[Question] Technical tiips for street portraits

[dsiglin]

By street portrait I mean a mutually agreed photo of a stranger, so I'm not talking about typical "sniping" street photography. I am a personable person so asking to take the photo isn't really the problem. I am wondering what are some technical tips and tricks that might help me take better portraits. I've been experimenting with flash compensation levels for portraits taken against the sun on a bright day, many thanks to my coworkers for humoring me.

 

[Designer]

I don't think I would use flash for street photography. More like a wide angle lens with decent maximum aperture, make your settings before composing the shot. Go ahead and set the ISO up a bit, where you're comfortable with any possible noise.

 

[Derrel]

I often walk up to people and introduce myself and ask them if they'd like to do , "An impromptu photo shoot, right here, right now?" and I usually have about a 90% or so success rate on what I call "walk-ups". My tech tips might be to use a small lens, one that's not overly large. START with a small lens on the camera. That makes strangers feel better. After three or four shots, look at the LCD and review, and tell them, "Hey, you're doing great, this looks really good." Soon after, show them some shots on the LCD, and proclaim one of them "Excellent! Really good!" Then, announce a lens change, and pop on the lens you really think is the best for the situation: that might be a 70-200 or 80-200/2.8, or whatever. But by starting off with a smallish lens, like say a 35mm f/2 prime, or a 50/1.8, or 85/1.8, you get better reactions and better posing from regular, everyday people.

 

[FITBMX]

I often walk up to people and introduce myself and ask them if they'd like to do , "An impromptu photo shoot, right here, right now?" and I usually have about a 90% or so success rate on what I call "walk-ups". My tech tips might be to use a small lens, one that's not overly large. START with a small lens on the camera. That makes strangers feel better. After three or four shots, look at the LCD and review, and tell them, "Hey, you're doing great, this looks really good." Soon after, show them some shots on the LCD, and proclaim one of them "Excellent! Really good!" Then, announce a lens change, and pop on the lens you really think is the best for the situation: that might be a 70-200 or 80-200/2.8, or whatever. But by starting off with a smallish lens, like say a 35mm f/2 prime, or a 50/1.8, or 85/1.8, you get better reactions and better posing from regular, everyday people.

I will keep this in mind, thanks!!!

 

[dsiglin]

Excellent points Derrell and Designer. I actually just bought a 12mm f2 Rokinon. I think I'll end up using my FD 50mm 1.4 with a ND filter to let me use wide apertures.