Manchester Street Portrait first try...

[salemslot]

This is my First try at street portraits any advice on how to improve my street portraits will be welcome... this is taken using a Tamron 70-300 lens on a Nikon D7000

[Andrew76]

Hi there, welcome to CiC! I think you've done a pretty good job at capturing a 'Street Portrait', however the focus is so incredibly off it's hard to discern any detail from either of the gentlemen. Maybe start to work on making sure the eyes of the subject(s) are in perfect focus, and I think you'll be well on your way!

[Cambnoob]

I would also aim to cut down on the empty frame above their heads and add some of it to either side of them.

[salemslot]

May i just say thank-you for the welcome Andrew76
I agree that the focus is way off but in my defence it was my first try at 'street portraits' with my new 70-300 tamron lens or any other time and i was pretty nervous of taking this shot for these reasons i will try harder next time. But i was just wondering how others go about taking shots like this and also what is best to look for?

Thank-you once again for the advice from you both.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi "salemshot",

Andrew and, oh, Andrew have covered a couple of suggestions, which I endorse.

You may well want to look at significantly increasing your shutter speed too, this shows signs of double image, probably caused by camera shake (at 300mm), but possibly subject movement could be a factor.

Don't be afraid to raise the iso to 800, 1600, or more, if it is really noisy, you can always do a B&W conversion where such 'grain' is considered "arty"
Being serious; especially if you're not having to crop (to zoom in further) or under exposing, noise isn't half the problem some people 'out there' make out!

I'd suggest practising on static subjects at long focal lengths and using the same techniques before trying again for real subjects.

Nearly forgot; if your lens has "VR", "VC" or "IS" (image stabilisation), do make sure it is switched on.

One more thing - you'll find most of us here at CiC use our first names and give a location - this helps make things even more friendly and give advice appropriate to your locale. Could you Edit your Profile and pop a name into the Real Name field please? plus a Location - thanks.

Welcome to the CiC forums from ....

[Geoff F]

Do we have a first name for you? Salemslot sounds so formal.

Taking quick candid shots can be difficult when the intended subjects are looking towards you and don't really want to be photographed.

Auto focus with just the centre focusing point, to help prevent false focus problems, then quickly recompose after focusing may help.

Pre focusing on a nearby object then switching to the main target can sometimes reduce the lens focusing time with slow acting lenses.

Pre focusing on the target, when they aren't looking, holding focus and exposure, then taking a quick shot is another method which can work.

Otherwise, it is just a case of pretending to be interested in another subject then craftily switch over. I've even got away with comments like 'I just need to check the camera white balance/exposure before shooting a scene across the road'.

[salemslot]

Me again firstly my name is Paul i usually shoot with a Nikon D7000 and sometimes with a D3100 using a few other lenses, i'am from the good old UK.

I will take on the idea's that you have both suggested i did try other shots on the day from a fair distance as i will show later, but this was just one of those "can you do a shot of us two please? " kind of situations that caught me totally off my gaurd! anyway here is a couple of my other shots from yesterday in Manchester, i hope you like.

[Geoff F]

Yes those are a lot sharper, Paul, and there were potential background focusing problems with them, which you successfully managed to avoid.