I find framing such large numbers of people in a meaningful way very challenging, what is the goal of the photograph, just lots of people is not really enough, there needs to be more, whether it is a statement of documentary or art. Other questions such as how close, what angle, symmetry versus asymmetry need to be asked and answered. I expect to come back to this topic photographically as I build my Oktoberfest portfolio, but here is a start.
In my first image I have isolated a group of people within the crowded beer garden areas. The table and chairs help to structure the picture and force the people into a convenient cluster. A relatively large aperture on a gloomy rainy day serves to separate the front row from the mass behind them.
More difficult is a shot taken from within the people walking through the Wiesn. The following shows the challenge, there is no real point of focus, it is just a mass of unrelated objects.
Kneeling down to take a shot starts to solve this problem a little by placing me more into the plane within which the people are standing or walking. in the following shot there is a better connection with the fest goers created by the lower angle shot. What this loses, however, is the presence of the larger crowd behind the girls, my angle of view only includes the foreground.
Escaping from the high density crowded areas I took this on the following day on the grassy slope that lies to the West of the Wiesn. Here the crowd has dispersed onto the grass and it is easier to read the photograph, making out different groups of people. Badly underexposed due to the huge white reflective tent at the back, this is an example of a shot that I would like to include in my assignment 2 submission.
Once more back into the crowd, another approach is to shoot along the plain of peoples heads and include the sky. This compresses the crowd into a sea of heads but permits room to breath in the photo. personally I do not like this approach, it lacks any purpose.
As the text suggests one way to manage a photo of a crowd is to find a high viewpoint and look down. This is the exit from the Underground train into the Wiesn, not for the claustrophobic. Now the photo starts to gain some depth and the suggestion of the never ending crowd starts to evolve.
Back on the hill to the West of the Wiesn, and now using a long telephoto, 300mm on a 1.6x crop sensor, so the equivalent of nearly 500mm, we get the compression of people into a mass.
However, widening out, really provides the impact of the crowd. In the next 3 shots I progressively zoom into the scene, with each photo cropping more of the sky and surroundings until all that is left is a sea of people. Most photographers are happy with the first shot, for me it is the final shot that has the most impact. By removing reference to sky or boundaries the people seem never ending. Also without other points of interest the eye flits from person to person seeking recognition, but finding none.
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