Originally Posted by Ron Cornelison
Here are some things you don't need for good street photography;
1. Gun, leave your gun at home. Unless your in a war zone/dangerous jungle?
Never been in either one? Nether have I, nor am I planning to go to one. If you shoot in the part of a city where you need a weapon, you really don't need to be there in the first place.
2. Fist, keep your fist open, use your hand to wave at people and point at your camera, when and if they notice you. Watch their face, you will know if you can take a second photo or not.
3. Large Telephoto lens, really introduces the creepy photographer image into the mix. Leave it at home unless that's your intention, because that is exactly how you will be perceived.
Use a prime or small (in physical size) telephoto on a SLR or DSLR. I see a lot of shooter's use small compact quality P&S with great results as well, if your shy/new start with one of these. People very seldom show a reaction to a P&S, particularly at an outdoor event.
4.Shoot around the corner camera, Hole in the side of a fake lens attachment, again introduces the creepy photographer image back into the mix. Explain why you need them to a stranger to see what I mean. Don't act creepy, people will not react to you as a creep.
4. Flash, I saw a video of a guy walking right up to people and firing a flash in their face for his captures. If it would make you mad if someone did it to you, it will make strangers mad at you as well. I don't use a flash unless I ask a person first.
5. Vest and Camera bag, leave the vest at home. Leave the good camera bag at home or in the locked trunk of your car if you need to change lens or resupply anything. To blend on the street or at an event, travel light and look like the locals if you can. Or at least look like a visitor to the area should look like.
6. Aggressive attitude? If your aggressive in your attitude, stance, facial expression, as you shoot, people will respond to you in the same aggressive manner. Relax, smile, look happy, you should be enjoying what you doing, your not hiding anything from any one.
Keep an aggressive attitude out of the mix unless your looking for confrontational captures.
7. Release form, leave them at home unless you shoot for money, your shooting as a hobby at a public event or area, you simply don't need them unless you intend to make a profit off the persons image.
A few things to bring when shooting on the street;
1. Smile, smile when people look at you, they know you took their photo, never try to hide that fact. Say thanks and keep moving unless you want to meet them. 90% of the time that will be the only interaction any one will have with you.
2. Compliments, your excuse to take a photo if they ask, tell them they looked interesting, colorful. You were impressed with what they were doing. What ever it was that captured your interest about them, compliment them about it.
You will find most people crave compliments. Compliments open people up, they make you a friend and they make shy people comfortable with you taking their photo's.
3. Hand outs, I give people a homemade card with a separate e-mail address that I share with strangers when they ask. I print off 8 to a sheet of paper, cut them up by hand and keep a few in my shirt pocket to give out, very amateurish. People will keep it, several have contacted me for a copy of their photo. I send them a good quality jpg so they can print it were ever they want to. The difficulty here is which photo are they in, when you have shot a large amount of them.
4. Confidence, look and act like you belong were you are taking photo's. A lot of people are not comfortable in public situations. You can overcome that.
See if your area has a local Toastmasters group, it's a dirt cheep way to overcome shyness so you can speak in public. It will improve your life, if you can speak in front of a small group of friends, you can handle any street situation.
5. Automatic camera setting. That's right let your camera do the work it's designed for, it will take a very good photo on Auto in spite of what you have read.
Bring manual, or custom camera settings into the mix after you have gained confidence in your ability to capture street/candid photo's of real live people.
Manual setting are a whole separate adventure that awaits you as your confidence and skills grow.
Good shooting
Ron
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