5 tips to shoot Street Photography.
I have put together 5 tips on how to approach street photography. I love graving my camera and going out to get some street shots. This is a totally different animal. Street photography is all about being incognito, and getting the shot. Shooting people up close can be a bit scary and intimidating, you never know the reaction you are going to get from people. You have to be on their face and just not care, basically you have to have some balls.
It took me a while to get comfortable with doing this, you never know if your going to get punched on the face or get a good reaction. I must say I have been pretty lucky and only had one bad incident. You will get asked to stop and delete the photos from time to time but I usually ignore them and get lost in the crowd. For the most part people are super cool, even gansters. I try not to make eye contact, go up to someone snap and disappear. You will find that 90% of people out there like their photo taken. Its their 15 minutes of fame. Click here to check out my New York Street Photos.
Click Here to download my Lightroom Street Photography Presets.
Here is 5 ez tips that will help you over come your fear of strangers.
1. Go shoot with a friend, it’s always easier if you go with somebody else.
2. Start from a distance until you get comfortable. Try to work up your courage slowly.
3. Be invisible, try not to be seen, don’t make eye contact and be quick. Blend in, be a chameleon.
3. If you do get caught smile and don’t be intimidating, if you get asked what you are doing tell them you are an artist, its a project for school or tell them you were shooting the person next to them.
5. Have fun out there, thats why we do this to begin with because its fun.
I hope this helps and if you have any tips to share with me I would love to hear them, please post them below.
Click Here to download my Lightroom Street Photography Presets.
Hi I like your shots, very nice :)
Thank you :)
I’m deathly afraid of taking photos of strangers because they do look at you funny and it makes me really uncomfortable. I don’t want to deal with the confrontation. I need to just suck it up and take on your tips about shooting, then getting lost in the crowd. :)
Eva, go out with a friend and start from far, then slowly build confidence to get closer, next thing you know will be doing this without even thinking about it…
Nice item!
My experience: if people ask why they are being photographed, just say why you are actually taking the pic. Obviously there was someting atttracting you that made you take the pic. Just tell them what you saw. In my case it’s often the shadow or the light situation and that is what I tell them > There are such great shadow reflections here, I just had to photograph them.
(You can also use it as a trick off course. It seems people are more at ease if they get that it’s not neccesarily them that are photographed, but rather a composition.)
I like that :)
Great stuff you have there. You can see some of my candis over at http://keithtowers.zenfolio.com/ Take a look if you get a moment or two. Keep up the good work.
Thank you Keith, Ill take a look right now :)
Show de bola!
These pictures are amazzing!
Edin, as someone that loves street photography, I have noticed and made a few observation. The average Joe will purposely walk right in front of your shot rather than wait 2 seconds for you to finish making your shot. That same person in a different situation will get upset if you snap a photo of them…….I think it is a human thing for people to go against the opposite. That being said, if a person is ever offended, I turn the tables on them and tell them they walked in front of my shot (even though they may have been the subject I wanted to photograph) I tell them no big deal, I’ll just snap the photo again, with them out of the picture……..Case in point. On another occasion, I was at the Eden Roc hotel photographing some of their beautiful orchids they have in the lobby. I was in a remote area away from foot traffic. While getting all set up, a lady suddenly and purposely walked right behind the orchid I was about to photograph and would not move. It was extremely obvious she knew exactly was she was doing. After waiting a while for her to leave, when she did not, I started snapping a bunch of her photos. Her reaction was, what are you doing? I told her since she had walked right behind the subject I was trying to photograph, she automatically became a better subject…..Guess what? She became irate and left the scene.