Street shot C&C please

[Hardwire]

Hello guys,

My first real submission for C&C (second actually, but back onto someone elses thread) trying to pluck up the courage to hit people up more in the streets non candid style.

Turns out he was a nice chap after a quick chat before I moved on.

[JBeckwith]

He looks like an interesting person and I like the picture overall.

My critique would be that be background isn't really adding anything to the image (either presence of or absence of a background) so I would have either got in closer to him or cropped it tighter to show more of the expression in his face.  As it stands right now (to me) it seems like just a man sitting in an empty frame, whereas a closer shot might show a bit more about the actual personality of the man.

[distant.star]

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Looks like a fine portrait to me.

My first reaction, same as Beckwith, that a tighter focus on the man might be more compelling. On the other hand, I could make a strong case for the value of negative space. In this case, it seems to suggest the man's bleak outlook/future as well as his isolation.

Since it's a man looking into the camera, it's hard for me to make a case that it's "street photography." But that's open to broad interpretation these days.

I haven't gone into EXIF, but it looks like a 5D3. I'd like to know the lens and other specs too.

Thanks for asking.

[Hardwire]

Thanks, I did deliberate for some time about the crop, however once I dropped the exposure to darken out the underpass (and lose the people walking in the scene) he was sitting by the empty black space did appear to mimic the empty life of a homeless person.

It turns out he was not actually looking at the camera, but the bum of a rather cute women who was just passing where I was standing and admitted that he tends not to see the men walking past in a crude yet slightly jovial way.

Distant.star, well spotted on the camera (how exactly did you know?) in terms of Exif 1/1600 2.8 @200mm ISO 100

[sanj]

I like the bkg. But find the head room excessive.

Love the photo though.