Here we have the top 30 images for round 7 of APOY 2016 Round 7: Big Brother – Street Photography

Street photography has always been one of our most popular rounds of APOY, second only perhaps to black & white, which is round 8 of APOY 2016. Street photography is a genre that at times seems almost magical. Walking through a town, city or village with our cameras at the ready, we can find multiple scenes that cry out to be photographed and we’ll see a wide variety of these over the next six pages.

The overall winner of round 7 is Sudipta Dutta Chowdhury from West Bengal, India. Sudipta wins a Sigma  24-35mm f/2 DG HSM lens, the world’s first large-aperture full-frame wide-angle zoom lens offering a wide open aperture of f/2 throughout the zoom range.

Sigma has developed the new 24-35mm f/2 DG HSM for 35mm full-frame sensors. This allows photographers to carry one lens to do the work of three fixed focal-length lenses – a 24mm, 28mm and 35mm – with f/2 brightness and top optical performance. One package delivers flexible functionality and high convenience. In particular, at the 24mm and 35mm focal lengths, this lens offers the performance that is equivalent to that of two prime lenses in Sigma’s Art line. Instead of changing one high-performance fixed-focal-length lens for another, you simply zoom.

The Super Multi-Layer Coating of the lens reduces flare and ghosting, and provides sharp and high-contrast images even in backlit conditions. The included lens hood can be attached to block out extraneous light, which can have a negative effect on rendering performance. The HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) ensures a silent, high-speed AF function, and by optimizing the AF algorithm, smoother AF is achieved.

Sudipta also receives a Sigma 82mm WR Ceramic Protector – a vital accessory for protecting the lens from dust and scratches when out shooting in a city or town.

That’s a total prize value of £1,054.98.

1st Sudipta Dutta Chowdhury, India 50pts

Nikon D750, 16-28mm, 1/500sec at f/9, ISO 200.

India is a country that has been endlessly photographed – and with good reason. It’s a place of ample colour, texture, people and landscapes. But here we see a different take from West Bengal resident Sudipta. Gone is the bright saturated colour to be replaced with expressionist black & white. This is a beautifully composed image and one full of joy and life. It’sa great take on the street photography theme and we’re more than happy to award this image first place in this round.

2nd Kartal Karagedik, Germany 49pts

Nikon D300S, 35mm, 1/800sec at f/7.1, ISO 250.

This is an especially well-composed scene and one that offers some hidden delights. The boy on the left, with his body frozen as it is, mimics the shape of the stairs, while the boy in the centre has his arms outstretched in reflection of the structure behind him. Finally, the arms of the boy on the right seem to reflect the overall shape of the scene.

3rd David Sark, Australia 48pts

Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 50mm, 1/160sec at f/2.8, ISO 400.

David found this scene of a vendor in Hong Kong, China. As you can probably tell, the image was taken at night and this has meant that David has been able to play around with the shadows and exposure. He has exposed for the highlights, meaning the shopkeeper is framed by the lights of her store. The rest of the image is thrown into deep shadow. Shooting from an elevated position and from a distance is also a great choice. You may also want to note the sign on the vendor’s counter…

Here are the top 50 entries for  APOY 2016 Round 7:

1 Sudipta Dutta Chowdhury 50pts
2 Kartal Karagedik 49pts
3 David Sark 48pts
4 Peter Murrell 47pts
5 LiakSongTeo 46pts
6 Keith Cooper 45pts
7 Edgaras Vaicikevicius 44pts
8 Tomer Eliash 43pts
9 Bertrand Chombart 42pts
10 Aaron Bennett 41pts
11 Pessoa Neto 40pts
12 Sunjay Soni 39pts
13 Peter Henry 38pts
14 Stu Meech 37pts
15 Mick Davis 36pts
16 Fearghal Breathnach 35pts
17 Graeme Youngson 34pts
18 Michael Marsh 33pts
19 Bruno Henning 32pts
20 Stephen Minshull 31pts
21 Diego Garcia 30pts
22 Brian Duffy 29pts
23 Victor Antoine Kuebart 28pts
24 Joao Domingues 27pts
25 Jonathan Thomas 26pts
26 Mark Levitin 25pts
27 Penny Halsall 24pts
28 Adrian Mills 23pts
29 Clive Smith 22pts
30 Malcolm Hay 21pts
31 Mohit Pandey 20pts
32 Chris Seary 19pts
33 Alex Isaacs 18pts
34 Andrew Wood 17pts
35 Stepen Flounders 16pts
36 Denis Dowland 15pts
37 Jevgenijs Scolokovs 14pts
38 Steve Palmer 13pts
39 Peter Warrington 12pts
40 Xavier Roy 11pts
41 Wenpeng Lu 10pts
42 Oleg Chebotarev 9pts
43 Joshua Jackson 8pts
44 Daniel Gonçalves 7pts
45 José Pereira 6pts
46 sigita playdon 5pts
47 Richard Eyers 4pts
48 Lucia Horta 3pts
49 Igor Pereira 2pts
50 Ric George 1pt

The 2016 leaderboard

Position	Name	Points
1	Penny Halsall	206pts
2	Bertrand Chombart	171pts
3	Adrian Mills	140pts
4	Fearghal Breathnach	138pts
5	Dominc Beaven	132pts
6	George Diagalakis	130pts
7	Tomer Eliash	127pts
8	Adam Stephenson	125pts
9	Sigita Playdon	124pts
10	Russ Barnes	123pts

Enter APOY 2016 and win prizes from Sigma