 14, 2007 Share #7 Posted May 14, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) hello There is an excellent series of essays dealing with composition and other matters that link art criticism and photography by Ben Lifson that can be found at.... RAWWorkflow.com - Make better pictures from your pixels™ Several of the posters here have worked with Ben. Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted May 14, 2007 Share #8 Posted May 14, 2007 Ben's series is possibly the best ever written on these topics. Cheers, Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tashley Posted May 14, 2007 Share #9 Posted May 14, 2007 Ben's series is possibly the best ever written on these topics. Cheers, Sean Sean is probably right but is also being modest. His own piece on 'Photographing Strangers' contains all the basics you'd ever need to know, with great examples which are drawn from classical art rather than photography. It's the best primer I've seen in what makes a shot work. As Stuntsworth added, HCB was big on geometry. I personally find that one sentence is a lifetime's inspiration. One thing that is of great interest to me as a one-time novelist, is the idea of a developing a narrative in a set of street images. Whilst it is great advice to avoid images that look like random shutter presses of people going about their business, such images can take on much more powerful resonance as part of a series. The tension gets transferred from the same image to another in the series, but the audience has to trust you that this will happen... It's a long and fascinating subject! Best Tim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted May 14, 2007 Share #10 Posted May 14, 2007 Sean is probably right but is also being modest. His own piece on 'Photographing Strangers' contains all the basics you'd ever need to know, with great examples which are drawn from classical art rather than photography. It's the best primer I've seen in what makes a shot work. As Stuntsworth added, HCB was big on geometry. I personally find that one sentence is a lifetime's inspiration. One thing that is of great interest to me as a one-time novelist, is the idea of a developing a narrative in a set of street images. Whilst it is great advice to avoid images that look like random shutter presses of people going about their business, such images can take on much more powerful resonance as part of a series. The tension gets transferred from the same image to another in the series, but the audience has to trust you that this will happen... It's a long and fascinating subject! Best Tim Hi Tim, Thanks very much. There are actually two articles that have been finished in that series. The first is about this thing that is called "Street Photography" and it deals primarily with the visual aspects. The second is called, "Photographing Strangers" and it deals primarily with the pragmatic/human interaction aspects of this kind of work. The next article in the series will look at a variation on this kind of work where the subjects are not strangers. Cheers, Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokysun Posted May 15, 2007 Share #11 Posted May 15, 2007 these are random notes but he focuses ultimately on portraits. maybe browsing through it will bring a few answers: Amazon.com: The Art Spirit: Notes, Articles, Fragments of Letters and Talks to Students, Bearing on the Concept and Technique of Picture Making, the Study of Art Generally, and on Appreciation (Icon Editions): Books: Robert Henri,Robert Henri,Margery these two bill brandt books contain a number of interesting quotes by bill brandt on the matter. i just spent a couple of hours in the library with the first one and the second one last summer. he's certainly one of the people who inspired me with a love of photography. and he seems to me a master at catching people in all kinds of situations and environments. his nudes are terrific. Amazon.com: Brandt: Books: Bill Jay Amazon.com: Bill Brandt: A Life: Books: Paul Delany and though the library has the following, i couldn't resist buying a copy of my own. it has to be one of the most comprehensive collections of photo portraits in existence Amazon.com: Faces: A Narrative History of the Portrait in Photography: Books: Ben Maddow,Constance Sullivan and i've loved browsing thru this Amazon.com: The Education of a Photographer: Books: Charles H. Traub,Steven Heller,Adam B. Bell and especially enjoyed traub's own axioms on page 190: "Practice does not follow theory. Theory follows practice." all this said, i wonder if one of the spiritual guru books might not help, when they say see the god in the other? the best photographers of people seem to be strong characters themselves! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bernd Banken Posted May 15, 2007 Share #12 Posted May 15, 2007 Look for tension or harmony between the subjects and/or their environment, and between themselves too. Avoid the trap of thinking that just clicking the shutter when there are people going about their daily lives will result in something of interest to others - which isn't the same as saying it won't be of interest to you. Learn to edit and reject shots - this is hard! Learn to be happy if you take one really good shot a year. Remember that every shot could have been better somehow, try to find out how and why. Learn to see and not just look. Be inquisitive, it's good to want to know what's around the next corner. These don't just apply to street shots of course. One other thing that might sound a bit daft. If you're walking around take a look behind from time to time. The light will be totally different and you may see something you would otherwise have missed. Thanks, one of the best explanations I could read in such a short form. From my experience: Love the people, open your mind to "become soft" so that the hidden image can penetrate your brain to be recognized. The rest is technic. Bernd Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stnami Posted May 15, 2007 Share #13 Posted May 15, 2007 My surgeon mate Phil and Mick are in the process of dismantling a Silent One at the local, if you can wait a couple of days I'll get back to you about the composition bit....... fits neatly in a ute Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokysun Posted May 15, 2007 Share #14 Posted May 15, 2007 doing theater stuff, i'm very conscious designers constantly tackling this question. you might start with Amazon.com: Sculpting Space in the Theater: Conversations with the top set, light and costume designers: Books: Babak Ebrahimian and an interesting way to continue your research, is the next time you watch a play or movie or somone at a party, close your eyes and open them, get a glimpse of that person's face, close them, do this a number of times and you'll immediately see how many ways one person can look when in the middle of a conversation. this means it's the photographer's choice which face and attitude to choose out of the dozens of possibilities in just a few minutes. seems to me there's a scale. at one end you have the highly composed and staged photograph Amazon.com: Philip-Lorca Dicorcia (Contemporaries : a Photography Series): Books: Peter Galassi this makes people more like mannikins in the market (and diCorcia tells how much money he paid each street hustler to pose). at the other end you have people who seem to shine as individuals, Amazon.com: A Kind of Rapture: Books: Robert Bergman though i find most fall in the middle. they either find themselves in the other (hcb for example) or they express an attitude or philosophy of life as in my favorite Amazon.com: Paris: Books: Robert Doisneau,Deke Dusinberre where what we see over and over is the photographer's delight in life, choosing people generally when they have highs. so isn't a big part of the question this: how do you see people in the world? a tight composition can say: people are trapped, they've few options. (though hcb often shows doorways or windows or distances, implying there might be a way out). a looser composition might, as in doisneau, leave a more openness to our options. i think any book on theater design has to deal with all these issues, different from play to play. and then the photographer discoveries his/her own world in this play of shadows that belongs to all of us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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