New Joiners - People #557

This reminds me very much of the Danish photographer Ken Hermann's work around the Malik Ghat market in Kolkata. However this frame is less intimate and relies on post-production colour work which is a shame. I like the flowers but I find the additional details of the background rather distracting. A solution might have been, if you're not including a more intimate approach from the front, would have been to adopt a much lower angle so as to force the viewer to see only the flowers in a more abstract way. Still a good effort for seeing what you wanted, even if that vision might take a bit more work.

Although I'm sure that there is a photograph in here somewhere, I'm not sure that you've found it or found it sufficiently for it to 'work'. Although I like the faces caught in the moment and the handrail bisecting the frame (I even like the hand coming across), the overall effect if of a 'snap'. The chaos of the composition isn't enough to carry the sum of the elements. Try and go back and simplify. A simpler frame might have excluded the boy and woman on the right whilst still keeping the fist holding the frame. Another simplification might have been just the two central actor's faces. Keep pushing - good candid work is about seeing and then adjusting your position to exclude the extraneous whilst making the strongest composition you can.

This is delightful - as much for the exposure and the focal point of the eye as for the small details. The curve of the pony-tail and the mirroring of the hands in tandem are really subtle and makes up for the lack of shadow detail overall. In essence, that exposure treatment forces us to see what is essential in the frame and the sunlight seen through the highlights of the hair are the icing on the cake. Well done.

I think that there's a great energy to this image. Partly that's due to good fortune and where the photographer is standing but also it's down to the 'curve' in the pattern of the netting above the market and the off-centre placing of the cart . For me, the stripes shirt of the woman to the left is distracting and a bit more spatial thought around backgrounds wouldn't have hurt but overall , a good effort.

This is a delightful, personal moment that's captured a lovely memory. As a photograph however, it lacks a good deal of technical thought - mostly I suspect because the camera has 'averaged' the exposure, pretty much blowing the highlights - an effect exacerbated by converting it to monochrome. It's always a good idea to think about where the highlights are and even in an instant like this meter for them rather than allow the camera to do the work. A little practice and you'll discover that this isn't so hard.

This is a lovely frame and will, I'm sure, become an aide-memoire to a moment well seen. As a photograph however, although it has emotion in spades, its technicalities might be improved by taking control of the camera and not letting it decide what the exposure and colour temperature should be - both of which seem to be inaccurate. Try and decide how you want the frae to look before you press the shutter. Well done in any case for capturing a joyous moment.

As much as this is a pleasing image that might evoke personal memories, I think a better photograph might have been made by showing the scene from a different angle. There are't any faces shown here and whilst that is often not a problem, it means that the image is ambiguous. Are the people engaging with the birds or looking somewhere else? Are there two images here - the birds in the fountain and the people - or just one? Try and think what you're making an image of and then the best way of communicating what you want the viewer to see. Keep pushing.

This is a really nice effort and primarily that relates to compositional balance. Here, all the figures are well delineated and have 'space' within which to be observed. Certainly, the frame isn't perfect - the partial detail of what I suspect is the violin case, frame left - is distracting but overall, this is a good attempt at 'balance' and timing. Well done.

Sometimes it's small details in an image that make them work. Here, in a frame that isn't perfect - I'm concerned about the rather too 'convenient' beams of light and the overall exposure - it is for me the man's hands on the cross and the woman's raised hands that make it work. In a rather too heavily post-produced image, there is a kernel of a lovely moment. Try and concentrate on those rather than hammering home a point by work after the exposure.

Whilst I very much like the intimacy here and the framing of the figure, I'm unconvinced that the shadow detail is sufficiently captured as you say. Not to deflect from what is a cracking effort, you are not helped by the very nature of the deep shadow caused I suspect by the directness of the cross-light that is evident on his right cheek. There are several ways to deal with this - you might embrace the 'soot and snow' approach of Bill Brandt for example and let the shadows fill to create a more dramatic if less 'accurate' exposure or you meter more accurately for the shadows and compensate with the highlights. This is more problematic with the tonal range of higher speed film. Thirdly, you might consider all of these factors and choose which light (less contrasty) and background (ditto) to work with. What you have is decent enough as compromise but it's always worth considering these additional factors.

This is a very nice idea that almost works. I like the pose of the woman and I like that her hat frames her head - as does the car door frame. I like the boot and the way that it dominates the image but ultimately this image, like so many, could have been improved by minor tweaks of where the photographer stood. A inch higher and the frame would have excluded the distracting opposite doors and what they show - a little to the left and the boot would have been more of a compositional feature. The key is to look all around the frame in-camera and decide what is the most compositionally pleasing result before you press the shutter. Sometimes, planning what the final frame is, is the way to go.

This is a really intriguing image and I certainly like the innovative and challenging perspective - and vantage point. This feels like surveillance - no problem with that aesthetically (see Alexander Rodchenko's constructivist work or indeed Alejandro Cartagena's more contemporary images of Mexican carpoolers) but the issue is that it isn't entirely clear what we're looking at. Sometimes making images from extreme angles is a compromise between aesthetics and meaning and here quite simply, the sunlight on the foliage (top right) completely distracts from the person as subject. That said, keep pushing with this interesting idea

Parades are always difficult to photograph and the Orange Order ones especially because of the feelings involved. Here however the photographer seems to have snatched at it - certainly giving an impression of the size of it but getting none of the emotion or feeling. The only way around this is to choose a closer point with which to engage (bearing in mind the impossibility of getting amongst the marchers). Here a lower (or higher) point of view and a longer lens (I can see that this was shot on a phone) are your friends.

I really do like the idea of this - a tableau that vaguely reminds me of Cartier-Bresson's 'Picnic on the bank of the Marne' (1938). For me the sun break makes a lovely shape that demands us look around the frame and the photographer has managed - more of less - to time the exposure so that individuals are nicely delineated. However, it feels a bit 'loose' - I'd like to see more of the child looking for whatever he''s searching for and a little more closer in. Finally, the exposure is off by perhaps a stop - the highlights are on the edge of blowing and the shadows very thick. This is a real shame as with more technical care, this would have been a cracker. Keep pushing.

There's lots here to like - but also some things that distract. Firstly, a nice clear shape of the subject means we know exactly what she's doing. Secondly, the pin-sharp eye is an obvious focal-point (sorry for stating the obvious). However, there are things to improve. Firstly, and by far the most distracting are the lamp and the bag(?)/pillows behind. A large aperture has succeeded to some extent by blurring those but not enough. The interplay between foreground/background is crucial and here it just doesn't work well enough. Either move distractions or the position of the photographer. Secondly, exposure. The highlights are too bright and the shadows too dense. Careful metering, especially when you have the time is key here - and I suspect shielding the main window light to diffuse it and/or introducing something to 'fill' the left side to put some light into the shadows would have made a better image. Well done thought, this isn't a bad effort.