Shootout
http://www.digitalcameraworld.com FEBRUARY 2022 DIGITAL CAMERA^91
Turn street into abstract
Shooting low from behind a flower bed and
composing the frame on the rear display
of her camera, Gabriela was able to shoot
without disturbing any passers-by. To take
her images away from being straight-up
street shots, Gabriela reduced the shutter
speed to produce some motion blur, which
in turn gave her images a dab of dynamism
and some added abstraction.Challenge 2
Gabriela Straczynskaerhaps keeping faith with
the human aspect of the
fashion shot round, most of
the abstract images Gabriela
took for this challenge also featured people.
She uses them as elements of the urban
landscape, though, to add a sense of scale
and context, rather than just being subjects
in documentary-driven street shots.For this shot of a pedestrian promenading
in front of a lakeside eaterie, Gabriela has
opted to shoot from ground level, using the
flip-up rear display on her Sony Alpha 7 III.
As well as producing an interesting angle for
the viewer, this strategy playfully inverts the
conventions of street photography, where
practitioners tend to shoot surreptitiously
at waist or upper-body height.
“I wanted to showcase how we blend in
with our surroundings,” Gabriela says. “So
I decided not to make my subject – the legs
and feet – stand out too much, but instead
mix in a bit with the background. I thereforedecreased all the red, yellow and magenta
tones, as well as reducing the orange and
boosting the midtones using a Tone Curve.”Expert opinionA low position will always give you a blurry
foreground. Gabriela has chosen to push
it further by focusing on the background
rather than the moving subject. Top tip: if
you want to capture the feet in focus, use
manual focus and set it to the distance in
feet (or metres) of how far away you think
they will be, then let them walk into frame.P
Camera Sony Alpha 7 III
Lens Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art
Exposure 1/60 sec at f/9, ISO 100