Street Shooting

[Bill Pierce]

There are a zillion different ways to go about “street” shooting. You can autofocus or set your focus manually in advance. You can go for a small aperture (lots of depth of field) or high shutter speed so you can shoot as you move. You can raise the camera from your eye or “shoot from the hip.” They all work. I set prefocus manually, using the distance scale on the lens or digital read out, because there is less time between pressing the button and releasing the shutter. I tend to use a small f/stop because my quick scale focusing isn’t the most accurate. I also use a high shutter speed because I often shoot while I am on the move. Getting both a fast shutter and a small f/stop is no problem with the high ISO performance of today’s digitals. (Point of interest, Gary Winograd, a superb street shooter from the film days, rated his Tri-X at EI 1200 even though he was outdoors and often in good light.) And sometimes I shoot like I was shooting sports and shoot bursts at 6 frames per second. But, boy, does that make editing a pain.

I was interested in what other folks do when they work on the street. I shoot candidly. I have a friend who asks permission to photograph people on the street and therefore uses their camera in an entirely different way. Could other folks who street shoot pass on some tips as to how they use their cameras? It would be appreciated.

 

[David_Manning]

Hi Bill,

I generally ask permission too...I like street "portraits." Most of the street "candids" I shoot are pretty boring...doesn't mean I don't do them, I just haven't gotten anything too interesting fishing like that.

 

[presspass]

I use a film camera for this - something small and light with a 35 or 50. I pre-focus and set the exposure in advance, using a medium f-stop and a shutter speed of somewhere between 1/60 and 1/500, depending on light. I rarely ask permission before shooting; that's not much of a problem in a really small town and rural community, since many people know I shoot for the local newspaper.

 

[jsrockit]

I use digital cameras with AF and high ISO (auto and let it run up and down the ISO range) these days. I also use shutter priority or manual and choose 1/500th of a second if possible (36 MP camera shows shake easily). I shoot candid as well as ask permission... it really depends on the photo I want and the situation I'm in. I use 28mm, 35mm, and 50mm equiv lenses.

 

[back alley]

digital
rarely ask permission but i have occasionally
aperture priority
iso on auto
single shot af
matrix or spot metering
mostly 35 or 85 equiv

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Thanks for Winograd tip, Bill. I do street only on film. With digital it is too much hassle to get it right.

If it is candid it is candid. If I want portrait I have to ask because I want to frame it and measure light and such. Street portrait is still portrait.

To me it is great if street shot has story in it, but it is hard to resist something like a pair of long legs
But for the story or legs I prefer it as strait as possible. No camera hiding, no hips shots, but framing it right at the right moment.

John Free's birthday today. He is my teacher for street photography.
He has it on you tube and his blog. If I want to get some street wisdom John Free has it for me.

 

[SausalitoDog]

My all time favorite street shooting camera is the fuji x100s (soon to be t).

I rarely, if ever, ask permission and I shoot using auto ISO (6400 max) and either manual prefocus, set aperture depending on light and shot, set shutter speed manually (again depending on light or shot), increasingly using the burst mode. The other new setting for me which I am coming to love is to set the EVF to BW mode. For the longest time I only used the x100 in the optical VF mode on the street. Now I find that at least half the time I really love the view in BW mode - really helps me visualize light and shape much better. I always shoot RAW and you can use the BW in RAW mode.

I've only been using this BW setting for a couple of months...some of the smart guys started using it a couple of years ago...I'm asking myself what took me so long to try it

Tom O'Connell

 

[willie_901]

I set the camera to its base ISO (200), f5.6 to 8 and 1/125 to 1/500 sec. and record raw data. I don't chimp often. In bright light I increase the shutter speed by one or two stops to avoid analog overexposure. This keeps things simple. I only have to worry about focus and then recomposing.

In post production I increase the images' global brightness (exposure slider) as needed during raw rendering. My camera's data stream performance barely benefits from increasing brightness using analog amplification (a.k.a. ISO) above base ISO. So, underexposure is moot.

 

[cz23]

I mostly shoot street and do so with a GR, never asking permission.

My preferred settings are f8 and 250 (Ricoh's TAv mode), snap focus at 1.5m, and auto ISO. But I don't let ISO run. Instead, I set AE lock/hold on any middle gray area. I leave exposure alone until the light changes and then reset AE lock on a new middle gray area. It's sort of a mindless manual method that pretty much takes camera settings out of the thought process. I like that.

John

 

[YYV_146]

About the same here. Rarely permission, but will do if the situation calls for it.

Focus and compose at the hip with 21mm and 15mm, anything longer requires eye-level focus. Mildly annoying, really, since I am taller than most people on the street...

 

[Tompas]

Voigtländer Snapshot-Skopar 4/25mm set to 3m or 1,5m, on a Leica MD-2 (or formerly a Bessa L) set to 250/s or faster, using Kodak BW400CN film.

I know the focal length quite well by now, so composing using the external finder is very quick. Sometimes, when I'm too close to be unnoticed, I shoot from the belly.

I also often talk to people on the street, sometimes asking them whether I can make an image, but then I use whatever second camera I carry that day.

On one occasion I used my Mamiya C220f TLR camera in the street. People would not feel photographed, although I was only a few meters away, directly aiming at them -- but looking down, of course.

 

[Dektol Dan]

Maybe You Should Practice

Maybe You Should Practice

Whatever works....No Rules....

It depends on the light, mostly, BUT I street/event shoot so I can meet people as well as photograph. I LOVE meeting folks and hearing their stories. Hell, if you get your subject to open up you can set up your camera perfectly for the situation. That's why I bat .500, and I almost never have to crop!

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Nothing new in my case, but this is it:
A 28mm or 35mm, with Tri-X @1600, f/11.
I prefocus @8 feet, and set speeds manually: 1/1000 for direct sun (I overexpose for filling shades) or bright overcast. 1/500 for shades only, or blue sky with the sun covered by a cloud, or common overcast. 1/250 for grayish overcast. 1/125 for gray overcast. From there, if I'm next to a big wall or below a tree, etc., I decide one or two more f-stops (with shutter speeds only). I keep my camera ready to just shoot all the time, being shutter speed the only factor I keep changing while walking. Camera down. No neck strap, but wrist strap.
I don't interact with any subject. The very few times I've done it, it's been after shooting, or without letting them know I have a camera.
I tend to shoot just one or two frames at every subject. I try to compose, or less seriously said, decide an angle and a distance, and raise my camera just for a quick snap after using framelines for an instant.
I seldom shoot from my chest, but sometimes there's no other option and I have got very natural looking images, most of them exhibited because of interesting/dangerous subjects are in the image, but it happens once a year...
Small black film rangefinder always.
Cheers,
Juan

 

[tstermitz]

My preferred settings are f8 and 250 (Ricoh's TAv mode), snap focus at 1.5m, and auto ISO. But I don't let ISO run. Instead, I set AE lock/hold on any middle gray area. I leave exposure alone until the light changes and then reset AE lock on a new middle gray area. It's sort of a mindless manual method that pretty much takes camera settings out of the thought process. I like that.

John

This approach appeals to me for its simplicity and intentionality.

The TAv from Pentax is a useful feature (And, I've always found the user interface and handling on Pentax Cameras to be quite optimal... notably the "green button" which instantly gets you back to a base "optimal".) Nikon's D7100 manual mode is equivalent to the Pentax/Richoh TAv mode as it can be set to use auto ISO. I'm sure most other cameras can easily be set to manual with auto ISO.

What I like is how John narrows down the problem to occasional resets on middle grey when he feels the light has changed. I have a tendency to worry too much about the lighting throughout the scene, and then I end up relying on auto exposure and chimping. John's suggestion may help me simplify my awareness.

Juan Valdenebro's approach is somewhat similar, running around naked without a light meter. He uses B&W film which has a wide enough latitude that printing can recover from moderate mistakes in guessing the light.

 

[maddoc]

For candid shots in the street the Noctilux at f/1.0 is OK for me, helps when the light is fading.

and allows for selective focus

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

To me, the essential part of "street photography" is being on the street, where I'd do the photography. After that, it really depends on the conditions available and what you want to make out of them.

My prevalent method, as of this typing (since it has changed over time) is to be somewhere between Winogrand-ish and Spy-vs-Spy about it, but without being New York-y (i.e. "in your face") nor creepy (i.e. "hide your intentions"), meaning, it's clear to everyone that I'm taking photos, but also that I respect their intimacy; while that may be a long philosophical discussion, ranging from "who cares!" to "OMG how dare you steal somebody's soul!", I use a simple technique on the subject: Common Sense™

On the "photo technique" side, a wide-angle (15mm, 17mm, 28mm) at f/8 or f/11 and relatively high ISO (640-1600) when I know I'll be going about rather quickly; otherwise, 35mm or 50mm somewhere between "wide-open" and f/5.6, if I know I can frame and focus at my leisure.

Lastly: practice practice practice. Other than that, more practice; that way you learn which situations work best for you (your comfort level, your "gear", your pace, and your capacity to pre-visualize your intended end-result).

Das ist alles.

 

[OurManInTangier]

I don't have a set-up particularly. I'll have my camera set to between 1/250th and 1/500th at f/8 and pre focused around the 2-5m range simply so that as I'm moving about I'm ready to grab a shot if needed. However I tend to only use those settings for the true 'grab shots' if I have a moment or two longer I'll change my aperture if I think a shallower or deeper DOF would work better or adjust my shutter speed to add some movement blur.

Personally I find that you often have far longer to make your decisions and adjustments than we imagine, maybe not minutes or even half a minute but 3,5 or 10 seconds can be an eternity, sometimes this is the period of time it takes from the initial recognition of a potential picture to the whole thing coming together. Other times it is a case of grab it or lose it, I think the elusive nature is what attracts me so much.

As to asking permission or not, generally no as its not the kind of thing I'm looking for, however I very often find myself chatting with people whilst I'm out and about and I may see something during the conversation that I like and ask them if I can take a photograph - my avatar is exactly that, a chat with a university porter who was rolling the rim of his hat through his fingers. I liked it and his big coat and asked if I could grab a shot.

For me its a case of very few rules...and like Gabriel, I've probably changed quite a lot since I first started too.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

I almost never ask permission to shoot, but I will if the situation calls for it. As of right now, I am doing street with an Olympus E-M5 and I usually use a Pana/Leica 25mm 1.4 lens. If it gets crowded, I switch to a Panasonic 14mm 2.5. I also carry an Olympus 45mm 1.8, but do not use it as often as the other two lenses. I set my ISO to 400, set the camera to AE, usually set the f stop to 8, use autofocus most of the time, and shoot away, compensating here and there for back lighting.

 

[sleepyhead]

I've more-or-less given up on "street photography" because somewhere along the line I lost a grip on why I was doing it and what I was aiming to achieve. Now I pretty much only take pictures of friends and family in their everyday settings or at parties and events.

When I did it though, I pretty much used Tri-X at 1000, f/5.6 scale focus. Quite a bit of shooting from the hip or just a quick raise-camera-to-eye-shoot-put down approach. I have always been too shy to ask any stranger for permission.

This is from 2011 in Rome, and the last street shot that I took that pleased me (Zeiss Tenax II with 40mm lens):

Madrid in the '90s:

 

[cz23]

I've more-or-less given up on "street photography" because somewhere along the line I lost a grip on why I was doing it and what I was aiming to achieve.

I'm at the same place right now, but it's more about questioning what I'm doing meddling in other people's lives. The problem is that human beings seem to me the most meaningful thing to photograph. What to do....

John