How to take travel photos and capture passers-by when traveling?

In addition to taking pictures of myself and my friends, I also take pictures of passers-by. In fact, there are many meaningful photos you haven't seen during your trip, but today Bian Xiao will tell you how to take photos of passers-by during your trip.

Shoot what?

If you take pictures, less is more. Determine a focus so that the fewer elements in the picture, the better. Don't have too much interference. Don't just shoot the dark crowd! There are one or two people in the photo. It's good to know what they are doing.

I use some photos of passers-by taken during my trip as an example:

1, in the first case:

During the journey, people you meet and things you do will attract you, such as:

In the picture above, I saw a man with only one leg playing the accordion, and a girl sat quietly opposite him, listening to him play the piano.

2, the second case:

Local buildings, colors, things and so on attract you, but people don't do anything special, but if:

In the morning, I saw the cleaner cleaning the street. The color of the cleaner's clothes and the color of the building behind him are very bright.

The local red tram, where a passerby presses the shutter, also reflects the local characteristics.

Passing a carpet shop, the whole door was carpeted and everyone was sitting on the carpet.

How to shoot

In fact, this kind of passers-by with environment is skillful in taking pictures. I usually use trap composition. In fact, it is to look at an environment in advance and wait for someone to enter this environment, which is to fall into your trap. Ha, ha, ha. When you press the shutter, there are photos of the environment and local people. For example:

This road still has some characteristics. You wait for the "prey" on this road in advance, and then after a while, a person passes by on a bicycle, followed by a dog. When two people can't be together, just press the shutter

This one, I took a fancy to this doorway when I passed by, but I just took this photo and it was a little empty. I just stood there waiting for more than ten minutes, and occasionally one or two people passed by. I took a picture in advance, and when these two people got to the position I wanted, I pressed the shutter.

If you want to get closer to passers-by, you can actually talk to passers-by, chat with them and take pictures of them. For example, I actually communicate with passers-by in the following ways:

Of course, communicating with passers-by is also a matter of choice. You can try to talk to those who look kind, and to those who look fierce. Don't mess with them, hahaha.

: shooting method

1. Complement with the environment (integration or contrast)

2. Passers-by with stories (focus on what to do, happiness, faith, etc. )

3. Take the initiative to ask you to take pictures, or take pictures of passers-by who you ask and get permission.

Take a photo with passers-by

Complement the environment.

The passers-by you shoot are either well integrated with the surrounding environment (such as national characteristics) or have great jumping contrast with the surrounding environment (such as jumping out of bright colors from a dim background). Either way, the presence of this passerby can make the finishing touch to the environment. This is a photo of passers-by worth taking.

The Bedouin sitting on the high mountain with the donkey looks like Captain Jack, but with a hint of melancholy.

Orthodox Jews on the roadside, this should be a very unusual costume outside Israel ~

The woman in red in front of the ancient European carved gate has an extremely eye-catching temperament in the short and dark days of Nordic winter.

Actually, I prefer the color of this picture, which is more vivid. Seeing such fresh and tense colors in the heavy old city of Jerusalem can't help but make people look twice.

Passers-by with stories

People who do things seriously are always particularly attractive. When we walk around the world, we will meet all kinds of people doing different things. Some are weird, some are devout, some are happy, and some may be simple and serious. A photo of a living passerby is often inseparable from "what he (she) is doing".

The story has many themes: seriousness, happiness, sharp contrast with the behavior of people around, love, piety and life. These are optional themes. Some people think that sad people are the most shocking subjects, but I don't dabble in sad subjects, because I think people who shoot pain don't respect the parties and only know the individuals.

In the afternoon sunshine, the ragged old man sat in front of the exquisite shop tables and chairs and read the newspaper, which was taken in rothenburg.

In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, devout Christians who light candles for Jesus are careful all the way because they are afraid that tourists will blow out the candles in the wind.

This is an extremely poor village. They are all refugees from Vietnam. They lost their nationality and built a floating village in Tonle Sap Lake. When you visit this village by boat, you will see teenagers fishing in an incredibly dirty lake, little girls leading tourists' boats to sell snakes, and adult men stepping on wooden stakes to build new houses. All this is very sad.

Sami people take reindeer out of the thick snow in winter, just like the snow forest in fairy tales.

3. Take the initiative to ask you to take pictures, or take pictures of passers-by who you ask and get permission.

This kind of person is cheerful, will be very cooperative, and welcomes your camera. In this case, you can pat or not. But remember to show them the photos to show their respect and gratitude. But have you ever found that people who face the camera directly sometimes don't necessarily have the effect of taking candid photos?

Outside the sad wailing wall Square, the faces of teenagers are still smiling like flowers. When tourists pass by, they will wave happily and smile happily at the camera.

When I was lying idle by the sea, a little black came over and asked me to take a picture of him.

Two curious tourists I met on the road saw the SLR in my hand and offered to take pictures of them.

In the Bedouin tent in the hinterland of the desert, the hospitable host brought a cup of sweet tea to the tourists and smiled happily at the camera.

Interact with local people

In addition to taking pictures of passers-by, sometimes it is also a good choice to take pictures with passers-by who can chat, and even leave unique memories for your journey. This kind of photo is often more vivid, but because the camera is not in your own hand, you have to compose your own expression or something.

In a small fishing village with more than 200 people on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, we took a Finnish bath (jumped into the Arctic Ocean naked after sauna) on a snowy day of MINUS 20 degrees, and the village head's grandmother also came to visit our brave (Shen) and brave (Jing) tourists, so we had such a photo.

: hint

1. Composition: A vivid travel photo must have one or two key figures. No matter how big or small his/her proportion is in the picture, we must focus on this person. So either the background is clean, or focus on this "man with a story" with complex background. Don't shoot many people with the same depth of field in a big and chaotic scene, you will lose your center of gravity.

2. Snap: Snap must be fast and don't disturb each other. If you want to take a big picture of a single person, try to capture it from a distance with a telephoto, and the time should not be too long (for reference, 99% of the close-range snapshots in the above sample photos are all 200mm or 300mm focal length, and some photos are enlarged). You should think about the composition before lifting the camera. Lift the camera and get out of here. There are also three kinds of passers-by, one is particularly resistant to being photographed, the other is particularly fond of being photographed, and the other is in between. Being photographed once or twice is tolerable, but being photographed by the camera for a long time will also cause the other party's disgust. Most passers-by should be the third kind ~

3. Respect: Again, not everyone welcomes your camera. When I was in the African Wildlife Park, I sat in the car and took some photos with my mobile phone. A man on the roadside immediately lifted a stone and tried to smash it. I learned from the tour guide that this kind of shooting is disgusting in the eyes of many Africans. Also in Africa, I once saw a shopkeeper arguing with two tourists. The reason is that tourists took a photo at the door when they saw the interesting goods in the store, but the owner thought this shot was "mocking her store for being small and poor". Therefore, it is very important to respect the wishes of the subject when shooting. This item is especially applicable to third world countries, the disabled and so on.

4. Artists in the performance venue can take photos normally, but street artists on the roadside should give priority to taking photos and respect the wishes of others.