Street photography skills

The essence of street photography is to record the daily society, and opportunities to practice in the street abound. Here are the street shooting skills I shared. Let's have a look.

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.

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 a camera with you.

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/ To fight inner anxiety, start with a comfortable method.

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/comfortable place to sit down. For example, photographers often sit in coffee shops and restaurants, with cameras in their hands/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 blind shot.

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/ 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.