p.1 #1 · Dubai Street Scenes and Candids - Image Heavy
I've just started to try my hand at street and candid photography. The local laws are as hazy as the rest of the world, but with a guilty until proven innocent mentality it's taken a bit of nerve to start up. Here is a set of work so far in the touristy and not so touristy areas of the city.
p.1 #3 · Dubai Street Scenes and Candids - Image Heavy
Very good set really. At each photo i stopped for a while and was looking at it - all photos are interesting in some way which is a good sign of quality. I like your processing quite a lot.
Hope you will post more of you work in a future even though it is not comfortable for you to shoot on the streets of Dubai as you write.
p.1 #8 · Dubai Street Scenes and Candids - Image Heavy
machjakub wrote:
Very good set really. At each photo i stopped for a while and was looking at it - all photos are interesting in some way which is a good sign of quality. I like your processing quite a lot.
Hope you will post more of you work in a future even though it is not comfortable for you to shoot on the streets of Dubai as you write.
Thanks machjakub
I've since learned that you are not allowed to take photographs of Emirati women, but can ask to take photos of Emirati men with permission. It becomes hazy when they're part of the scene but not an obvious subject. The vast majority of the population in Dubai come from India and Pakistan who are more than willing subjects but you have to be quick as you can easily get too much eye contact and staring from subjects.
So it's becoming more comfortable. I think it actually helps to stand out and look like a tourist, but not gaining eye contact with the subjects before or after the shot.
p.1 #11 · Dubai Street Scenes and Candids - Image Heavy
Thanks gheller
All of these are shot as 14-bit RAW files on a D700 with either 35mm Distagon, 85mm f1.4D or even the 14-24mm f2.8 (notice the slight perspective distortion in no. 2 as there was only 3 feet to play with to get the subject and textures of the wall and doorway in the frame). Subtle, it was not!
With the processing, I'm learning as I go along. B&W is pretty new to me, but the light in Dubai is very flat so everything needs a contrast boost. With the ageing scenes and non western clothing I feel it really lends itself to black and white anyway.
I'm converting with ACR into Photoshop and doing the usual cloning and fixing if required. Then I'm using Nik Colour Efex to generally boost tonal contrast slightly. Sometimes this is done so it looks natural as a colour shot and occasionally the end result looks slightly over the top in colour. If there is a shallow depth of field I'm then brushing this effect into the colour image so as not to affect the background and out of focus areas (e.g. no. 5, where the tonal contrast introduces a sheen to the skin tones, but would introduce noise to the black t shirt so this was brushed in sparingly - ISO4000 never looked this good on my D90!). I'm never sharpening in the colour image.
Then I'm into Silver Efex for the conversion to black and white using a tweaked version of one of the presets. Again there are times from trial and error that a certain effect works better on part of the scene so sometimes I create two versions and blend. Very rarely is any sharpening needed.
p.1 #16 · Dubai Street Scenes and Candids - Image Heavy
i've roamed these streets for years and its really good to see quality street photography covering this part of the world my favs are 3 & 7. thanks for sharing!
p.1 #17 · Dubai Street Scenes and Candids - Image Heavy
Awesome set. Some of the best I've seen.
What I admire most is your composition skills and the right choices of aperture to make them work. To say "good eye" doesn't quite convey what I'm trying to say.
Please chime in on the photos of others here on the board and maybe give suggestions and critiques.
p.1 #19 · Dubai Street Scenes and Candids - Image Heavy
Thanks everyone - I'm very flattered by the all the responses on here!
I've been a lurker in this area of the forum for a long time, and post mainly in the Nikon and Alt sections. I'm definitely going to continue working on more street and faces photos in Dubai and Abu Dhabi when I get the chance. With it being Ramadan at the moment and stinking hot over the last few months the opportunities are limited right now. Every expat's stay in Dubai is finite and I want to make sure I get some nice shots documented while I'm here.
I'll definitely be chiming in in the future on here!
No 10 is my favourite, with no 7 a close 2nd. The 85 f1.4D really helps on these and the focal length seems just enough for full body environmental candid portraits/street without being too noticable. The original colour RAW of no 10 is nice, but the processing was quite complex (for me and my attention span) and really pops in B&W.
my favs are 3 & 7. thanks for sharing!