Night street photography skills

Photography refers to the process of recording images with some special equipment. Generally, we take photos with mechanical cameras or digital cameras. Sometimes photography is also called photography, that is, the process of exposing a photosensitive medium by using the light emitted or reflected by an object. The following are the night street shooting skills I collected for you, for reference only. Welcome to reading.

Before sharing the skills of how to take photos on the street at night, I want to remind you of two points:

1. This article assumes that you have a camera and can use manual gear. If you take photos with a mobile phone such as iPhone, some methods are not applicable. I will use another article to share how to shoot street shots with iPhone.

2. The most important thing in street photography is not the correct exposure, perfect composition, or powerful camera, but the story.

If you keep the above two points in mind, you won't feel digression or disappointment.

I usually only go out with my camera on weekends, or just wander around on my way home from work, and I don't deliberately take street shots at night. Even on weekends, I only have the opportunity to take pictures at night when it is dark during the day. Sometimes in a crowded place at night, you can see scenes that you can't usually see. For example, in Taipei, I can think of places with many people, such as East District, Xinyi District and Ximending. At present, my work place is Lee Tae Hospital in Seoul. Lee Tae Courtyard is one of the best areas in Seoul, where people from many different countries hang out and there are many "transsexuals". This is a very rich or complex place, where weekend nights are more energetic than at any other time. Sometimes when I go out from work on Friday night, I will see a lot of dramatic pictures, which can provide street photographers with quite rich themes.

Light is usually not a problem when shooting in the daytime or in the sun, but it is not enough to shoot by street lamps or home lights at night, but there are some ways to solve the problem of insufficient light at night. Here are some tips for street shooting at night.

1. Improve sensitivity

When you meet the opportunity of street shooting at night, the camera settings will generally turn up the aperture, try to absorb the light and adjust the sensitivity to the highest. When it comes to high sensitivity, photographers usually worry about noise. It is true that increasing the sensitivity can increase the sensitivity, but it is replaced by the decrease of color contrast and the inevitable noise problem.

Many of his works are full of a lot of noise, perhaps intentionally. The noise produced by high sensitivity will be controversial if the photos are good enough from the perspective of "photography textbooks", but if they are added to the photos from the perspective of "narrative techniques", they will make the photos more human and enhance the feeling of recording facts. Personally, I don't know why noisy photos make me feel "alive" and "more real". High-sensitivity noise is not terrible, sometimes it will give you better results, so don't be afraid when shooting at night, try to adjust the sensitivity to the highest!

Shoot moving objects

Just now, it was mentioned that increasing the sensitivity to produce noise can provide the tension of the photo story, which is the view of turning the original photographic defects into advantages. The second point is the same. When shooting in the street at night, the shutter often slows down due to lack of light, and it is easy to take shaky photos. The shaking picture will give many photographers a headache, but it can add dramatic effects to your photos, such as mystery. Therefore, in addition to increasing the sensitivity to condense the picture, you can also try to slow down the shutter and shoot a slightly dynamic picture to increase the story.

3. Use a fixed-focus wide-angle lens

If you are seriously considering focusing on shooting street shots at night, I suggest you use a wide-angle fixed-focus lens. Usually, the fixed-focus lens provides a larger aperture and can receive more light at night, such as from the maximum f/ 1.4, f/ 1.8 to f/2.8. If you want to use a zoom lens, or refer to the second point, try to strengthen your story, so you may shoot a bunch of Tik Tok.

Extended reading: 7 advanced skills about street photography 7 advanced skills about street photography

1. Don't go, wait a minute.

It is generally believed that street photography needs constant walking. In fact, you have to keep walking and observing to have more chances to find possible objects or scenes. This is true, but constant walking will bring a new problem, that is, you can't compose while walking. The street is constantly changing. If you keep walking, you can't see clearly.

But when you are still, you will have a faster reaction speed in the face of sudden scenes. Also, street photographers usually shoot people's expressions in the opposite direction of the crowd, so do I, but walking in the direction of the crowd will make it more difficult to grasp the sudden shooting time or an expression, and it will take a long time to master it, otherwise you will just keep walking and miss the shooting opportunity.

The key point of this technique is to slow down, stop and go, wait for a few minutes at the point where you think there may be an interesting shooting opportunity, and try not to "look for" the shooting opportunity and let it come to you. When you wait in a crowded street, you will suddenly find a bunch of pictures to shoot.

2. Pay attention to people's eyes

The eyes are the windows to the soul, from which we can see a person's mood. This skill is not easy, it needs to be bold enough. When the subject looks directly at the camera, the picture is usually very powerful. When I first came into contact with street photography, I was completely afraid to shoot in front of people. I tried to avoid eye contact. I still dare not shoot in front of strangers.

My method is to find the object I want to shoot, then raise the camera, and when they turn around and look at the camera, press the shutter immediately. That moment is the most real. After a few seconds, the object should avoid the camera. Try not to make eye contact after filming. If you know, just nod and smile. Don't look down at the camera and get out of here.

Attention to detail.

Street photography is not just about shooting misplacements or cramming a bunch of special people into the picture at once. Usually photographers will find a good opportunity for composition or dislocation in the street, and take pictures when people come in, but they can actually pay attention to some small details as much as possible.

When we are looking for shooting opportunities on the road, we often only notice the composition of a relatively large block, such as a complete person, the building behind it, advertising posters and so on. Next time, we may try to look at people's shoes, some expressions, some interesting gadgets on them and so on. Many nervous pictures are actually completed with the simplest composition.

Improve sensitivity

Personally, I will try my best to be sensitive in ISO 400. I hope there is less noise in the photo. Now the noise processing ability of digital cameras is really too strong. I seem to have seen a camera with a sensitivity of tens of thousands, and there is no noise.

The advantage of high sensitivity is that it can improve the shutter speed and take clearer images on changeable streets. But still pay attention to the noise problem, unless you prefer photos with a lot of noise. But sometimes noise can add more "flavor" to black and white works.

5. You can shoot something else when there is no "person"

Street photography in stereotype often needs "people". Yes, street photography will really feel something missing without "people", because this photography mode is to some extent recording human nature. But in fact, there are many shooting opportunities on the street and no one is in it.

This is not to say that street photography can become landscape photography or simple architectural photography. In street photography, no one's work is still related to "people". For example, the cultural evolution of a certain area in the city, the lifestyle of people in a certain place and so on. Even if there is no clear person in the photo, you can still feel the "human" flavor that the photo wants to convey.

Use artificial light sources

In the past, I used to shoot only during the day, and when there was no sun, I put my camera away and went home, but I gradually found that night was actually the most fun shooting opportunity. Although the light damage is so rampant that you can't see the stars at night, it is a great light source for street photographers.

There are many artificial light sources in the street, such as neon lights, signboard lights, street lights, traffic lights, car lights and so on. I remember a photographer said that you can take photos with a little light source, and sometimes the photos taken at night will be more dramatic. Don't go out next time, but please pay attention to safety. The way to enhance the success rate of night shooting is to improve the sensitivity as much as possible or use a flash. Personally, I don't recommend using flash. On the one hand, it will scare others, on the other hand, the light is unnatural, unless you take two assistants and a lamp out to help you light it. .

7. Record value of street photography

Sometimes, in addition to taking some interesting and special photos on the street, you can actually see scenes with time value. For example, before 20 12, people usually read newspapers or even books on the mrt. I don't think I will see this photo in two years. Look at the people in the MRT now, 9.5 out of 10 people are looking down at their mobile phones. I usually read books when I take the MRT, but it feels very strange.

In fact, I had this idea hidden in my mind when I was shooting street scenes, hoping to leave some time records for future people.

Ten practical skills of street photography

1, select the appropriate lens.

Deciding the shot is an important factor in street shooting. You may want to use a telephoto lens, but in fact, telephoto lenses do more harm than good. I don't think anyone wants to walk in the street and see a stranger with a cannon in the distance. Therefore, the more "people-friendly" the equipment you take, the better. Many street shooters will turn to it, with the advantage of being small and light.

2. Camera settings

The simplest thing is to set the camera to a mode and manually select the aperture and ISO, which is very useful in the case of snapshots. If the exposure is wrong, you can add or subtract afterwards. But of course, if you have a lot of time to adjust the value slowly, you can also change it to full manual. By the way, with the current technology, automatic ISO is also a very convenient choice.

Step 3 get close to your topic

It is a good choice to use a wide-angle lens, which can be closer to the subject. Many successful street shots are actually only a few meters away from the main body, sometimes even a few centimeters away.

4. Take your camera.

The material of street photography waits for no one. This is not a project that needs careful preparation, but you must go out with your camera. This is the so-called "decisive moment" If you miss a second, the precious picture will be gone. Of course, if you don't have a camera, there will be no problem with your mobile phone.

5. Fight against inner anxiety and start with comfortable methods.

Some people are afraid to shoot in the street because they are afraid that when they shoot others, they will get angry or yell at you, or worse, call the police. These are common fears. The photographer suggested that you can find an interesting and comfortable place to sit down. For example, photographers often sit in coffee shops and restaurants, with cameras in their hands on the tables, observing people passing by or nearby scenery. This will not only make people nearby get used to your existence, but also relax themselves.

6. You can try shooting blindly.

It would be great if you could make a careful composition in front of your eyes, but sometimes a quick shot can capture a more natural and frank image.

7. Take photos at night

City night scene is a good opportunity to practice street shooting, not as simple as shooting in the daytime: you need to write down the shutter speed, avoid blurring, and make good use of ISO and aperture value to make up for the lack of light. You can also walk with a tripod.

8. Jump out of the box and shoot different themes.

Many people think that street shooting must be a stranger, a big photo, or an interaction between people. Actually, it's more than that. You can capture interesting juxtaposed people or objects, and then let different people or objects enter the composition. When the photographer was in Vietnam, he spent a lot of time wandering the streets and taking pictures of bicycles, which finally turned into a series of photos.

9. Image quality is not everything.

This may be one of the key points of photography, and it also applies to street shooting. Don't worry too much about whether there is too much noise in the photos, just take the photos you want.

10, and most importantly, have fun.

People can enjoy all kinds of photography. It is important to find what you like to shoot and do what you like, not street photography that others expect to see. Photographers like shooting streets, because it allows him to go out and meet interesting people and find a new perspective from daily life. Street photography needs practice. The more times you go out, the more confident you will be. The perception and intuition of shooting also need time to train.

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