Street Photography Question.

[rogue_designer]

I've actually found in most cases, unless you are naturally the most non-threatening, cheerful person in the world, that looking your subject directly in the eye is a sure way to get waved off. It's challenging to them, and rarely seen as friendly. (IMO)

I try to look past the subject, it seems if there is a small hope that the photographer is shooting something else, people assume you are.

Sometimes I will go and ask if I can (tho I usually already did). But I always try to keep in my mind that quote from Harvey.

"In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart...I recommend pleasant."

 

[nightfly]

Seriously, I think anyone who wants to shoot street goes through this. Here's what I've found worked best for me.

1) Get a really small, quiet unobvious camera to start. I used to try to shoot street with my SLR and it just didn't happen for me. I bought an Olympus XA on ebay and dedicated myself to always having it with me and shooting and my street shooting took off. When I wanted more control I moved up to a Leica. It's not the camera, it's your attitude toward it but feeling stealth, made me stealth.

2) Shoot a lot of crappy pictures that demonstrate your fear. Eventually you get tired of shots of people backs, shots that are too far away, shots that are taken too late because you were too afraid to press the shutter at the right time etc. You either get disgusted with yourself and quit or you get disgusted with yourself and start taking better pictures.

3) Always have your camera in your hand and ready to shoot. When I step outside I guesstimate the light and set my camera's aperture and shutter speed and set the hyperfocal for about 8ft before I start walking. I don't use any kind of strap or anything. If a shot happens I can shoot from the hip or raise it to my eye and fire the shutter without thinking. 90% of the time, I'm pretty close. If the light changes I move the settings with the camera in my hand while I'm walking, usually without looking at it. (Leica's are nice that way).

4) When you are in the groove, shoot more. I spend a lot of time walking around with said camera ready to go and not shooting. Sometimes I'm not feeling it. Sometimes however everything comes together and the shots come like gifts. Sometimes I finish a roll and decide not to re-load and head home. And the shots keep coming and I curse myself. Don't do this. A corollary is always carry a few extra rolls.

5) Find a technique that works for you. I tend to shoot fast and I shoot while moving. Some people like to stand in one spot and wait for shots to happen around them. My biggest challenge is cutting my reaction time so that I'm taking a picture as I see it form.

I sometimes think of the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where they first get to Bolivia and are trying to get jobs. The guy who is their potential employer wants to know if Sundance can shoot so he throws a can out and tells Sundance to shoot it. Sundance pulls the gun from his holster with a flourish and is about to shoot and the guy stops him, takes the gun and tells him to just stand there and shoot. He misses every shot. He then asks "Can I move?". He pulls the gun from the holster pivots around and blasts the can five times down the street. When the smoke clears he says deadpan "I shoot better when I move".

 

[kbg32]

I find looking at the person helps me. If they see me I smile or make as if I am looking at something else. The neighborhoods where I photograph, are ones where I live and work. Most of these people see me everyday. It helps to have familiarity and a certain comfort level. One needs compassion and sympathy as well. Afterall, even though we are different, we are all part of the human race.

 

[kbg32]

As I read through this thread, it seems that we all have our different ways in approaching this style of photography. One needs to find what works for them. The only way to do this is to experiment and to put yourself in situations where you can try something different. If it doesn't work, let it be okay. Find something else or a different approach. We all want to find that which is close to our hearts and passions.

 

[OurManInTangier]

it seems that we all have our different ways in approaching this style of photography.

This sentence sums up what we need to do when we go out on the streets with our cameras. I haven't met, either in person or via this forum, any photographer with a soul who hasn't had some issue with photographing people candidly at some point.

I believe that so long as you make images with integrity you will have the 'comfort' within yourself to get close enough to make great images. Even those photographers, i.e. Martin Parr, who openly admit that their images may often mock and question the human condition have an integrity to their work that gives them the ability to work 'face to face' with the people they photograph.

Keep going and it does become more comfortable but what you end up doing to give you the confidence to go on compared to what I do may be very different.

I must admit that I also often 'dry-up' in my own town and familiar surroundings and find it much easier in a new city/town - this is my own laziness though, thinking backdrops, locations more than light and human activity.

 

[kbg32]

Well said Simon.

-Keith

 

[FrankS]

Some really great responses here, especially those addressing respect for humanity.

 

[nightfly]

How you deal with this essential question of street photography inevitably comes through in your photography and in some ways becomes your signature style. Everything has basically been done, so the only thing that makes your photography unique is your approach and how you pull this off.

I'm not a smile and acknowledge your subject type of street photographer, most of my photos are quick moments where the no one even realizes a photograph has been taken, not necessarily out of deliberate deceptiveness but out of the flux of the moment. The more I shoot the more I seek and fall into these moments. Others might develop more of a rapport with their subjects (silently or otherwise) and this will come through in their photos in a way that doesn't in mine.

 

[JonathanA]

If you really want to understand how street photography works then I would advise you to look at the images of Bruce Gilden and listen to his "In Motion" podcasts over at Magnum. He shoots with a Leica M6 and big hand-held flash. He walks up...snaps the shot...then keeps moving. His subjects don't even seem to think anything about it.

Some other tips are:

- Make candid images because street portraits are a whole different genre.

- One of the best tips I can give is DON'T TRY TO BE CARTIER-BRESSON. This seems to be the biggest flaw of people starting out in street photography. You don't live in Paris and it isn't the 40's. Make your own style and capture YOUR world...not anyoneo elses.

- Don't try to act sneaky but don't try to be seen. Just fall in with everybody else because if your out flaunting your new shiny camera then people will be watching.

- If you can't stand the heat...DON'T go grab a telephoto. So many people think that they can start out by using a longer lens and then working their way down as they become more comfortable. This doesn't work and only means that you'll be producing bad images instead of making progress towards making good ones.

 

[AusDLK]

>I'm not a smile and acknowledge your subject type of street photographer ...
>Others might develop more of a rapport with their subjects (silently or
>otherwise) and this will come through in their photos in a way that doesn't in
>mine.

While I like to think that I am "invisible" with my Leica while taking photographs on the street, I think that the proof that I am not is in the photographs I come home with.

There is a surprisingly large number of images where it is obvious that one or more of my subjects definitely see me taking their picture. I often have a pair wary, guarded, bored, or curious eyes looking down the barrel of my lens.

I have come to welcome this and it may even be part of an emerging style for me. I think it adds mystery and a sense of life to my pictures.

Like I said in a previous post, while I try to go unobserved, I have yet to ever be confronted by anyone for taking a picture -- well, by a sane person. There was this crazy guy in Italy...

I really like the advice offered by JonathanA.

Just hit the streets and see what develops.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Learn to photograph from the hip, from next to your leg, with the camera held to your chest.

So which is it, the hip, the leg or the chest?

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I believe that so long as you make images with integrity you will have the 'comfort' within yourself to get close enough to make great images. Even those photographers, i.e. Martin Parr, who openly admit that their images may often mock and question the human condition have an integrity to their work that gives them the ability to work 'face to face' with the people they photograph.

Well put.

Then there's also the judgmental subject that labels all photographers as "paparazzi". Those are the same people that can't stand the act of having the lens being pointed to them first and foremost, and they have already decided that your intentions aren't noble.

I think it is that kind of individual that also makes the shy photographers become even more shy.

I stop photographing those who have let their nonlove for the camera known. It's a two-way street. No pun.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Because with SLR you look like a real photographer 🙂

Don't forget the baseball cap.

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

And now for something completely different. In keeping with the general RFF disease I am going to suggest acquiring a tlr camera. Advantages:

A). Only twelve shots to a roll and you are done for the day. When starting out 12 shots is much easier and quicker than 24 shots.

B). Can be shot from the waist very easily. In addition if you are looking straight ahead you can photo some one at a 90 degree angle by simply turning the camera lens to 90 degrees from where they think you are looking.

C). 6x6 negatives have a great amount of detail.

D). People will often strike up a conversation with you about what type of camera you are using which can lead to some very interesting shots of people that you have just met.

Wayne

 

[shadowfox]

<cropped>...

For example I frequent Chinatown in San Francisco because it is close my office and is within walking distance for my daily lunch walks. Almost every day I try to take photos in the area and I've become so familiar to people that they ignore me even more. Some are starting to talk to me and ask what I'm doing there so often. The other day an older Chinese gentelmen named Elmer stopped me and even gave me a tour of the area - the ins and outs, the history of Chinatown. The guy even bought me a cup of coffee and we talked in a congee restaurant. It was a trip to say the least. Now I've also been cussed at several times but I just shrug it off and move on. You really get to meet some colorful characters out there.

Hi, my wife and I enjoy your blog very much! love your Chinatown shots, they are bold and interesting. How do you like your new M6? Any tips on getting one?

 

[nightfly]

I would say no on the TLR. I used an old Rolleicord for street photography for a long time and while it's a great camera, it's not all that well suited to street photography (I know someone is going to post the names of some street photography luminaries who only used a TLR). The reasons primarily are that it's slow to work with, the lens tends to be more of a normal (75mm on my Rolleicord) and the depth of field is much more shallow. The combination of the normal lens with the 6 x 6 perspective tends to make for a really limited workspace. It's doable and challenging but not optimal. I would even say this goes for the Mamiya 6 (which I also owned) and maybe to a slightly lesser extent the Mamiya 7 (6 x 7). They are much faster to use than a TLR and offer the option of really incredible wide glass but I think with street photography, you end up fighting the square.

A strange exception in the medium format world is the humble Holga. Since it's basically set at f8 and 125th of a second and has a wide 60mm lens, it's really fast to use and super unobtrusive. Plus it weight nothing. A little slow to load though as you have to tape it up against light leaks every time.

Looking down into the viewfinder of a TLR doesn't "fool" anyone as people tend to gawk at the ancient equipment. Plus following a scene moving backwards across the viewing screen is counter intuitive.

While it might be a fun change for someone more experienced in street photography it's not a great camera to start with.

If your idea of street photography leans more toward portraiture of people who happen to be on the street than it's probably a better choice than if you are trying to catch more chaotic moments.

Now everyone can go and cite all the early twentieth century guys with TLRs. If you do nail something in medium format, it of course looks wonderful.

 

[back alley]

like nike says, just do it!

i walk around like i own the place but with no pretensions or arrogance showing. i just act like it's ok for me to be here & now and taking photos. i sometimes smile at folks, at times i lift my camera towards them as if asking for permission but most times i size up a shot, nowadays keep the camera set on ae, and just focus and shoot. sometimes i stand in one place for 20 minutes and sometimes i keep moving.
i don't show alot of gear - usually only my camera with lens with a small bag sitting against my back.

i have something like 37 years of practice at it and yet some days i head out and it just does not feel right. those days i photographs buildings etc. or get back into my car and go to the park.

if you really want to shoot street, calm yourself, take a simple kit, nothing extra, dress comfortably and just go for a walk...

 

[Leica Geek]

I've got lots of reading to do, but I've read lots of good advice and encouraging words.

Thank you all.

 

[Dougg]

Though there are many that find a larger SLR more effective for street photography - you are _more_ obvious because of the larger camera, and people aren't surprised by your actions. And there is never the thought that you are sneaking around.

Definitely! I have used my big Pentax 6x7 for street photos, and there's no subtlety!

 

[POINT OF VIEW]

Candid Photos

Candid Photos

Candid or street photography for me is fun and rewarding. I use a mate to place near my subject. 20 feet or more most people cannot tell the angle being shot. Shooting so you can crop your mate makes the photo legitimate. Take another photographer as your mate and switch modeling rolls. The challenge is fun.