Photographing people in the public, reactions

[krusty]

Beautiful!

Thanks for the input.

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.

One more thing you might want to try, what kind of a street photographer do you want to be?
Make a new folder on your computer, copy 5 street photo's from the DPS forums of people with their backs to you, no faces showing in the photo. Copy 5 street photo's from this forum of people with their faces showing in the photo. Find 5 more photos where the person/subject make up a small portion of the whole photo and place them in the same folder. Copy 5 more with out any people at all in them to the folder.
Now for the last step, view the folder contents as a slide show on your computer screen, pick your three or four favorite captures from all of them. Your favorites should show you the style of shots you want to be capturing.

Good shooting
Ron

[el_vago32]

Originally Posted by Raoul Isidro

With crazy laws and restrictions brought about by looney pedophiles and border protection insanity, it's a very delicate matter. Here in Australia, you can't even take a photo of your own child swimming in a public pool or beach, due to laws on child protection from pedophiles. Just like a runaway Antibiotic, the laws not only kill the pervert germs but also exact collateral damage to artistic freedom.

So what will be next? One being unable to have our own kids at home? Jeez...

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

and a few too many concussions

Ah, THAT explains it!!!

[gturner]

Wow, who knew there was this much testosterone on DPS. This images seems to capture the mood quite well!



Ron has all the answers,
PS camera is the best answer to all of these problems. If you are photag under fire, you should pick a team and keep your head down, no point taking your own gun.

[gturner]

Originally Posted by el_vago32

So what will be next? One being unable to have our own kids at home? Jeez...

Oz has gone nuts. They are so bored they are going Singapore on the themselves...

[jamesev]

I sometimes take team sports shots an occassionally there are under 18s playing. I usually avoid any shots of them, but generally if quizzed I ask if they just accused me of some sort of immoral activity. whilst I understand that a small minority might want to take pictures for malevolent reasons I only take shots for "practise"reasons.
Its a pity we live in a society that assumes all are guilty until proven innocent

[Barbara V]

Had the player seen me photographing an illegal game of 3 card Monte, I probably would've needed that glock. (this is an old faded film photo from when I was younger, and oddly much braver than I am now)

[PhotoPatzer]

I love street photography and this post has been a blast to read!

Even when it shifted off topic to kung fu and guns.

[anfanglove]

I'm shy, so i wouldnt let people know that i was taking pictures of them. So i would go out there and get a 70-300 lens and shoot. I would pretend that i shoot birds up on the trees too, lol I admire those brave street photographers. I dont have such courage. i dont even feel confident with a camera on my hands in front of pubic.

[freybear3]

I am getting more and more braver nowadays, but I only shoot at a distance still. Then crop the photo, so it brings the subject even closer.