This is how I prefer to do my street shooting...

[Vilk]

Three black motorized manual focus meter-equipped film bodies usually with zoom lenses. [...] Three rangefinders ( two chrome & meterless, and one black meter-equipped) with wide, medium and short tele and a motorized SLR with a longer telephoto.

😱

Ah, the muscle! My single motorized F2 + 50 makes me feel like I'm pushing daisies the wrong way already...

 

[jsrockit]

Wow, so many rules. Hearing about user methods is cool, but the little superstitions and stealth operations are just hilarious.

 

[Mcary]

I use the Eeny, meeny, miny, moe method to decided what gear to take with me when I go out shooting. Looks like it the M6 with Canon 35mm F 2 LTM and HP5 for tomorrow's outing to DC.

 

[Finnegan]

To me the XA is a very good tool for candid street photography. Decent AE and I never use it's rangefinder.

Chrome RF bodies sure draw a lot of attention around here. Some people stare at them for seconds and thats in big city crowded areas. Makes me feel uncomfortable shooting people pictures.

 

[rbsinto]

To me the XA is a very good tool for candid street photography. Decent AE and I never use it's rangefinder.

Chrome RF bodies sure draw a lot of attention around here. Some people stare at them for seconds and thats in big city crowded areas. Makes me feel uncomfortable shooting people pictures.

All of my gear gets stared at (usually by older, knowledgeable photographers who used it, or gear like it years ago) because with the exception of the Bessa R2s body the next newest camera I carry is a Nikon FA SLR from about 1985. The other cameras (F2, FM, F, S3 and SP bodies), date from the 70s, 60s and 1950s respectively, and are nostalgia-triggers. Often, when I pass someone who I see staring at the gear, I'll simply, without saying a word take the camera they're looking at and hand it to them, so they can fondle it, and that usually breaks the ice and gets the inevitable "Wow! I haven't seen one of these since ..." conversations going.

 

[Jodorowsky]

If I want to take photographs in the street, I borrow my brother's wheelchair, and my girlfriend pushes me around. This way I get that 'shoot from the hip' look, and nobody dares to ask me what the hell I think I'm doing! I use a Hexar AF for this, so I can keep one hand underneath my picnic blanket.

 

[LKeithR]

If I want to take photographs in the street, I borrow my brother's wheelchair, and my girlfriend pushes me around. This way I get that 'shoot from the hip' look, and nobody dares to ask me what the hell I think I'm doing! I use a Hexar AF for this, so I can keep one hand underneath my picnic blanket.

Love it! The rest of this is just to make up the required number of characters...

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

i tried several for spontaneous shooting, this are my comments:

* P&S Minilux / Minilux Zoom - Nice and generally good. Downside is the delay in focus that generally comes with P&S cameras.

Dhaka Street:
http://retro.ms11.net/dhaka1.jpg


* Small Manual Leica CL with CV 15mm - this is a no-brainer combination. Focus at 2m, everything from 1m to infinity is focused. Downside is the perspective, if you can get used to it.

Colombo customs:
http://retro.ms11.net/street-15-cl.jpg

* Medium Format Rolleiflex TLR - too Conspicuous and self-conscious for street shooting. (film is drying)

* Small RFF - Olympus XA or Olympus 35SP - the XA is my favorite travel camera and also a backup camera. I tend to put in Plus-X or Tri-x pushed to 800.

http://retro.ms11.net/street-oly35sp.jpg

raytoei

 

[Carterofmars]

I typically pre-set my lens to 10ft., at say F8 (is great), and then try to get right up in their faces. 😛

I do like Bruce Gilden, and stay on the sunny side of the street. and get ready when I see a huge herd on the opposite corner, because I know when that light says walk, in a few seconds, I'm going to be swimming in a sea of humanity.

 

[Lilserenity]

I have given this some thought by thinking about what I do, and what I see others do (or rather the results) and the equipment used doesn't seem to bear any correlation to the success of the work. I follow a few people on Flickr who use SLRs with zoom lenses, things I personally would find too bulky but they make some very fine street and candid shots; ones that sometimes make me think, if I had a zoom...But I've been there and it doesn't work for me.

Then I have given it some thought about what I use, apart from manual focus, they all different, a SLR (well 2, 2 x OM2n), a rangefinder (M2) and a TLR (Autocord) so the kind of camera is actually a little irrelevant as well to me; as I can turn results out on any of these. Familiarity is in fact the most important part if anything about the camera, I know where all the controls are and that's all that is needed.

And my use of primes stems more from me preferring primes when shooting, I just cannot get on with zooms for anything. Odd I know but what the heck.

So, what constitutes how I prefer to do my street shooting?

The only thing I can think of that is important to me as a film shooter is using negative material. I just cannot do street with slide film, with the Autocord and M2, I would miss too many shots. At least with negative I can more or less take a pot shot exposure wise (and rarely am I wrong, unless using Ektar) and then just work for a few hours with the only adjustments made for depth of field reasons.

Pre-focusing, hyper focal, different lenses, different cameras, different colour cameras etc. are really not that important at all to me in the grand scheme of things are these things just sort themselves out as I work. The only thing I pre-meditate is that choice of film (usually Tri X, FP4+ or some Portra material for colour) and the kind of shots I might be looking for. I sort of go into autopilot with the rest of the stuff. It's almost like being unconscious 🙂

Apart from that, I also like to strike up conversations with people, the usage of old cameras is a good talking point to butter people up and do a portrait on the street. I quite like doing these as they are sort of a half way house between utterly candid and a posed portrait (often I'll fiddle about with the TLR after I have taken the shot so they are completely unaware that I caught them at their most natural, but not 'fess' up on it, makes them feel they were at their best -- which I find is rarely the case when taking a portrait.)

​

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

the equipment used doesn't seem to bear any correlation to the success of the work.

Well...

"Success", no. "Practicality"...well, I wouldn't fall into dichotomies.


It's like saying that equipment doesn't seem to bear any correlation to the success of an Olympic Team. It is part of it.

 

[gekopaca]

street photography: it is those who talk the less who make the most

 

[NickTrop]

Any camera is usable for street shooting. However, the best tool for discrete street shooting is either of my two digital point-n-shooters: Nikon Coolpix for infrared, Fuji F20 for high ISO ability but each camera must have a Flip*Bac - which is a cheap $15 mirror device that enables shooting either horizontally or vertically from waist-level. These cameras are totally silent - no mechanical shutter, no shutter noise. You never raise the camera to your eye, nobody knows you're taking their picture. The lens disappears into the camera. They are pocketable - smaller than any rangefinder. You can shoot 100's of pictures on a single charge. Autofocus is faster than you can focus manually and totally accurate. The zoom lens gives you complete coverage from 35mm to 100+ .... Image quality is just fine...

Simply, as a tool, no Leica tops them for this kind of photography. I don't see why anyone would walk around "shooting f-8" and scale focus or whatever... This is 2011, not 1954.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I don't see why anyone would walk around "shooting f-8" and scale focus or whatever...

Because they're not juvenile absolutists trolling about at the sight of the word "Leica"?

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Autofocus is faster than you can focus manually and totally accurate.

Simply, as a tool, no Leica tops them for this kind of photography. I don't see why anyone would walk around "shooting f-8" and scale focus or whatever... This is 2011, not 1954.

Hi Nick,

Autofocus totally accurate? You could start a poll in several forums, and all of them would give the same results if you ask members if from their experience, AF is totally accurate with compact digital point-and-shoot cameras...

I'd say all Leicas top them for street photography, starting by the fact they fail less than digicompacts... And obviously, not only Leicas...

The reason to shoot prefocusing and at f/8 is avoiding focusing, no mater if we talk about manual or auto focus... Isn't that fact (the benefits of a wide depth of field for fast AND sharp shooting) as relevant today as it was on 1954, or even when the first Leicas were being born half a century before 1954?

Cheers,

Juan

 

[reagan]

I prefer my black cameras, but color is not a biggie to me. "Shiny things" do seem to catch the eye and attention of people you are photographing.
ISO 200 @ 1/100, f8, (adjust w/shutter speed)
zone focus

I pre-set and zone focus when in a crowd because I don't like fiddling & putzing around with my gear when trying to shoot. And I've been shooting my Zorkis & Leicas regularly since 2005 ... on a single charge.

"This is 2011, not 1954." - LoL! Hey, that's not my fault.

 

[paulfish4570]

"... on a single charge."
har!
but i do understand the attraction of small/smallish digital cams ...

 

[dave lackey]

"... on a single charge."
har!
but i do understand the attraction of small/smallish digital cams ...

My M3 has been going like the Energizer bunny on a single charge for three years now but the R4 had to have new batteries during a photoshoot last week!😉

Oh, my mistake, the M3 must not have batteries...:angel:

Gonna have to re-train myself if I ever get an M8 or an X1...😱

 

[imhere]

I use one camera with one lens and scale focus a fast shooting setup.

 

[Turtle]

Its always great to hear different views, but as is so often the case, yours has an edge to it...

with regards to what you say, I disagree, but would remove the word 'Leica' and insert 'manual focus camera' for my comments:

You cannot readily do snap shooting with autofocus. its just about impossible unless you are using a IDsIV or something with almost instant AF and know exactly where the subject will be in the frame... and have already set up the AF to nail it. I cannot imagine being able to do this with compacts that do not allow you to pre-set the focus distance. I'm sure some make this work, but it sounds tougher still.

Compacts often have small sensors and so selective focus is difficult as everything is sharp. When this is not the case, one is often unsure as to where they are going to focus and for a lot of street work I don't find the time to mess about with where the thing has decided to lock on. But if it works for you!

The lag time of compacts is usually poor. This is a major problem.

I would suggest that if you do not understand why anyone would scale focus and pre-set the aperture to f8 then perhaps it would be useful to open yourself to the possibility that you have missed something important.

I started out with SLRs, shot LF, MF and all sorts. For documentary (aside form portraits) and street work I went back in time and started using 35mm rangefinders (Leica in this case). Why? because they seem to be the most effective tools for me to get the shots I want. I made this decision despite the cynicism and prospect of harassment by the anti-Leica brigade.

Interesting comments here and lots of different ideas of what works. I guess this is because it does not matter whether your choices really help, or whether they are superstition, if they make you confident and feel 'in the groove' then they are probably a good thing!

.... However, the best tool for discrete street shooting is either of my two digital point-n-shooters... Autofocus is faster than you can focus manually and totally accurate. .... Simply, as a tool, no Leica tops them for this kind of photography. I don't see why anyone would walk around "shooting f-8" and scale focus or whatever... This is 2011, not 1954.