First Time Street Shooting

The problem with walking up and chit chatting first, is that most people will then stop acting naturally. You should always shoot and then talk. You can also pick a fairly wide focal length, set an ISO and appropriate shutter speed to stop camera shake with a small enough aperture, and simply fire blindly. If the aperture is small enough your depth of field should be sufficient. Of course thats not going to get your tack sharp pin-point focus shots. Personally, I would just shoot normally but quickly before people can notice you are shooting and tense up. If they notice you at all, you can hand them a card or whatever.

i do this but i have also pointed the camera right at people so they know im taking their picture. when they see me I just smile and walk off if i dont want to talk to them.
 
Just be straight forward and professional. If you sneek around you'll just look like you're doing something underhanded or pervy.

Depending on the environment I use all the techniques one can from smiling to long lenses to actually asking permission.
But as KmH says above, Just be straight forward and professional.

I don't spend a lot of time looking through the lens.
I keep the camera at waist level, make any adjustments, then bring it up and shoot and drop it again to waist level.
So you need to know your camera, what f stop to use, how to use exposure compensation and, most of all, understand that street shooting is not just getting a picture of something or someone that is in focus and well exposed

- this is my favorite statement about street shooting, made off the cuff, by a friend:

"Street shooting is maybe the hardest niche of all in photography. The photographer stalks his chosen environment where, essentially, nothing is happening - people are quietly going about their business - and yet has to select tiny moments when an image can be snatched which is more than the sum of its parts - where some fleeting coincidence of expression, gesture, positioning, and movement come together to create an instant which holds some undefinable meaning."


If you are interested in seeing street shots done by someone you sort of know, I have lots of street shooting on my web site at Zenfolio | Lew Lorton Photography | Stories and Photojounalism.
 
I am taking part in Flickr's 100 Strangers project (I am up to number 17) and I love photographing people on the street, but instead of taking candids, I take portraits.

Nice. i started that project a couple months ago. Thats the way to do it. I got some great results from the direct approach. made a couple cool friends that way too.

What is your username there? I would love to check out your work. Here are a couple of the ones I have posted there.



#13 0f 100 Alan by Scoody1, on Flickr


#17 of 100 Brandon by Scoody1, on Flickr
 
So here's the first three I processed. I didn't really get any decent people shots, but apparently I like signs :er:

1)

Lowell's by Boaketography, on Flickr

F/8.0
ISO 400
1/100
45 MM

2)

Public Parking by Boaketography, on Flickr

f/8.0
ISO 200
1/200
50 MM

3)

Coffee and a Song by Boaketography, on Flickr

f/8.0
ISO 400
1/200
33 MM

C&C would be greatly appreciated. I'll post more as I go through them.
 
I like the 3rd one the best, but it is a little busy for me. I guess your subject was the accordion player? I think you could crop out part of the right side (cut out the little girls head) to try and bring more attention to him, maybe crop out some from the top too. That way the Starbucks sign isn't so prominent (unless you actually want that to be the main subject XD).

The signs don't really do it for me.

Keep on shooting!
 
I believe that you can get an accessory that will allow you to shoot from the hip. It connects to the viewfinder and shows the view on top of the camera, so you can look down on it
 
The first two are just snaps of signs.

The third one is a decent attempt. I imagine that you are trying to get the accordion player and the people watching him with various expressions.
(He is there to be seen and you could have dropped a dollar in his cup and asked to shoot him and shot away, capturing the crowd as you did.)

Why is the top half of the picture essentially empty?
Why the strange crop that includes people that don't seem to be in the scene?
Why so dark?

602417102751a3419586bll.jpg


Include things that mean something and make them in a prominent place.
Remove things that mean nothing or diminish their impact.
Street photos should say something, have some interest,m have some reason - if not they might has well been taken by a traffic camera.
 
The first two are just snaps of signs.

The third one is a decent attempt. I imagine that you are trying to get the accordion player and the people watching him with various expressions.
(He is there to be seen and you could have dropped a dollar in his cup and asked to shoot him and shot away, capturing the crowd as you did.)

Why is the top half of the picture essentially empty?
Why the strange crop that includes people that don't seem to be in the scene?
Why so dark?

602417102751a3419586bll.jpg


Include things that mean something and make them in a prominent place.
Remove things that mean nothing or diminish their impact.
Street photos should say something, have some interest,m have some reason - if not they might has well been taken by a traffic camera.

Great minds think alike ;)
 
I like the 3rd one the best, but it is a little busy for me. I guess your subject was the accordion player? I think you could crop out part of the right side (cut out the little girls head) to try and bring more attention to him, maybe crop out some from the top too. That way the Starbucks sign isn't so prominent (unless you actually want that to be the main subject XD).

The signs don't really do it for me.
Keep on shooting!

Thanks for the feedback. I was trying to get both the accordion player and the sign itself, since this is the original Starbucks. But I agree that it's a little too busy. I'll have to try again the next time I am down there and there isn't such a large lineup.
 
I took a few shots of this over-sized chess game, and this is the one that I was most happy with. Maybe it could be a little brighter but I like the tones.


Checkmate by Boaketography, on Flickr

f/8.0
ISO 200
1/160 sec.
 
The first two are just snaps of signs.

The third one is a decent attempt. I imagine that you are trying to get the accordion player and the people watching him with various expressions.
(He is there to be seen and you could have dropped a dollar in his cup and asked to shoot him and shot away, capturing the crowd as you did.)

Why is the top half of the picture essentially empty?
Why the strange crop that includes people that don't seem to be in the scene?
Why so dark?

602417102751a3419586bll.jpg


Include things that mean something and make them in a prominent place.
Remove things that mean nothing or diminish their impact.
Street photos should say something, have some interest,m have some reason - if not they might has well been taken by a traffic camera.


I'll try this later, cropping and maybe lightening it up. Thanks!
 
I was trying to get both the accordion player and the sign itself, since this is the original Starbucks.

But so what?
What does the place being the original Starbucks mean to the picture?
The main thing is to let the main thing be the main thing.
The main thing here is the accordionist and the reactions of the crowd.
Decide what you want the picture to be about before you press the button; a picture isn't or shouldn't be a random assortment of items that were in the FOV.
 
IMO,
Here's where having some idea of what you want to have the picture show would have changed this picture.
We have 3 people lost in thought, watching this big chess game.
The man on the right has someone behind him whose looking elsewhere spoiling the concept of 'being absorbed in the game' and also cluttering up his outline.
Also the standing man is squashed up against the margin - that isn't good.

So, if you would have moved to the right a bit and shot a little higher (and exposed a bit more), that would have improved the image a lot. Three men, looking at the board - isolated in their thoughts.

There is no EXIF so there's no time attached but it is my practice to overexpose a bit when the sun is directly overhead. My Nikon always underexposes in direct light and so I compensate for it. That would have given more light and detail on the face.

602473284625216f8697b1l.jpg
 
I didn't know that about shooting when the sun is directly overhead, thanks for the tip. This was taken midday so the light wasn't ideal, but I thought the trees and clouds would have diffused it a little. I agree about the man's face, I wish it were lit a little better. I was fighting with the white chess pieces being over exposed as well. I believe I reduced the exposure post in this one because I didn't like the loss of detail in them. I guess I did this at the expense of the detail in the man on the left's face.

How do I import the EXIF data with the pictures? I am taking the link from my FLICKR page and pasting them over, I know the EXIF is available there. I just assumed it transferred over as well.
 

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