How do you ask people if you can take their picture?

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One category of photography I really like, I guess you could call "street portraiture." Direct, spontaneous portraits of people who know you're taking their photo and approve. I'd like to do this, but I can't seem to conjure up the balls to ask people if I can photograph them. I always fear that men will try to kick my ass and women will think I'm a pervert. So I sneak the photos. The result is that I feel a little dirty and the picture isn't about the person, it's about the moment. That's fine, I guess, but not always what I'm after, and besides, I feel funny posting these pictures online, even when they do work out well. And posting online is the main way I show my photos to people (unfortunately).

Anybody have a good way to do this? I suspect "I'm taking a photo class--can I take you picture?" would work, especially when I'm shooting with a film camera. But it's a lie.

Do people want to know why you want the photo? And if so, do you tell them, "Just for the hell of it?" How many people say no?
 
Here are a couple of the kind of pictures I want to take. But these two people are people I already know:

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Sometimes with a Smile
sometimes a Wink
other times I tell them how Fab or Wonderful or Cool they Look
it works for me.....

Sometimes I am asked if I work for a magazine or newspaper ....
Cheers ! 🙂 -H
 
If you are up front, polite, show real enthusiasm for what you're doing and simply tell them you'd like to take their portrait for your portfolio, without trying to snow them, I think you'll find enough willing subjects that the 'NOs' will not spoil the experience of candid photography for you.

Not fumbling with your kit and knowing when enough is enough also helps, IMO.

Cheers, Eli
 
It all depends? Some people I just waggle the camera at them and they smile and nod, or wave me off.

If you're wanting more candid looking shots (as your examples above), rather than a street-side portrait, you are probably going to have to tell them (after getting permission) to "just ignore me and go about your business", because in my experience when I ask someone if I can take their picture/portrait, they pretty much all either pose (more or less) stiffly or cut-up in some way.

I don't always ask for permission, of course, but when I do, I am direct. "Hello, ma'am/sir. I'm a photographer and I'd love to take your portrait, you have such a lovely face. Do you mind?" (or some other complimentary attribute). Most people are flattered and say "yes".
 
Wow, thanks! That's quick advice. I think I'm just inhibited. Those two pictures were taken at those friends' workplaces (two bookstores, actually), and I would sort of like to try asking people if I can photograph them working. This would probably be a good way for me to ease into being more direct with my subjects, as I know a lot of the people who work downtown in my small city and wouldn't feel so awkward.

It's odd...I'm actually extremely gregarious, even loudmouthed at times. But I get freaked out approaching strangers, even for something like the time, or directions.

As for knowing when to stop, I think one or two shots is all I'd bother with. I kind of follow Eggleston in that way...one shot, you've got it or you don't, and never look back.
 
Papercut said:
. . . when I do, I am direct. "Hello, ma'am/sir. I'm a photographer and I'd love to take your portrait, you have such a lovely face. Do you mind?" (or some other complimentary attribute). Most people are flattered and say "yes".
Click to expand...

Yeah, but it's a bugger in Hungarian, or Maltese, or Romanian, or Kannada...

Cheers,

R.
 
"cold" portraits

"cold" portraits

I am just into photography again after several years away. I took my new camera for one of its first walks the other day and straight away saw an older woman with a tatoo on her chin (maori traditional).
At first I was nervous and then I remembered how I used to do it.

You should be extremely polite. With a smile you ask them very politely if you can take thier picture. Most people will agree. I only ever had a couple that didnt. most people are either flattered or both flattered and bemused both.
Do it quickly. No screwing around with exposure settings or focusing.
Then when you have it, smile again and thank them and say, it will make a nice picture.
If you dont get what you want exactly - quite often you wont, because everything changed when they suddenly 'posed" for you - try and engage them in some small talk, and then steal a shot off the cuff. Some will be amused that you got them again, most will ignore it. Then thank them and you continue on your way.
Thats how I do it anyway. Nearly everyone will find it totally incomprehensable that you are taking pictures of people that you dont know.
No one has ever asked me "why".


Dont ever take a picture of someone who says "no", or doesnt reply to you, no matter how compelling the opportunity may be. You may not be taking their souls, but your still taking something.

If you walk the streets for a day, the hardest people shots - were they are aware of you (asking permission) or taking shots where they will be aware after youve done it - is the first one. After that you have broken your mental ice; like talking to the first person at a party where you dont know anyone.
After that you will be okay.

This type of photography is a social actiivity, unlike other subject where the only person inviolved is the photographer himself. Therefore howver mild, a social barrier must be crossed and a relationship is made with anohter person, even if it is fleeting.

(Caveat - This is in New Zealand, where most people are fairly amiable.It may not work in other places.)
 
Carlsen Highway said:
This type of photography is a social actiivity, unlike other subject where the only person inviolved is the photographer himself. Therefore howver mild, a social barrier must be crossed and a relationship is made with anohter person, even if it is fleeting.
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Carlsen Highway, I agree with just about everything you've said, but what you said here really hit the mark. This is what makes this type of photography so challenging, and so very rewarding. You've summed it up so eloquently.
 
http://bp0.blogger.com/_b7J54W1JOoc/R7oUnOewOJI/AAAAAAAAA3M/v4lhW4zIgmM/s1600-h/1.jpg

I don't ask. If somebody asks me why I just tell them that I've been doing it for over fifty years, I always carry a camera, used to work for the paper, it's habit, and if they're lucky they'll end up on my blog www.thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com.

I usually engage them in a bit of conversation as quickly as possible, either before or after I start clicking. I've got some gimmicks that help, like always carrying around that toy monkey. People don't feel threatened by a grown man walking around town with a camera and a toy monkey on his shoulder. I usually explain that "I'm working on a project" which will hopefully end up as a book, that I'm using an ultra-wide angle lens and that I'm in the photo too, and hand them a card with my cell #, email, and blog address, and that I don't know when it might show up on the blog.

By that point in the conversation I've often already switched from the 15mm lens to a camera with a 50 or 85 and I'm shooting tight head shots while looking through the finder instead of holding the camera off to the side. Another gimmick that works, if you can keep a straight face, is to alternate between talking "with the monkey" and with the subject saying things like "Monkette (this monkey's name) would like you to turn your head a bit more to the left and lift your chin up more" as if Monkette is directing the shoot. http://bp2.blogger.com/_b7J54W1JOoc/R7eEWeewOHI/AAAAAAAAA28/_tfMHMkPlSw/s1600-h/4.jpg In this shot she's carefully posed the Noth Miami city attorney, city clerk, head of the planning dept., me, and herself for a "candid" group portrait before the start of the council meeting.

* * * DON'T FORGET TO VOTE * * *
 
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I also agree with Mr. Highway's view. Some photographers talk about street photography like they are going hunting or fishing: get in there and get the shot! Do whatever it takes! Sometimes it means hiding the camera or snapping and then running away.

That type of photography is not for me. I enjoy the personal interaction of asking someone if I can take their picture. It is part of the photographic process for me. If I am in a foreign country where I don't know the language I will use gestures to communicate what I want to do. Afterward I will shake their hand and maybe buy them a coffee.

I get different results, of course, from the snap 'n' run school of street photography, but this is the right kind of photography for me.
 
Tuolumne said:
Do you need a release to use such photos commercially? Like in a book, if you really were working on one.

/T
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interesting question. Im assuming winogrand, HCB etc didnt stop to ask for releases. Yet they have so many books with recognizable faces that they profited from.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Yeah, but it's a bugger in Hungarian, or Maltese, or Romanian, or Kannada...

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...

Well, just for your future success,
"Jó napot hölgyem/uram, fényképész vagyok és szeretnék önröl egy portrét készíteni, nagyon megnyerö az arca. Zavarná önt?"

"Ziua, doamna/domnule. Sunt un fotograf si as vrea sa fac portretul dumneavoastra, aveti o fatza foarte amabila. V-ar deranja?"

Somebody step in for the Maltese, please.
 
release

release

I dont know about over there but here, people in public places are deemed to be int eh public domain and you may do as you wish.

just further thoughts on taking photo's of strangers on the street ( or anywhere - i dislike intensely the term "street photography')

The approach of asking for permission and true candid photgraphy is contrasted. I do both depending on what I see in front of me. But by and large, candid shots are much more difficult to do - not difficult as in technically or in getting the 'snap shot" away - difficult as in getting something that is a worthy photograph. More difficult to practise successfully.

It is very easy for the simple fact that the shot is "candid" - life recorded unknowingly - to be the only feature of the photograph at all - the photog had nothing other than to say that at this moment in time other than that he was sneaky and fast.
This results in an enormous amount of unengaging emotionally empty candid photographs that in the end are really meaningless.

I speak of my own pictures naturally; but I recognise it in others. We are doomed to see our own faults in others and condemn them out of proportion probably.
 
You need a release for "commercial use", such as the photo being used in an ad. To post it on a forum, as part of a book, or editorial useage in a newspaper or magazine, no you don't need a release. Using a photo of the cover of a magazine to adverise the magazine itself runs into a bit of a grey area, but I've never heard of anybody being sued. Well known personalities like actors, singers, political figures, etc. have prety much relinquished their right to privacy. You're not likely to get sued if you catch a picture of a well known but married actor cavorting on the beach with somebody else's half naked wife and it appears on the cover of a supermarket tabloid.
 
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