Ten Skills of Documentary Photography and Mobile Phone Street Shooting

Lead: Documentary is sudden and accidental, so it requires high convenience for multiple cameras. A mobile phone is a good camera. Let's take a look at ten skills of street shooting of mobile phone documentary.

1. Put your mobile phone on standby.

Have you ever seen an interesting picture on the street and wanted to take it with your mobile phone, but when you opened the photography APP to prepare for shooting, the picture you wanted to take was already missed? I usually keep my IPhone in photography mode, and I can shoot immediately by unlocking the screen of my mobile phone at any time, which makes me seldom miss the pictures I want to shoot in the street.

2. Hold your hand (machine)

That sounds natural. Photos taken with mobile phones are prone to the following situations: the photos look good on the small screen of the mobile phone after being taken, but the main body of the photos is blurred when viewed on the computer. Believe me, this happens from time to time. Be sure to hold your phone steady when shooting, especially when the light is bad.

3. Make good use of your headphones

The voice control button of the original IPhone headset can also be used as a shutter. Sometimes I don't want to disturb the person I want to shoot in the street. You can pretend to be listening to music or talking on the phone when shooting, which can also reduce the accidental vibration when pressing the shutter button to touch the screen of the mobile phone.

Locking aperture

Some applications include the function of locking the aperture and focal length. Personally, I like the function of locking the aperture. The natural light in the street is very casual. Locking the aperture when shooting street with my mobile phone allows me to control the light, which can not only make the photos have proper exposure in the streets with random light, but also make me shoot a different atmosphere under the same light.

5. shoot.

Don't hesitate, those natural scenes on the street won't happen again. You can delete photos you don't like afterwards, but you must never let the scene in the street happen again. So if your intuition tells you to shoot, shoot, don't hesitate.

6. Hope

You never know what will happen in the street. The so-called precognition here is not a superpower, but a judgment based on your observation. Maybe? An interesting scene that will happen. For example, a young girl in a super high heels may break her heel when she runs across a zebra crossing at a traffic light. Or a close couple in the subway, it is very likely that they will start kissing in the next second; An old lady walking against the wind with an umbrella on a typhoon day is likely to be blown down by the strong wind the next second, and so on. I tend to get my mobile phone ready before observing that interesting scenes may happen. So far, I'm lucky, and the probability of guessing right is not bad.

7. Don't go out until the cell phone battery is fully charged.

I usually take an external battery with me when I shoot street shots, just in case. The biggest fatal injury of the IPhone is the lack of battery life. I once had the experience of shooting half-dead in Seoul, and I can only regret to recall the interesting scenes I saw that night. Please remember to fully charge the battery or bring a spare battery before going out to shoot.

Horizontal shooting

I have observed that many friends who shoot with their mobile phones are used to shooting their mobile phones vertically. The reason is that holding their mobile phone is an intuitive action, and it will be more convenient to operate with one hand. It was not until one day that I saw that most of my street photographs were vertical that I realized that I had this habit. Next time you take a picture with your mobile phone, remember to take it horizontally. Don't let the habit of using mobile phones limit your imagination.

9. Light is everything.

Mobile phone photography, like camera photography, should learn to observe the light. For example, if you want to take a clear face in the street and walk with your back to the sun, if you want to take a silhouette, walk in front of the sun.

I wonder what other countries and cities are like. According to my own street photography experience in Taipei, Seoul and new york, the light is the best around 9:00 am to 1 1:30, and the light is the best around 15:00 pm to 17:30. At this time, the light is very diverse, and you can see a lot of interesting light and shadow between urban buildings. Whether it is a clear object shot in light or a silhouette shot in backlight, you can take good photos, and if you can use the aperture locking function in the APP, the light at this time can also let you shoot many stories.

Learn to wait.

Although the scenes on the street are random and accidental, many times can you go? Create? Those stories, such as waiting for a person to walk past an interesting movie poster, or you see an interesting light, don't go yet, maybe you will get some interesting shadows. Street photography is not just walking around aimlessly looking for a target with a mobile phone or camera, but occasionally stopping to observe the surrounding light, people and things, which may make you take a satisfactory picture.