How to shoot on street

[jihyeu]

I just bought my first SLR and am not familiar with many techniques. I live in New York and love to shoot street scene. I like to shoot interesting signs, interesting people, or some events. However, I find out sometimes I want deep DOF and sometimes I want to seize a moment of people or accidents. And in the city it's almost imposible to let me have time set up my camera and then shoot because the moment just gone. So what mode should I use and how do I set up my camera to allow me to shoot good pictures on street?

[wulf]

What camera have you got?

Wulf

[jihyeu]

I use Nikon D40.



What camera have you got?

Wulf

[Nicole]

If your biggest issue is controlling DoF, then your best starting point is to shoot in Aperture Priority mode (A). This way, if you want shallow DoF, set it to a low number, if you want a deep DoF, set it to a high number. You won't have to make any other changes to your settings since the camera will set everything else based on your selected aperture.

[wulf]

That is the same camera as I have. You should be able to switch fairly quickly between settings; a twist of the dial on top to select the mode and then half-press the shutter and rotate the dial on the back to fine-tune things.

If you really need to frequently switch between two disparate settings, you probably should have at least two cameras hanging round your neck. Otherwise, you might be best off taking the limitation of staying in one mode as a creative discipline. You can then very quickly use the back dial to fine-tune things.

Of course, you will miss some shots but, as you get a feel for what each mode can do you will be more likely to select the right one in advance of a particular session.

Wulf

[Digidave]

I to am just learning on a DSLR. If you want to control the depth-of-Field(DOF). Put your camera in "A" mode. Aperture("A") will control your DOF. Then you can adjust that to your liking & everything else will be automatically controlled. Just remember this when it comes to Aperture. Bigger number means bigger DOF & smaller number means smaller DOF.

If you're like me, you can read up all you want on this stuff & the more you read , the more confused you get. So I just put it in simple terms & there probably is a lot of stuff I left out.

Man, I gotta learn how to type faster!!!! There are 2 answers in the time it took me to type this!:eek:

[jihyeu]

Thank you all. I understand how to adjust A-Mode or S-Mode. But it seems like not easy to have deep DOF and quick shutter speed at the same time. I guess I'll go after A-Mode since I like street as background. I'll keep practice. Thank you.

[wulf]

To get a deeper DOF you need a smaller aperture (higher F/stop); that lets less light into the camera and so you need to find some way to compensate. By default, the camera slows the shutter speed; as an alternative, you could bump up the ISO setting a bit or look for better lit subjects.

Wulf