Street portraits

[Aceituna]

I´m starting in photography. My main interest is portrait but, at the moment, I haven´t made photos out of family circle.
I have seen a lot of photography, because I have interest in it 15 years ago.
But I would like to develop my personal style.
I would like to make street people portraits. The singularity of routine life atracts me.
But I have problems for getting models. About this matter I have some questions:
For making studio portraits, ¿how can I get models?. I imagine it´s neccesary to pay them, ¿how much is one hour?.
I am interested in street social portraits, but I don´t like to use my camera like a submachine gun, I prefer to dialogue with people who I want to photograph. Yesterday, I went out three hours in my city and I didn´t get any people who wanted to be photographed by me.
How do you get people trust?.
Thank you very much.
Best regards.

 

[Aceituna]

Sorry,
Anybody can help me?.
It would be very beneficial for me.
Thanks.

 

[markc]

It sounds like you are asking about two different things: studio and street, unless you mean you want to get people you meet on the street to pose for you in the studio. In general, I think this is rather diffucult. People usually don't want to break their schedule, especially if there's nothing in it for them. And then there's the trust issue.

If you want to use models in the studio, then you either need to be good enough for them to want to shoot with you as TFP/TFCD (trade-for-prints or trade-for-CD), or you will have to pay them. Even if you offer to pay, they may not be keen to work with you unless your work shows some professionalism. You can try sites like http://www.OneModelPlace.com and http://www.ModelMayhem.com .

If you want to just shoot people on the street, you need to develop an inconspicuousness so that people don't notice you. Then you can shoot them as they go about their business. If you want them to pose for you on the street, which is what it's sounding like, then you run into some of the same problems as the first example. If that's the case, you just have to keep trying and play the odds. Also do a search here. There have been a LOT of threads on this subject.

Overall, it takes practice. Keep trying and good luck.

 

[bantor]

I agree with what markc has to say. If you are looking for studio modles, well I would suggest until you get some kind of profesional profolio, just ask some friends if they would like to get their picture taken for a while (if you can avoid asking them to "model").

If you are going for candid street shots, then do just as markc said, shoot from the hip as it were. Personally I find it difficult to do that, not only are my compostions off, but I feel bad for some reason. Just the other day I went street shooting, and all I did was say "hey guys, listen I have a bag of muffins, you want some?" they said yes, we got chatting and after a while I just asked if I could take their pictures and they were more than happy.

I guess what I am saying is jsut go for it, ask people on the street, and once again as markc said practice.

 

[Aceituna]

Thank you for your advices.
Today, I have contacted with an agency, and the next week I´ll have a session with a model starting his career.
I´ll put some images in the forum.
Best regards.