11. Street Portraits, Final Images & Critical Evaluation

"Hi! How would you like to help me with my University Project?"

And these lovely strangers said yes.

Here are my final photographs for my Street Portrait Assignment. I was extremely nervous when approaching strangers to photograph. It was difficult to find the approachable strangers, who might have been more than happy to help, although it did take me a long time to approach the first person I photographed, but in the end I forced myself to do it, especially as I was running out of time because I'd put it off for so long, simply down to my nerves. After asking the third or fourth person, it became easier to accept rejection and moving on. 

I was very surprised how many people actually said yes!

To begin, I asked people if they had a spare minute, but this gave them a chance to say they were busy, so I changed my opening line to "How would you like to help me with my university project?" I thought this worked very well, making people feel like they were doing something good. 

I tried keeping the exact same distance from the subject, and keeping the same angle, and overall I thought they looked good.

A Short Critical Evaluation.

Overall, I am fairly happy with my Street Portrait images. The photographs successfully documented a range of age and gender groups, which was a very important part of the criteria. The framing of the face was fairly accurate, and consistent throughout each portrait, although, looking at all of the portraits together, from a difference, there are some with are slightly closer, and fill the frame, more than others. There was more of the upper body in some portraits than others, this could have been down to the angle the photograph was taken, as there are some people who seem to be looking own.
Some of the subjects do have a small smirk on their faces, and no matter how much I told them not to smile, people still do when you stick a camera in their face. I could have emphasized to the subject more not to smile, in order to get the stern look that is required.
Perhaps working on one single background would have been better than walking around, looking for approachable people. A plain background might have worked better than a mixture, this would have meant staying in one spot, asking people if you can photograph them as they pass.
Finally, it might have been better to taken more photographs to have a greater variation, and more choice to choose from. When it came to Street Portraits, I did take the twenty and finish photographing, simply because I was fairly nervous asking complete strangers if I could photograph them.
I am fairly proud of myself for completing this assignment, and I am genuinely happy with my outcome.