Assignment Three- Street Photography

                                                         My Initial ideas

I'm focusing on exploring the different concepts of how to capture street photography in every day life. The aim is to have a final outcome of an image which will portray what i'm trying to achieve and show, having an interesting outlook that describes the area of where the photo has been taken, showing every day life.
I want to achieve a simple image that describes exactly how the photo appears in an interesting way, which will grab your attention and think 'wow'. I want the image to be unique, using colours to reflect on the 'mood' within the photograph.


Researching a street photographer- Haken Cinar.


In all his images Haken tries to grasp the concept of what street photography is, every day life. He has a wide range of different photographs ranging from 'lonely' images, to more 'sociable'. I like the versatility of how he takes images in all weathers, reflecting exactly to what street photography portrays. Its not staged and its not posed, its natural. I like how he doesn't ground himself to using a certain lighting, some images are in black and white, others in colour, depending on the atmosphere within the image. Throughout a lot of his photographs he seems to focus more on capturing closer shots, so you can see in detail the motion and feelings. 


For example, this image focuses in macro of a man looking distant, with the background blurred out of a group of people. This image portrays loneliness captured on a typical day along a street. I love the detail and defined overall appearance of this image. He's used black and white, which brings out the concept of this image portraying loneliness. The colours used are sharp, fine and extremely clear which makes this image a great overall effect. 

Another example of Hakens street photography is this image of someone riding a bike in the snow. I love this image and what it shows. The colours used reflect well because of the weather and lighting from the distant lampposts. Its an extremely different outlook from the first photo I had shown, which portrays a completely different way of showing street photography. This photo gives a more 'happier' vibe, purely because of the colours used. I noticed in this image no facial expressions are shown, the centred image of someone riding the bike doesn't reveal anything, which makes this image mysterious. 

Another image Haken has taken is seen below, as you can tell its completely different yet again from the first two. This suggesting that Hakan is a very versatile photographer, who grasps all concepts of street photography. The vibrancy of colours used definitely emphasises this culture and tradition. It focuses on two people exchanging food and money in what seems to be a busy high street or city (faint figures in the background, also balloons above indicating this). The colours almost blend together, starting from dark at the bottom of the image, gradually getting brighter and colourful. This image grabs my attention because of the colours used, and how the colours are used. I love that Hakan has thought about the culture within this image, and used what he felt would work best to express the image to its full potential. 

This image is very unique, its almost as if two different images have been merged together to create one image. The colours are what make this image something unique. The top half of the image has used saturated colours such as purple and pink to bring out the nightlife and intensity, whereas the bottom half of the image has used basic colours, unedited. Its the idea of almost two completely opposite images being merged together by different colours to create a whole image, its very interesting and visualising, capturing my attention immediately. What makes it even better is that before this had been edited, it was just one 'normal' image that would of had nothing unique about it.

Haken expresses his street photography in very unique ways. From black and white, vibrant colouring, macro and close ups of expressions and emotions.

My 10 final images: 

My street photography photos were captured in London.

The image above displays a unique angle I took my photo at. The building is obviously the main focus for this photograph as the majority of the photo is of the building, with a slight image of the sky creeping through, making the building look bright and interesting. For this image I used the camerea's standard settings as I felt it captured the image i wanted for street photography in a great way because of the natural lighting.

This image, again, I felt looked great unedited by the cameras settings as the natural light fro the sun gave the image a lovely overall appearance. Although there is a purple print mark from the sunlight on this image, I feel it almost adds something different to this photo. This is a typical street photograph which I wanted to capture. It's an every day life image showing the tall buildings as well as the people walking the streets along with transport as well. I took this image from my point of view, slightly aiming the camera upwards to capture the sunlight so the image would appear brighter.

This image as you can tell had been changed to 'red' on the camera settings. This allowed me to capture a photograph and giving the photo a red tint. I chose this coloured tint for this photograph as I was following the simular methods that Haken uses within his photographs. This is another great image of street photography being captured on the daily life in London. The only thing i would criticise is the lack of sky within this photo, I focused more so on the ground and transport. The camerea setting used apart from changing the colour to a tinted red were the standard camera settings as I feel capturing street photography is all about portraying the photograph to look as natural and unposed as possible.

 

This image I took was captured in a dark sepia on my camera settings. As you can see the image has a slight orange/brown tint to it, but not over dramatic, which makes this photo look proffessional because of the calm use of colours. This image is simular to the images Haken produces as he either takes extremely dark photographs, displaying expressions, or bright, vibrant photographs which display happiness and excitment. This image yet again captures the meaning of street photography as it focuses on every day life. I had slightly zoomed in on my camerea to get this shot as It was impossible for me to stand on the road to take this image. I like that in this photograph I have captured all aspects of a street photograph as It displays traffic, people, buildings and the sky, which I think makes a great combination for a street photography image.

For this image I brought the saturation level right down so I was able to get an almost 'cold' appearance. Apart from changing the camerea saturations settings I slightly bent down in order to capture this image as I wanted to focus more so on the surroundings. Although Haken dosen't do many photos like this in this colour I wanted to express what I liked aswell. I thought this image justified every day life, and by adding the colour saturation it has enabled the photo to appear much more 'darker' which gives this photograph an eerie appearance.

This image had been adjusted on the camera settings to brightning the saturation, sharpening the image and making the image more vibrant. This image was taken looking up so I was able to capture the sky as well as other surroundings. I like how I was able to capture the traditional London bus' which make this street photograph instantly easy to locate where it was taken. I also love how the image increases with brightness, starting with a more dark, defined appearance at the bottom of the image, gradually increasing to the bright sky, which in the background you can see the building is almost blending with the sky.

This image had been adjusted on the camera to give a dark saturation effect. Although many of my images are simular, each individual photograph adds something different. I like how this photograph focuses on the building in the background, and then as soon as you look downwards it begins to become hectic and portrays a more every day life appearance.

This photograph is simular to the one about, however, it's slightly more zoomed in so I could capture more of the 'hectic' surroundings. I yet again used basic camerea settings as well as the zoom button and bringing the saturation slightly down to make it darker. I slightly bent down to get this photo, almost so I was from a floors point of view as i thought it would be an interesting shot.

This photograph is one of my favourites as I have definitely captured Haken's street photography style. I chose to put this photo in black and white as when I was taking the photo I noticed the man holding up a sign, protesting. Which because the sign was black and white I thought it would stand out on a black and white background, making the atmosphere of the photo slightly different. The camera settings were set to black and white, as well as using the zoom button to slightly show the protesting sign more clearly.

This photograph is extremely simular to one of Haken's photographs. (Look right to the image). Although the colours are slightly different the idea of having two images looking merged together to make one looks great. It's very simular to Haken, who throughout this process of taking street photography was my inspirtation. I simply used the red tint tool to capture this photograph.




Evaluation

Street photography has helped me to develop more knowledge on how you can express different aspects of an image. It also helped me to develop my understanding on different selections on a camera which you can chose to change the photos appearance as you take it.