How does street photography capture the beauty of the moment?

Street photography is to tell a story with a photo, and also to record the daily life on the street.

First, what a beautiful street beat needs to contain.

1. Emotion

Shooting when people are happy or sad, lonely or in love will produce the most memorable street photos, looking for the emotions, facial expressions and body language of the subjects.

2. The time is just right

The timing is just right, that is, everything in the scene comes together at a perfect moment and takes photos at a perfect time. Usually you need to take multiple photos of the same theme, and then you can choose the best one.

3. Visual images

Looking for shapes and patterns influenced by light and shadow, they often take interesting street photos.

Take a hostile attitude

Looking for contradictions in the scene, juxtaposition refers to putting two different elements in a directly contradictory picture. For example: fat and thin, black and white, old and new.

5. Urban scene

Scenes containing old buildings or old cars will arouse our nostalgia and emotions in some way.

Attention to detail.

Don't take a full-body photo of a person in the street, but focus on their hands, face, hands or anything they hold.

7. Ordinary goods

You can even try to shoot ordinary things and find ways to make them interesting.

Second, the secret of successful street photography

Before we begin to discuss the skills of shooting street shots, we need to consider one important thing; Is it legal to film strangers without permission? In most countries/regions, it is completely legal to shoot people for editing or artistic purposes as long as they are in public places. However, if you intend to use any of these images for advertisements or commercial advertisements, you need to get permission from the relevant personnel and know before shooting.

Choose the right lens.

Because of frequent business trips, don't bring heavy equipment, hang the camera around your neck with a strap and pack other necessities in a small bag. Your lens choice is very important. Use a fixed-focus lens, such as 50 mm

F/ 1.8 or 50 mm f/1.2liii gives me a clearer image than a zoom lens.

2. Camera settings

For street photography, you may prefer to switch the camera settings to aperture priority mode, manually select aperture and ISO, and then the camera automatically sets the shutter speed. When there is a bright sun in the sky, please choose ISO between the following two.

F/ 16 between 100-400 seems to be a good starting setting. If your camera shows that the shutter speed is higher than every second.

You can start shooting at 1/200. You can adjust the aperture and ISO if necessary, but please remember to check the shutter speed, which cannot be lower than1100 seconds, because you may get some blurred background.

3. Black and white or color photos

There are some advantages to using black and white. First of all, it can eliminate any distracting color elements in the picture and let the audience only pay attention to the subject. Some images look better in color, while others use black and white tones to give them an eternal appearance.

Find the right background

When you have a rest after hours of sightseeing, you still have a chance to capture amazing photos, find interesting backgrounds or ancient buildings and wait nearby. Be patient, and eventually, the right person will walk into your camera.

Always keep the camera at hand.

I don't want to miss an excellent photo opportunity because I don't have a camera at hand, but street photography is spontaneous and won't wait for anyone.

Predict the decisive moment

Observe people's behavior and body language, predict actions and moments before they happen, track human interaction, observe people, and stand in a place or a specific area for an hour. It will happen later, not in the street. It only takes a second to capture your theme and then disappear forever. You rarely get a second chance, so be prepared, wait for it to happen, and be smart enough to foresee it.

7. Crowd

To start taking photos on the street, please look for busy and crowded public places, such as street markets, outdoor activities and popular local restaurants, which are all part of the photos.

8. Learn to respect and be confident

In street shooting, it is very important to avoid shooting people in embarrassing situations. If someone offends you, please be polite, smile and say you are sorry.

Finally, street photography involves many social activities, which requires a lot of practice and study to improve your communication skills and overcome your inner fears until you get used to this photography style.