How to take good street photos

how to take good street photos? Sometimes photography is also called photography, that is, the process of exposing the photosensitive medium by the light reflected by the object. Someone once said an incisive language: the photographer's ability is to transform the fleeting ordinary things in daily life into immortal visual images. So, what are the street photography skills?

1. The focal length is not longer than 5mm

Let's start with the equipment. When taking street photos, should we use a long-focus lens to shoot the scenery from a distance, or is it more suitable to use a standard or wide-angle lens to shoot at close range? In fact, there is no right or wrong lens, as long as you like to use any lens with focal length. However, generally speaking, street shooting will not use a lens of more than 5 mm. Although the longer the focal length, the harder it should be to be found by the subject. However, if the focal length is too long, the work will become as if it were a sneak shot, lacking communication with the subject, and thus lacking a sense of scene.

By using a lens with a wide focal length, you can keep the scenery near the theme and even the whole environment in the picture, so that the audience can feel the scene and atmosphere at that time as if they were in person. Note that if you use APS-C camera, the focal length of the lens will change far!

2. Fixed focus or zoom lens?

a lens of 5mm or less is selected. Next, you may think, should you choose a fixed focus lens or a zoom lens? Theoretically, both fixed-focus lens and zoom lens can be used for street shooting. But many times we have to consider seeing something with feelings in the street, and we may not have time to adjust the focal length and compose slowly. Street shooting is the most urgent and fast, so it is recommended to use a fixed-focus lens to capture street scenery, only use one focal length to shoot, and pay close attention to what is happening at that distance, which is the most convenient.

In addition, the zoom lens has a disadvantage, that is, it is bigger and heavier than the fixed-focus lens. Generally, a lens with similar focal length and aperture will be heavier and larger because the zoom lens contains more lenses for zooming than the fixed-focus lens. Therefore, when it comes to mobility, the fixed-focus lens will be the best choice.

3. Keep a low profile

Actually, choosing light and small equipment is also related to your interaction with strangers around you when shooting. If you carry a large camera backpack, two cameras and several lenses, and go to the street to take pictures of passers-by as a professional photographer, do you think you will take pictures first, or the materials are too aggressive and scare off passers-by first?

one of the keys to street shooting is to keep a low profile as much as possible. If you can, try to integrate yourself into the environment and hide yourself. The most ideal way is to abandon the large camera backpack and take only one camera and one mirror to travel lightly on the streets of loaf about.

4. Large depth of field and high ISO

Using the above methods, we can also help improve the success rate of focusing by adjusting the aperture and controlling the depth of field. The smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field. Using small apertures such as f/8, f/11, f/16 to increase the depth of field also enlarges the focus range. Then, it is easier to take a clear subject.

of course, using a small aperture will also slow down the shutter, which is prone to hand shock. At this time, high ISO can come in handy! Nowadays, in the digital age, the photographic sensitivity of cameras is getting stronger and stronger. Even with ISO8, 16 or even higher sensitivity, the quality of photos taken by many cameras has a certain level. Moreover, most cameras also have the function of self-set automatic ISO upper limit, which adjusts a certain shutter speed by shooting in fully automatic M mode, and then maintains accurate exposure by setting the upper limit of automatic ISO.

it's as simple as using high ISO to keep the shutter speed and avoid hand shock.

5. Set the focus distance in advance

Because the street scenery changes so fast, many friends are often distressed. Before the camera is properly focused, the scene in front of them has changed. Therefore, in order to keep the picture, many successful street photographers suggest that we should adjust the focus distance of the lens in advance. In other words, in order to shoot in the street faster, we should use the manual focusing mode instead of the usual convenient automatic focusing function, and set a focus range in advance so as to shoot at any time.

For example, we set the pre-focus range of the camera at about 5m, and only when we see that the scene we want to shoot is about this distance away from us, do we lift the camera and take a quick picture of that moment. I may not be used to this method when I first try it, but most lenses will have a focus distance display on them, so that we can adjust the focus distance when using autofocus mode. Get used to this method, and gradually you will find that this is the king of street shooting.

6. Don't sneak around

Most successful street photographers know how to interact with people around them. Mastering these skills will naturally get twice the result with half the effort when shooting. Although it is said that the lower the profile, the better, but don't be too sneaky now.

You should know that a SLR camera is a large device even if it is light. No matter how you hide the camera, others will easily see it. You will only attract others' attention more easily if you are nervous, and even think that you have bad intentions. So, shoot generously! On the contrary, it can reduce the wariness of others to you, and be misunderstood that you are doing something bad for shooting, which is even more worthwhile!

7. black and white? Color?

Many photographers like to shoot black and white. For one thing, there are all kinds of messy scenes when walking on the street, and too many colors may disturb the vision. Shooting in black and white will help to highlight the subject in the chaos and express a clear story. Secondly, many friends who love street photography like that their works have a feeling of no time limit, while black and white photos are easier to achieve this effect.

However, some people are crazy about black and white, while others are crazy about the rich colors in the street. If you think the color of the picture is the most interesting part of the photo, why not keep it? We might as well try both black and white and color, and we may get unexpected results!

8. Participate in it

To take good street photos, we can further participate in it. The biggest difficulty and challenge of street shooting comes from the fear of strangers. Because we don't know how the subject will react, before shooting, we might as well chat with the subject and say hello with a smile. Try not to suddenly lift the camera to others to take pictures.

even more, we can participate in the activities of the subjects. For example, if you meet a friend of Class One dancing and having fun on a street in a foreign country, you can also come closer and take part in it, and then ask him if he can shoot. Of course, this is just one example, but usually it is easier to take wonderful works after communicating with others!

9. Avoid using flash

Usually, we don't use flash to take street photos, but only use natural light. However, some photographers use flashing lights when shooting in the street. They deliberately pursue the effect of surprising the subjects. These photographers will approach strangers and take people's big photos with flashing lights, and people will be very surprised. However, with a flash on the camera, it will definitely make you more likely to attract attention to others, whether it is day or night, so you should pay more attention according to the effect you want.

1. Smile and praise the subject

If someone doesn't want you to take pictures, we should also respect their wishes. If the subject really doesn't want to leave the photo after taking the photo, you can choose to delete the photo or explain the reason for taking the photo to him. For example, Sir, I think your tattoo is so cool. Can I take a photo? Or miss, your hat is really beautiful. Do you mind if I take a picture? When explaining, you can praise others appropriately, so that others will be more affected, and you can also relax the tense atmosphere when facing strangers. Although this method doesn't sound easy, if you try it, you will find that it is not difficult to communicate with others. As long as you show goodwill, if you find the subject after taking a picture, you can smile at him or her, show goodwill and express your gratitude. Few people will completely refuse to take a picture.

11. There must be sufficient reasons for using a tripod.

Have you ever thought of using a tripod for street shooting? Although putting a camera on a tripod will make you stand out, there are actually a few photographers who use this technique to shoot street works!

tripod in addition to fixing the camera when the shutter is slow, some photographers use tripod to cover up the moment of shooting! They put the camera on the tripod, set the focal length in advance, set the composition well, and then slowly wait for passers-by to pass by. Although others will see your camera and tripod, they don't know that you are shooting, so it becomes less aggressive to the people around you. When you feel that the decisive moment has come, you can press the shutter directly!

12. blind shot without looking at the viewing device

Of course, we can also find another way. blind shot does not put the camera on his face and looks at the viewing window without looking through his eyes at all. He just holds the camera and shoots directly

This is a common street shooting technique. Some people say that this is blind shot, but of course it is not, because the photographer is still watching, just not looking at the viewing device. I just said that street shooting is not a bad thing, and the attitude should be aboveboard, but sometimes putting professional photographic equipment on your face is always aggressive, and it will make the subject clearly know that you are shooting yourself.

many photographers will use this method to follow the camera or press the shutter when waiting for someone to come. Although the success rate will not be too high, in many failed works, you may shoot a wonderful work, which is enough to make you feel that shooting all day is meaningful! However, it's hard for blind shot to reach the sky in one step, and he needs a lot of practice to be handy. Because you don't have to look at the picture with your eyes, you need to master the angle. Interested friends should practice this skill more to be proficient!

13. Optional shooting in tourist areas

If you are new to street photography, you can actually choose to shoot in some places where there will be more photographers. It may be some tourist areas, and finding some people who are not the only ones with cameras in the area will be a good place to start. Moreover, you can also take a friend to shoot together. Just call your friend, go to the person you want to shoot and pretend to shoot him. When you are in focus, move your camera and turn to someone else to take pictures. Of course, this is not a aboveboard practice, but it is a good way to shoot in the street.

14, decisive moment

In addition to using the above equipment and skills, we should take good street photos. Of course, we should always remember the decisive moment once said by the documentary photographer Bresson. Because photography is a fixed-frame image, street photography should press the shutter at the most wonderful moment to freeze the dynamic climax into history, not the moment before or after. Therefore, before taking photos, we should all think clearly, is this second the best picture? Or stay one more second, and wait for the person being photographed to take the previous step, so that the picture will be more exciting? Pay more attention to the scenery around us, and we will gradually notice this decisive moment, which will probably happen at that moment. Observe more and try more. I hope you and I can find this important moment!