Your Guide to: Street Photography

Introduction to street photography

What is street photography? At its core, to me it means candid and unplanned photography of humanity and daily life. A street photograph is a moment frozen in time that highlights the interests and emotions of the person capturing it. In this genre of photography, both the photographer and the subject they capture are both equally as important.

Street photography can be captured anywhere and at any time, it’s about observing and documenting the surrounding location that you are in and looking for moments, interactions, scenes, and/or people that intrigues you. The idea is to evoke some sort of emotion or story to the viewer looking at the final photograph.

As a form of art, street photography has been around for over a century, and it has evolved over time due to advancements in camera technology and people’s perceptions of art. In the early years of photography, street photography was not a very common practice as camera equipment was super bulky and not easy to carry around but the invention of the portable camera in the early 1900s changed this and made it possible for photographers to shoot candid moments and document life outside. Street photography developed even more in the 1950’s and 60’s due to the rise of faster, smaller, and more accessible cameras and film. Around this time, famous street photographers would document certain themes and cultures in their work.

Although street photography can be anything, the images that stand out and stand the test of time are the ones that not only have strong compositional elements (explained further later in the article), but also have a powerful story and meaning behind them. Storytelling in street photography is the most important element, it can turn simple snapshots into rich visual narratives - it gives the image life and soul.

Essential gear for street photography

There are a few criteria that should be considered when choosing a camera for street photography, the biggest ones being compactness and weight. As you will be carrying your camera around all day, you should get a camera that is lightweight and compact so that you don’t feel tired and lose the joy of taking street photographs. A smaller setup will also appear less intimidating to the people that you photograph on the streets and will give the highest chance of capturing them in their most natural way.

A camera that can focus fast and also fast lenses (lenses with bigger apertures) are something that you should consider when it comes to street photography. You don’t want to miss any important moments so being able to capture quickly and in focus is very important.

The Sony Alpha 7C II (and also the Alpha 7C) is a great option as it is very compact, lightweight, full-frame and very powerful even at such a small size. In terms of lenses, I would look for lightweight lenses with apertures f2.8 or higher. For primes there’s the 28mm f2, 35mm f1.8, 50mm f1.8, 55mm f1.8 and 85mm f1.8 just to name a few that are compact and lightweight. And for zooms, there’s the 16-25mm f2.8 G and the 24-50mm f2.8 G as well. Prime lenses are good for keeping you on your toes and moving around to capture the right composition while zoom lenses give you a bit more flexibility when it comes to compositions. It might be good to trial out a few different focal lengths to see what distance you’re most comfortable at when doing street photography and also what look/style you like best as well.

Other accessories that can enhance your street photography experience would be comfortable walking shoes as you’ll be on your feet and walking around for long periods of time, a wrist strap for your camera so you always have your camera in-hand and ready to shoot, and also a fast SD card (dependant on the megapixel count of the camera and how many photos it can shoot in burst) if you need to shoot photos in burst mode.

Techniques to capture appealing street photos

The same compositional photography techniques such as rule of thirds, leading lines, framing/layering, symmetry, and reflections etc. apply to street photography too. Being able to incorporate these techniques along with interesting people and subjects is what will elevate your street photography to the next level.

Utilising light and shadows are also a big part of street photography too. It’s a great way to isolate your subjects and create a focal point in the images you capture. For most other types of photography, shooting around sunrise or sunset or night is probably recommended but for street photography, shooting in harsh lighting conditions can also create beautiful and appealing images too - meaning that you can literally shoot at all times of the day and in all types of weather conditions as well.

There are also 2 types of street photography when it comes to capturing people: candid and posed. Candid photos are when you capture the moment without the subject noticing, showing their natural environment and raw emotions, while posed photos are when you ask a stranger on the street if you can take a photo of them. A few reasons you would want to take a posed photo would be if you’re documenting a certain theme or cultural situation or even if you find someone’s look or fashion to be interesting.

Tips to overcome challenges in street photography

When it comes to taking photos of strangers in public places, it can be quite intimidating/daunting when you’re first starting out. It’s still quite intimidating for me even when I’ve been doing it for many years now. However, a few tips that I can give when it comes to taking photos of strangers would be to:

1. Try to blend in as much as possible, the more you look/act suspicious the more the strangers will think you’re doing something off. Try to be as discreet and hidden as possible when taking photos candidly.
2. Shoot from the hip or try to shoot without even looking at the camera. This takes some practice, and it sometimes can be hard to nail the shot but the more you do it the better you will get at it. If your camera has a flip-screen, it can also be nice to look down at the screen and take a photo upwards towards the subject - looking into the viewfinder makes it quite obvious you’re taking photos.
3. Don’t check your camera after every shot, just keep taking photos and check them at the end when you’re done taking photos of the location/street.
4. Try to avoid eye contact as much as possible when it comes to taking candid photos.
5. Fake taking a photo of the architecture above and then take the shot when you bring the camera back down.

When it comes to approaching people for posed shots or if someone you’ve taken a photo of candidly does approach you in an angry way, you want to be as respectful and polite as possible. Try to explain why you want to take a photo of them and even show them the photos so they can see for themselves what they look like. If they don’t want to be photographed, then just move on, and don’t cause a scene. Smiling, talking, and being calm and considerate are the best ways to approach other people on the street.

You should also be aware of legal and ethical considerations when it comes to street photography. There are cities and countries where taking photos of strangers is illegal and you should also be aware of the circumstances the people you are capturing are in (i.e. vulnerable people or children etc.).

Post-production for street photography

When it comes to editing your street photography, the aim for me is to always emphasise the story you want to convey. What do you want to highlight and put more/less attention on in the image? What colours do you want to saturate and desaturate? Personally, I use Adobe Lightroom to edit all my photos, it’s not only a great editing software but it also keeps your photos organised too mimicking the folder structure that you’ve created on your computer.

In Lightroom, you’re able to use masks as well to isolate and edit only parts of your photos - this is a powerful way to accentuate the subject in your images. Colour grading is a very stylistic, personal and subjective process, so experiment and test out different tones until you find the combination of colours you like. A good question I like to ask myself when editing is: What did I envision the scene to look like at the time I took the picture?

Inspiration and continuous learning

So where should you look for inspiration and how can you improve your street photography? It’s always best to start by analysing the works of famous street photographers in history (such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Fan Ho, and Steve McCurry) and even looking on social media for amazing street photographers today (such as Billy Dinh, monaris_, and ashrafularefin). Ask yourself, what makes their photos stand out and what about their images you like?

Other ways to stay motivated and inspired is to look for friends who also have the same interests as you and go out and take photos together. Sharing the process with others can really improve your photography skills a lot faster! There are heaps of street photography communities out there that you can join and even doing workshops/masterclasses could also help you in finding your own friends in the space.

Finally, challenge yourself to try different styles and themes without street photography and see where this takes you! Ultimately, the best way to improve is to go out and shoot as much as you can and enjoy the process as much as you can. Have fun with it!

By Demas Rusli