Experience sharing of street documentary photography

Lead: It's easy to sweep the street. Pick up the camera and go to the street. Shoot me. But at the same time, sweeping the street is also the most difficult kind of photography. People come and go in the street, and it is really not easy to capture moving moments in it.

In Zhuzhou, Hunan Province, a teenager playing in a garbage dump by a river raised his hands. His hope and heart seemed to fly at this moment, across the river, across the city and into the distance.

Many famous photographers in the history of photography at home and abroad, such as the father of documentary photography? A decisive moment? Henry in theory? Cartier-Bresson, Mark who shot China countless times? Lu Bu, Daido Moriyama, famous Japanese freelance photographers, and so on, all spent a lot of time on street photography. By capturing ordinary people's daily moments, they retained one classic moment after another, and their works touched countless people. It can even be said that photos that usually help people remember history and times are often not earth-shattering events, but street photos that record the details of ordinary people's lives and the characteristics of the times.

Concept and idea of street photography

In the old town of Xiguan, Guangzhou, an ordinary fish stall, the cat in the shop suddenly turned back.

There is no doubt that the street is definitely the most important scene reflecting the culture and characteristics of our times.

When we first started sweeping the streets, we often felt that we could not find the north. The streets are so rich and messy that many events happen at the same time and are fleeting. How can we find and record the most wonderful moment at the most suitable time?

It is necessary to paraphrase the most basic theory here, which was put forward by Bresson? A decisive moment? In his view, everything in the world has its decisive moment, that is, the form and content of the subject just constitute a harmonious picture at this moment. He grasped the appearance and connotation of things in a very short time and made them eternal.

Bresson insisted on capturing pictures all his life, but the perfect composition in his works matched with traditional painting aesthetics, which made these moments amazing. ? A decisive moment? Since the theory was put forward in 1950s, it has been questioned and broken constantly, but it is still a compulsory course for documentary photographers from generation to generation at home and abroad.

For sweeping the street, we must first confirm the intention and theme of shooting, otherwise it will be superficial and cursory. Some photographers will be obsessed with taking pictures of historical buildings and human moments that are about to disappear, some will focus on recording people and events that are most characteristic of our times, and some photographers will look for ordinary life details that show the brilliance and touching of human nature in the streets and record emergencies, conflicts and disputes? Wait a minute. However, everything remains the same. Only by recording what can move you can photos move others. The feelings of humanitarianism, equality, sympathy and pity that discount human nature in eastern and western art in photographic works will never be out of date.

However, street photography must also have its own unique vision. Try to choose a theme or scene or shooting method that others have not photographed, and it is also essential to explain your views and positions through photos. Otherwise, in today's image explosion, photos without personality will inevitably be submerged and will not leave too much impression on the audience.

Selection of Street Photography Equipment

In the old city of Xiguan, Guangzhou, we practiced calligraphy together according to the method taught by grandpa.

Because street photography changes rapidly and has rich colors, SLR or paraxial camera with short shutter lag is the first choice for sweeping the street, and paraxial camera with small volume and inconspicuousness is the ideal choice. Of course, digital DC can also be competent to sweep the street, but DC needs to be familiar with the camera and accurately predict the event to keep the most accurate moment because of the long shutter lag. Moreover, continuous shooting is often used to sweep the street, and the continuous shooting speed of the camera should also be considered.

Guangzhou Pazhou Convention and Exhibition Center, a family of three is tired of shopping.

In the traditional photography theory, it is generally recommended to use a lens with a focal length of 28mm-50mm for street shooting, because the lens with this focal length often has a more stereoscopic depth of field, which conforms to people's visual habits and makes the recorded scene realistic and spatial. But too wide or telephoto lenses are not recommended. Wide-angle lenses often bring strong deformation and excessive sense of clutter, and are generally only suitable for narrow environments or scenes that pursue visual impact caused by wide-angle deformation. A telephoto lens often has a narrow viewing angle, which is not conducive to explaining the environment. At the same time, the telephoto angle compresses the perspective between scenes, which easily makes the picture lose the sense of scene and space.

Happy childhood in the deep alleys of Xiguan Old Town, Guangzhou.

However, the choice of lens also depends on personal style. If you like to keep a sense of distance or the subject is difficult to get close to, a telephoto lens is also a good choice. If you like wide-angle visual impact, or control the picture well, it is ok to sweep the street with a wide-angle lens.

Capture, Stealing and Dissemination of Street Photography

Generally speaking, when sweeping the street, there are a lot of snapshots, which require the scene to be natural and true and not interfere with the subject. The most natural and alive is the most valuable'. Capture can be predicted in advance, as long as you go out with your camera on your back and shoot whatever you see. Going deep into life is the soul and essence of snapshot.

On the eve of the Spring Festival, Guangzhou Guangyuan Bus Terminal, despite the cold weather and heavy luggage, could not stop the expectation of going home.

When you take a snapshot, you must be witty, seize the most wonderful moment without hesitation, and shoot when it is time to shoot. In order to practice the accuracy of the shutter, I photographed the telephone pole outside the window many times when I was on the train, trying to make sure that the telephone pole was at the golden section every time I pressed the shutter. Interested friends may wish to try this exercise method.

Capturing must also require the photographer to be familiar with the development trend of the event, predict what will happen next, and know when to press the shutter, so as to grasp the desired moment.

On the streets of Chengdu, happy girls call public telephones.

Waiting for the right light and shadow and scene is also a common thing to sweep the street. Choosing the right scene, waiting for the right person to appear or the right event to happen, and then taking a snapshot is a common shooting method for sweeping the street. But don't stay in a scene for too long. After all, it's sweeping the streets and walking around at will. Making a good movie is often a fate, and maybe a more wonderful moment will happen at the next corner.

There is some dust in the old city of Xiguan, Guangzhou.

It seems to be a psychological obstacle for photographers to shoot strangers when sweeping the street. It is often to press the shutter in a hurry and take pictures of the surprised expression of the subject. When sweeping the street, the author thinks that communication ability is often the most important. In some interesting scenes, or when you need to shoot a stranger at close range, a simple greeting or two and friendly questions, full of friendly smiles, can often close the psychological distance with the subject. If the other party is not doing unconventional behavior, it will generally agree to shoot. For those who are particularly cautious in front of the camera, you can press the shutter while chatting and take more pictures to get the ideal expression and action. If you resolutely disagree with taking photos, you should stop taking photos or delete photos according to the requirements of the subject, which is the most basic respect for others.

It is very important to treat the problems found in snapshot and sneak shot in a friendly way and handle them properly. The author often laughs foolishly and calls himself:? Learn to take pictures, come out and practice. ? Or? I just bought a camera today, and I often get friendly responses when I try it out. Remember not to flatter yourself as a photographer or a reporter, it is often self-defeating. I seldom see people who curse and pursue. The gap between people is often established by people's hearts, and communication is actually not too difficult.

Common skills of street photography

In the old town of Xiguan, Guangzhou, the old man who basked alone left many things between light and shadow.

Sweeping the street, sudden scenes can be seen everywhere, often so suddenly that even the camera and autofocus are too slow. Therefore, blind shot's technology is very important. The so-called blind shot, that is, without looking at the viewfinder, can roughly predict what kind of picture and composition can be taken from a certain angle. This skill needs practice, and you need to be very familiar with the focal length of the camera. You can use the camera to predict the scene first, then take a shot at leisure and then compare it. So you can get familiar with it after repeated exercise for a period of time. Blind shot is widely used in street photography, such as shooting close to the subject that doesn't want to interfere with the object, and shooting rapidly. You can also use blind shot to shoot at a very low angle. When the angle is low enough, it can make the subject look high and have a unique perspective, and it can also use the sky as the background to avoid the messy environment around.

Guangzhou Xiguan Antique City, foreign tourists

In addition, you can jump up with your hands to get the angle of blind shot, depending on your physical condition. Oh, of course, you should pay attention to safety.

Now the camera's autofocus is getting faster and faster, but there is still no time to focus on many occasions. It depends on your familiarity with the camera at this time. Walking in the street, the camera is never turned off. Practice the method of western cowboys pulling out gunmen, so as to quickly pull out the camera from the camera bag. Of course, it is safe to use hyperfocal distance with each focal length. For example, if the aperture of a 50mm lens is 8 and the focus is at a distance of three meters, then the distance from three meters to infinity is the focus range. With this function, you can use manual focusing method to avoid focusing.

Conclusion and digression:

I waited in this old shop for a long time, watching the cat shuttle up and down, waiting for this most appropriate moment.

For street shooting, the most difficult thing is often not the shooting skills, but your perspective. The street landscape is so rich and varied. What theme you choose and which moment you choose often have no rules to follow, but depend on your knowledge, temperament, life experience and value orientation. In fact, kung fu is outside photography, and street photography is actually outside the scope of art in a sense. It is more closely related to sociology, anthropology, history, politics, economics, philosophy and other disciplines. A photo often carries not only people's aesthetic pleasure, but also a lot of information from the real world, which makes people think deeply, pay attention and move.

A beautiful corner of light shadow, I held my camera and held my breath, waiting for the boy to bump into my lens.

Someone asked the photographer about the aperture shutter data of a work, and the master replied:? The shutter of this photo is 50 years and 250 minutes of a second? . Maybe this answer can give us some inspiration.