STREET

PHOTOGRAPHY:
A CONCISE GUIDE

By Anne Darling

KINDLE EDITION

© Copyright 2014 by Anne Darling

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Cover Image: In Your Dreams (© Copyright 2014 by Anne Darling)



TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

SECTION 1: CITY, URBAN & RURAL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Street Photography in Cities

Urban Street Photography

Rural Street Photography

SECTION 2: EQUIPMENT & TECHNIQUE

Cameras

Lenses

How to hold the camera

Shooting from the hip

Zone Focussing

Black and White or Colour?

Different angles

Intentional Blur

SECTION 3: LIGHT

Weather & Light

Strong Sunlight

Back light

Front light

Side light

Cloud & Shade

Reflected Light

Dawn & Dusk Light

Night Light

Synthetic Light

SECTION 4: CANDID, POSED & ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS

Candid Portrait Photography

Posed Street Photography

Environmental Portrait Photography

SECTION 5: TIPS FOR BETTER PHOTOS

Overcoming fear

Format

Find a good background

Eye contact

Hands

Humour

Words

Captions and titles

SECTION 6: QUICK TIPS

RECOMMENDED READING

ANY QUESTIONS?



STREET PHOTOGRAPHY:

A CONCISE GUIDE

Anne Darling

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“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.” Confucius

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Above: Shared Laughter



INTRODUCTION

Of all the genres of photography, street photography to me is the greatest. It is also one of
the most demanding. Although it’s been around since the 19th century, it’s only now, in the
digital era, that it’s become really popular. Perhaps it’s the freedom it seems to offer,
perhaps it’s the challenges, or perhaps it’s the feeling of capturing a piece of reality or of
being part of the ceaseless ebb and flow of human life.

In many ways, street photography is easier than ever: cheaper cameras with a wide range
of functionality; memory cards which hold a massive number of images; zoom lenses as
standard; and affordable or even free post-processing software to tweak your shots to
perfection. But in other ways, it’s more challenging than ever before as cameras get more
complicated and laws and attitudes to shooting on the streets change. Also, with so many
images on the internet it’s difficult to make your work stand out.

So the reason behind this book is to share my love of street photography with you through
my own images, and to also share what has worked for me with regard to technique. It’s
my hope that you will be inspired to venture forth, with increased confidence, onto the
streets of the city or village you live in, and to create more and better shots than ever
before.

All you need is a camera which allows you to control the shutter speed, aperture and ISO
manually plus a little bit of motivation to get out there and just do it! Here’s a few reasons
why I think you will love street photography:

It’s about people and nothing is more interesting as a subject to photograph

There is a feeling of great anticipation as soon as you leave the house which stays
with you all day

Every time you go out with your camera is an adventure

You often meet people who you remember for ever after

People in general are warm and welcome you and that makes it a joy

It’s often humorous

‘The decisive moment’ gives you a real buzz - all the elements come together in
front of you and you have a few seconds or even a split second to get the shot

You get to preserve memories of places you have visited

You are creating a personal, documentary history, a visual diary

It’s always unpredictable – will you get any great shots today? Or will you go
home empty handed?

The scene is always changing, always new

You can tell a story in a single shot, you don’t need a series of images



SECTION 1: CITY, URBAN & RURAL STREET

PHOTOGRAPHY

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I like people for their weaknesses and faults. I get on well with ordinary people. We talk.
We start with the weather, and little by little we get to the important things. When I
photograph them it is not as if I were examining them with a magnifying class, like a cold
and scientific observer. It’s very brotherly. And it’s better, isn’t it, to shed some light on
those people who are never in the limelight. - Robert Doisneau, French photographer
(1912-1994)

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Street Photography in Cities

Street photography has been around a very long time, probably as long as people have
been making photographs but in the last couple of decades it has increased greatly in
popularity. It can be considered a branch of documentary photography but differs from the
latter in that documentary photography normally involves a series of pictures whereas
street photography is just single shots, each one aiming to tell a self-contained story.

Above: The Kiss (Royan, France) - (1/125 s; f/8; ISO 200; 40 mm)



Street photography usually involves people who are either unaware of the photographer or
show little interest in them such that the action can be photographed in a natural way,
almost like being a fly on the wall. Like documentary photos, street photographs are
usually fairly objective, or at least that is the aim of the photographer.

Above: Sidelong Glance (Margao Town Square, India) - (1/200 s; f/5.6; ISO 100; 200
mm)

Urban Street Photography

Urban photography relates to the city, to urban areas, to images made (or found) while
walking around the streets. But it differs from street photography (which is about life, as it
is lived, right there in front of your lens) in that there are usually no people in the images.
Instead, the life of the city is found inscribed in its buildings, both the monumental and the
decrepit.

Urban photography can therefore be more spontaneous as it does not rely on the random
presence of human subjects the way street photography does. As a genre, urban
photography is becoming increasingly popular, and with more and more people living in
cities, this genre offers great opportunities for making interesting images. Travelling also
offers great opportunities to practise urban photography.

Think of urban pictures as representing an archaeology of people who project onto the
buildings their aspirations, expectations, and cultural values. These edifices and urban
landscapes become art when the photographer frames them within the limits of the
viewfinder.

Above: Blessings of the Pope (Lourdes, France) - (1/100 s; f/5.6; ISO 200; 22 mm)

The picture above was made during a visit to Lourdes in the south of France, a major
place of Roman Catholic pilgrimage and of miraculous healings. It features no pedestrians
yet we can learn much and enjoy the cultural references and ironies.

Urban photography is abstract, it implies life, but there are no people there unless they are
very small and insignificant and only add to the aesthetic or abstract organisation of the
two-dimensional surface of the photo.

Urban photography often conveys a feeling of isolation or emptiness and its proponents
like to photograph old railway lines, sewers, empty warehouses, abandoned buildings,
under bridges… these are the kind of images that can be called ‘urban’.

What attracted me to make the next image was the way the light transfigured the
underbelly of a modern, concrete bridge into a watery, Romantic wonderland. The natural
light and shadow in Under the Bridge created colour where one would not ordinarily
expect it. The utilitarian landscape acts as the basic structure and contrasts with sparse,
weedy vegetation and some weathered brick in the background. Under the Bridge also
alludes to the flux of time. The composition imposes upon the structure what is, to my eye,
a static and timeless nature.


Above: Under the Bridge (Jonzac, France) - (1/75 s; f/3.1; ISO 200; 8.3 mm)

The next shot is another urban scene in a town with the rather weird name of Dong
Ujimqinqi in Inner Mongolia. I don’t know what that funny looking thing in the
foreground is - it’s a pole with a spirally-wiry thing on the top - but it’s definitely urban
photography. No people, so not true street photography. Urban photography is like
landscape photography but it’s not done in the countryside. Call it cityscape photography
if you like.


Above: The Town of Dong Ujimqinqi, Inner Mongolia - (1/80 s; f/18; ISO 200; 18 mm)

Rural Street Photography

Rural street photography is just street photography done in a rural setting. Perhaps the
countryside and country roads are too sparsely populated for serious street photographers
to venture into these areas so they opt for the streets of busy cities. But photographers who
live in the country may often work in the country and document the life around them.

That life is a very different one from city life and is certainly worthy of documentation.
Not only is the general vista different, with its fields and big, open skies but the buildings
are more likely to be farm buildings than office blocks, and as well as people there are
often cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and other domestic animals. If you’re patient enough or
just lucky you can also see deer, badgers, squirrels and other wild animals. The whole
dynamic of country life is different.

It’s not just the landscape that is different, or the light, but the very fabric of life. Even the
villages and small towns can be viewed as an extension of rural life and in towns that
support a farmer’s market you may find people selling eggs and other local produce such
as cheese, meat, vegetables and so on.

Rural street photography, in all probability, was around before street photography in cities.
Photographers such as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans documented the life and times
outside of their studios. Much of their work is candid portraiture made out on the streets of
rural America.


Above: A Country Path, Jonzac, France - (1/100 s; f/6.3; ISO 200; 15 mm)

By now I hope you realise that it doesn’t matter where you live, whether town, city or
countryside, you can always find subject matter for your photos. If you would like to
become a street photographer but are shy and a bit intimated by the thought of
photographing people, you might like to start with urban photography and take it from
there. But let’s move on now to a consideration of the equipment you will need and some
techniques specifically used by street and urban photographers.



SECTION 2: EQUIPMENT & TECHNIQUE

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...a lot of photographers think that if they buy a better camera they’ll be able to take better
photographs. A better camera won’t do a thing for you if you don’t have anything in your
head or in your heart. - Arnold Newman, American photographer (1918-2006)

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Above: Outside the Temple, Karnataka, India - (1/160 s, f/4.5, ISO 100, 33 mm)



Cameras

Virtually any portable camera is good for street photography: SLRs, both film and digital,
compact cameras, rangefinders, toy cameras such as Lomos, Dianas and Holgas, Leicas,
micro four-thirds, even camera phones. All are suitable. But you can spend forever
browsing the internet to find out which camera would be the ‘perfect’ one for you so here
are a few tips before you begin your quest.

1. The ability to control depth-of-field is essential when photographing people in any
situation, in or out of the studio. With street photography, the ability to accurately judge
the depth-of-field becomes invaluable. Having a camera with a digital depth-of-field scale
or a lens with the scale marked on it, will really give you extra creative control.

2. A shutter that is very quiet is preferable to one that is loud because a loud one attracts
attention and you can easily lose the opportunity to take further shots in a candid fashion.

3. If you buy a digital camera, you need a resolution of 10 megapixels or more to make
sure there is a generous amount of picture area for cropping if you so wish. Note that the
sensor is important too, and can affect the quality of the image as much as pixel count.
The smaller the sensor, the more you will find digital noise present. So bigger is better
when it comes to sensor size. Professional DSLRs have a full-frame sensor and measure
36x24 mm. Entry level DSLRs have slightly smaller sensors. In general, the smaller the
camera, the smaller the sensor. The sensor in a camera phone can be as small as 25 mm2.

4. There are times when making use of the manual focus is essential, for example, when
light levels are low the auto focus may not be able to cope. As a street photographer you
need to be able to do this as quickly as possible so a camera that makes it easy to focus as
quickly and accurately as possible is another great boon.

5. A camera that lets you set the ISO fairly high while delivering images with an
acceptable level of digital noise. Some say Canon, others say Nikon… you need to make
an informed choice on this one so look for camera reviews which compare digital noise at
800 ISO and even 1600 ISO.

6. Cameras that can accept the fastest memory cards on the market are obviously better
because they allow you to shoot and then keep on shooting. You don’t want to miss a great
shot in the ever-changing scene in front of you because you were trying to make shots too
quickly and the card couldn’t keep up.

7. Don’t buy from the internet. Go in to a camera shop and talk to the people there. Tell
them what you want, what you can afford and get good solid advice. Tell them you will
think about it. Go back again if need be. Take time over this because you may be using
that camera for many years to come. Consider your time investment as important as your
money investment. Get the feel of the cameras in the store. Is it a bit heavy? A bit small
and fiddly? These kind of questions will lead you to the purchase of the camera that is
right for you personally. When all the technical considerations are put aside, whether or
not the camera suits you personally is perhaps the most important.

8. Consider a refurbished or second-hand camera. You can often find superb cameras this
way at affordable prices. Refurbished cameras are cameras which have been sent back to
the factory as an unwanted gift or a shop demonstration model. They are thoroughly
checked at the factory, reboxed and sold at reduced prices and with a renewed guarantee.
Check out Amazon for the latest refurbished models. Offers change quickly so keep
checking back.

9. Remember that there is no such thing as the perfect camera. If you want superb quality,
the payoff is a heavier, bulkier camera. If you want light weight and portable, you will find
the image quality suffers. So think about what I most important to you.

Above: Temple Boy (Karnataka, India) – (1/60 s; f/9; ISO 100; 55 mm)

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A good photograph has a direct simplicity without recourse to dazzling technique. -
 Isräelis Bidermanas (known as Izis), Lithuanian-Jewish photographer who worked in
France

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Lenses

Above: The Chicken Plucker (Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China)

(1/50 s, f/1.8, ISO 800, 50 mm)

This man is 80 years old. He is the sole breadwinner for his disabled wife and 9-year old
grand-daughter. The three of them live in a single room with one bed, and share toilet and
wash facilities with their neighbours. He plucks and washes chicken carcasses for
restaurants in order to pay the rent, feed the family and pay for his grand-daughters school
fees

Wide angle lenses of 28 to 50 mm give a wide angle of view without too much distortion.
They also help to gather more light so can be useful in low-light situations such as dusk
for example. Thirdly, they help to increase the depth-of-field in an image. Consequently,
this kind of lens is the most popular with street photographers.

Fixed focal length lenses are also popular. Focal lengths of 50 to 85 mm are good for
portraits. The smaller the f number of a lens the more light it can capture. So an f1.4 lens
of 50 mm can capture more light than an f1.8 lens of 50 mm. The one that can capture
more light (because of the possibility of a wider aperture) is said to be faster because you
can use a faster shutter speed with them. Fixed focal length lenses tend to be smaller and
lighter so you have less weight to carry around with you.

With a fixed focal length lens, the photographer has to move his body around the scene –
he or she cannot just zoom in and out. This results in images which have a more engaged
feeling to them and the viewer feels more as if they are really there. The photo above of
the 80-years-old man who cleans and plucks chickens for a living was made with a 50 mm
lens at f/1.8.

Zoom lenses are heavier and cumbersome. They also disengage the photographer from the
scene. At longer focal lengths, it can be difficult to keep the lens steady unless you have a
tripod – totally impractical for the street photographer! Most street photographers avoid
them. However, if you are very shy and just getting started, a zoom lens may be helpful.
The shot below was taken with a telephoto lens with a focal length of 200 mm.

Above: The Final Farewell (Shaoxing, China) - (1/320 s; f/7.1; ISO 200; 200 mm)

How to hold the camera

It is totally impractical to carry around a tripod with you when you are out shooting so it is
important that you hold the camera in such a way that you minimize camera shake and
thereby avoid blurred images. Blurred images are most likely to occur when the light is
low and you are shooting with a slow shutter speed simply because the shutter will be
open for longer.

Not only do slower shutter speeds increase the likelihood of blur but so does holding the
camera at arm’s length as any slight movement in your hand will be amplified If you
really feel the need to hold your camera at arm’s length in order to frame the shot just the
way you want it, then try to use two hands to help you keep it steady as using one hand
only will add to the movement.

Some people like to breathe in, hold their breath while they press the button, and then
breathe out after they take the shot. This can be helpful so try it out but perhaps breathing
out first, taking the shot, then breathing in will work better. Do whatever works best for
you. Also, make sure you squeeze the shutter release button gently to avoid shake.

If you stand with your two legs a little apart it can add to the stability of your body or if
you can find a wall or tree to lean against, this can also help. Kneeling will also help to
keep you steady and you can get some interesting angles when you are lower down. I do
find though that kneeling draws attention to me and my camera so I don’t do it very often
but if you are a bold kind of person you might like to try it.

If you have image stabilization on your camera this can really help and allow shutter
speeds up to 4 stops slower. Image stabilization won’t eliminate motion blur though nor
will it freeze blur due to moving objects such as cars. But it will reduce camera shake due
to normal, tiny movements of the hand that occur naturally.

If you are going to line up your shot using the view finder, then the camera will obviously
be close in to your body so tuck your elbows into your body while remaining relaxed and
stand with your two feet a little way apart to give your body extra stability.

Bear in mind that long focal length (telephoto) lenses will increase camera shake.

Most importantly, find out what works for you and make sure you feel relaxed and
comfortable whatever method you develop.

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There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. – Ansel Adams, American
photographer (1902-1984)

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Shooting from the hip

‘Shooting from the hip’ is a phrase which street photographers have borrowed from Wild
West movies when gunfighters would shoot their target while the gun was still holstered.
It meant they could shoot more quickly than their opponent and required the shooter to
really think on their feet.

Some street photographers like to ‘shoot from the hip’ too, meaning they don’t bother to
raise the camera to their eye but press the shutter release button while the camera is still
hanging round their neck.

Shooting from the hip allows you to be more discrete when making shots. Your subject
may have a suspicion that you have just pressed the shutter release button but because the
camera is held low down on your body, near the waist, it is less likely to annoy people
than if the camera is held at the same level as their face. And a lot of the time they just
won’t notice. But the most important thing is, you will be able to take pictures of people
that look very natural, as if you were a fly on the wall.

However, shooting from the hip doesn’t mean you are shooting blind. You will need to
engage your imagination much more. Going home with tons of photos which were taken
in a random fashion with the camera held at waist height is akin to giving a chimpanzee a
camera and letting it push the buttons all day. Yes, you might get something that looks like
Cartier-Bresson took it but more likely you will get a bunch of dull or blurred shots that
you need to delete quickly before anyone sees them!

Shooting from the hip needs practice. A wide angle lens works best as it will include the
whole scene around your subject and allows for some cropping in post-processing. I have
a Canon 10-22 mm lens which works fine for this method. Frame your shot without
looking at the camera at all as this draws attention to it. Look ahead and frame the shot
mentally – in your imagination. Practise this technique a lot and it will get easier, I
promise.

Set your camera to a fairly fast shutter speed such as 1/125, 1/250 second or even 1/500 if
there is enough light. This will ensure there is no blur. Do this during daytime. At night
there isn’t enough light.

If the light is good and you have a small enough aperture to match your fast shutter speed,
you will have a good depth-of-field. So pre-focus your camera using a nearby wall (this is
called Zone Focussing – see the next section for a more detailed explanation) and keep it
at that setting. As you walk around, you can make shots of people when they are roughly
the same distance away as the wall was. If you have problems with blurred shots, refocus
at a different distance and keep trying until it works for you.

You can also shoot hands-free with the camera on a table outside a café and a wireless
shutter-release in your hand. Or try hanging the camera on your shoulder and wait for
people to move into view. Again, always experiment to find what works best for you.

Zone Focussing

Some photographers advocate zone focussing as a method of ensuring that your shots are
sharp throughout while still allowing you to make natural-looking candid shots. To do this
you need to choose your cameras settings in advance so that your shot will have the depth-
of-field you want.

If the light is good it helps but if not, you need to choose a high ISO. If you are indoors
(for example, on a platform on the London Underground) then you could use a high ISO
such as 3200 although you will get a fair bit of digital noise. On balance though, the
choice of a high ISO gives you more leeway with your other settings, the most important
of which is aperture because it affects the depth-of-field the most.

The five main factors which affect depth-of-field are aperture, ISO, focal length, focal
point, and the size of your camera’s sensor.

1. The smaller the aperture, the greater the depth-of-field. So f/16 will be much
greater than f/2.8 for example.

2. A higher ISO will let you choose a smaller aperture which in turn will give a
greater depth-of-field

3. The wider your lens, the greater the depth-of-field. At 10 mm more of the scene
will be sharply focussed than at 28 mm.

4. The further away the focal point, the greater the depth-of-field. Focussing at 10
feet will give you more of the scene in sharp focus than focussing at 3 feet.

 5. Cameras with small sensors take shots that have greater depth-of-field than
cameras with large sensors.

There is a great website called DOFMaster which has a depth-of-field calculator that
allows you to choose your camera, focal length, f-stop and subject distance and it then
calculates the nearest and furthest limits of the depth-of-field – the zone. It’s a useful tool
for getting an idea of how depth-of-field changes as the settings change.

So… once you have set the aperture as you would like it, and chosen a suitable shutter
speed, all you have to do is focus the camera manually on a particular point in the scene,
and wait for people to walk into the zone. When you press the shutter release you can be
sure your subject will be sharply focussed. There will be no need to wait for the focussing
mechanism to kick in. Plus, you can be very discrete as you don’t need to put the camera
up to your eye.

I’ve summarised the whole process here but it needs a bit of practise to get right and then
more practise to make it automatic. So if at first you don’t succeed…

Above: Life by the Railway Line, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China

(1/60s; f/16; ISO 400; 50 mm)

Black and White or Colour?

Black and white street photography is often considered more artistic than colour
photography, and photographers who want their work to be taken seriously, often favour
black and white over colour.

Historically, some of the biggest names have shot in black and white, people such as Henri
Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau but especially Eugène Atget, a French photographer
who photographed life in streets of Paris in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Although some of his photographs included people his main subject matter was buildings
and architectural details. He wasn’t the first photographer to work on the streets but his
output was prodigious and he is credited by some as being the father of street
photography.

Of course, all of them at that time worked in black and white. So there is a long legacy of
great names attached to this method of working but that’s not the only reason for choosing
black and white street photography over colour. The other reason is that for some shots,
black and white works better in that it helps to unify the picture plane.

By that I mean that removing colours which stand out strongly such as bright red for
example, or that conflict with one another such as purple and orange, lets you create a
greater sense of harmony within the picture frame.

Above: Candy Floss Girl (Montendre Night Market, Charente-Maritime, France)

(1/80 s; f/4.5; ISO 400; 14 mm)

In the shot above, the candy floss was a very strong pink which I actually really liked but
the bright red of the boy’s T-shirt was stronger and jumped forward too much in the
picture. Converting to black and white helped to unify the background and foreground.
This was especially important as the depth-of-field was not as deep as I would have liked
it to be. The aperture was f/4.5 - a bit too wide but it was an evening shot and the light was
low so I was trying to gather as much light in as possible. I set the ISO to 400 but it could
have done with being a stop or two higher.

The result was that the boy was slightly out of focus. Converting to black and white and
sharpening the area around the boy’s head have combined nicely and the composition has
gelled. Overall, it’s an amusing shot and I am happy with the conversion.

If you can, shoot in RAW where possible but set your camera to black and white so that
you can see what is happening on the screen while still retaining all the information in the
RAW file for when you get back home and can choose whether or not to convert.

Below is another shot I made in black and white. Strolling through a small town in France,
I noticed an abandoned stove and I immediately liked the incongruence of the elements
surrounding it. The composition suggested itself upon first sight as it seemed to beckon
me to approach the scrap stove down the visually deep path.

In the background, too, there appears just enough flaking concrete as to suggest something
old, while the metal garage door suggests some of the cheapest architecture the verdant
suburbs have to offer.

The dirt path appears as if it had been landscaped with the objective of leading the eye on
a pilgrimage to its natural conclusion, with weedy vegetation arcing around the path and
honouring the junk with cultivated white blossoms.

The composition of The Outdoor Cooker has a pleasing abstract quality, and the stove is
strangely steeped in a quiet dignity through the eye of the camera lens. The photograph
itself raises this all-too-common object to almost religious significance. This is the way
one would photograph a shrine. The urban commonplace has been rendered singularly
uncommon and endowed with qualities that would escape the naked eye. The chance to
view urban pictures offers the city-dweller many opportunities such as this.

 Above: The Outdoor Cooker (1/73 s; f/3.6; ISO 64; 5.1 mm)

Different angles

 Above: Street Scene, India (1/400 ; f/6.3; ISO 200; 86 mm)

So often we make all our shots using either vertical (portrait) format or horizontal
(landscape) format.

In general, I prefer to work in landscape mode as I feel it enhances the photo’s ability to
tell a story. We read from left to right when reading a book so it is natural to read the
events in a photograph from left to right. However, from time to time, I make a conscious
effort to spend some time wandering around with my camera ready to take shots in portrait
format. It is more suitable for actual portraits of people perhaps rather than street scenes
but there are no hard and fast rules to this.

Sometimes I shoot on the diagonal as well. This works with shots like the one above
where the diagonal emphasises precariousness and imbalance.

So choose whichever comes naturally to you but from time to time consciously try out the
other two ways of shooting – you may find new creative ideas springing forth!

Intentional Blur


Above: Overtaking in the Fast Lane (Bordeaux, France) - (1/6 s; f/9; ISO 800; 22 mm)

Walking along the banks of the river, I saw a man being pushed in a wheelchair and
another person moving alongside on a mobility scooter. I dialled down the shutter speed as
slow as I dared with a hand-held shot, and captured this image just as the scooter was
overtaking the wheelchair.

The scooter in the immediate foreground is more blurred than the wheelchair in the middle
ground which in turn is more blurred than the river and background beyond. This creates
the impression that the scooter is moving quite quickly. A shot like this can be tricky to get
right but with plenty of practice you’ll find it gets easier until finally it becomes automatic
and you can select settings like this with great rapidity.



SECTION 3: LIGHT

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Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light.
Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography. - George
Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company (1854-1932)

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Weather & Light

Most photographers love to shoot when the weather is warm and sunny because often you
get bright light with maybe a little bit of cloud for added interest in the sky. Not only does
it make for a more agreeable day out but you can also be sure to have plenty of light for
your shots.

If it is raining heavily you will probably be tempted to stay indoors but consider the
wonderful shots you can make with all the puddles and reflections from wet surfaces that
you might find.

Above: Water Reflection (1/160 s; f/5.6; ISO 1250; 113 mm) - Photo by Éva Zara /
Pixabay

Try doing a Google search for Martin Parr’s “Bad Weather” series and browse some of the
often amusing shots Parr made for his book of the same name. Wind, rain, fog and snow
were all grist to the mill for Parr as he bravely ventured forth with his (waterproof) camera
for this acclaimed series of shots made in 1981.

If you don’t have a waterproof camera, It is possible to buy a waterproof housing for your
camera, whether DSLR or compact, or even make one from a plastic supermarket bag
with holes cut in it but I have personally never got on with them very well. If it is raining
lightly I don’t worry too much about the odd spot of rain and if it is raining heavily then I
just use a shop doorway or the overhang of a building to make sure my precious camera
keeps dry!

Strong Sunlight

Strong sunlight creates strong, hard shadows like those in the shot below, and is not ideal
for making pictures of people. The soft, even light such as you find on an overcast day is
better for most street shots because you won’t have to deal with these shadows which can
look ugly.

Above: Three Young Men, Goa, India (1/250 s; f/8; ISO 100; 102 mm)

The shot above demonstrates how hard shadows can look. They don’t always spoil an
image, but it is important to be aware of them. Also, you will find there is a loss of detail
in the dark side of the face which can be difficult to retrieve in post-processing.

Back light

When the light is behind your subject it is called back light. If you want to create a
silhouette or add drama to your shot, this can be a good choice. Macro shots of flowers
can also benefit from backlight as the light will shine through their semi-transparent
petals.

Back lit shots are a bit more difficult to expose properly though. You can either expose for
the shadows to help you retain details in the dark areas or expose for the light to deepen
the shadow areas and create a silhouette.

There is also the possibility of lens flare with back lit shots. You may not want to use a
lens hood as they attract attention to your camera in which case just shield the lens from
the sun with one hand. Or go with the creative urge and find an angle on your subject
which uses the lens flare to good effect.

Above: Silhouette of an Old Man (1/320 s; f/18; ISO 6400; 50 mm) (Photo Courtesy of
PublicDomainPictures / Pixabay)

Front light

When the light is in front of your subject (in other words it is behind you, the
photographer, and illuminates your subject’s face) it is called front light. Front light can be
very harsh and can make people squint. However, at dawn and dusk, front light can work
well especially for city street photographers who can make creative use of the light
reflecting off windows and walls. Keep an eye on the histogram to ensure the highlights
are not blown out, and use the exposure compensation to adjust the exposure time to suit.

Side light

Light coming from the side can be very attractive and creates a modelling effect on
objects, as you can see in the shot of a tree-lined avenue below. It also brings out textures.
The shadows that side light cast can be an interesting element of the photograph in
themselves. Early and late in the day, side light will create the longest shadows and can
add drama and impact to your shots.

Above: Tree-lined Avenue (1/350 s; f/6.7; ISO 100; 90 mm)

The above image isn’t true street photography but I’ve included it here as it exemplifies
the idea of modelling with side light plus you can easily see the long shadows and strong
textures.

Cloud & Shade

Diffuse light occurs on cloudy or foggy days or when your subject is in the shade. It is
soft, without shadows. There will be no modelling such as you get with side light and
textures will look a little flat. The image itself will look flatter and have less contrast than
an image shot in strong sunlight. Exposure is easier with diffuse light as the whole scene
will be lit evenly.

One drawback is that the sky may be very dull and flat looking so just choose an angle
that excludes as much of it as possible. Light levels are effectively a bit lower with diffuse
light which can be an advantage as it allows you to increase the shutter speed time.
Shadows and textures on faces will be minimised so diffuse light can be quite flattering
for street portraits. Overall though your photos will be a bit lacking in contrast so consider
giving it a boost in post-processing.

Above: Cool Dude (China) - (1/125 s, f/9, ISO 200, 60 mm)

Reflected Light

Reflected light is light that is bouncing off a light-coloured surface onto your subject. It
can come from many sources including a portable reflector. However, carrying a reflector
with you when you are shooting street photographs is a bit impractical but it’s often
possible to find a reflector such as a white wall or a white van to throw back some light
onto your subject.

The shot below was made in a street market in Xi’an in China and shows a calligraphy
artist at work. The white of the paper acts as a large reflector and illuminates his face with
soft light. Without the reflected light, his face would have been much darker and less
interesting.

Above: Street Artist, Xi’an, China ((1/60 s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 50 mm)

Below is another example of reflected light. The image shows a man reading from a book,
possibly some kind of a journal as there is a pen on the ground beside him. He is seated by
a pillar in the grounds of a Hindu temple in Karnataka in India. I was drawn to make this
shot as I liked his absorbed expression, the echoed shape of his legs in the carving on the
pillar, and, importantly, the reflected light on his face from the white pages of the book.

Above: Karnataka, India (1/320 s; f/9; ISO 200; 94 mm)

Dawn & Dusk Light

Street photography can be extremely rewarding around dusk or early evening when there
is still some light left in the sky. And if you happen to be near a river or a lake, then you
have even more opportunities as so much of the light will be reflected in the water.

The image below was a grab shot, made on the move as I walked along the east bank of
the River Garonne in Bordeaux. The light was fading fast, and I had my camera in hand,
set to shutter speed priority (TV or Time Value) so that I could react as quickly as possible
to the changing scene.

It was not quite time for the evening meal, and people were wandering about in a relaxed
fashion. In France this is called the ‘hour of the aperitif’, roughly between 6 pm and 8 pm.
Yeah, I know that’s actually 2 hours! But it’s a great time to just relax or have a drink with
friends and because of the warm climate, many people are out and about – a perfect time
for the street photographer!

 Above: On the Banks of the River (Bordeaux, France) - (1/640 s; f/13; ISO 100; 45 mm)

The shot was taken at 1/640 second which was pretty fast, and the ISO was 100, which
was really too low. I could have upped the ISO a bit and removed some of the digital noise
afterwards as that might have given a crisper outline to the silhouette.

But I like the result and I think the slightly soft focus adds to the atmosphere. I also like
the way the light shines through the bottle and draws our attention to the green of the glass
and the gesture of the hand hovering above it. Clearly there is a story being told - I can
only imagine what it might be!

Below is another dusk shot. Again, light is the main subject so I hope you can see by now
that you don’t need to rely on daylight alone for creative lighting possibilities.

 Above: The Bridge, Jonzac, France (1/30 s; f/4.5; ISO 2000; 22 mm)

Night Light

Once the sun has disappeared entirely, you’re dependent on man-made light to illuminate
your way. The main problem of course is getting the exposure right. So make sure you
don’t point your camera lens exactly towards the light source otherwise your shot will be
overexposed. Also, try to ensure that your night shoots look realistic, that they look like
they were made at night, i.e. a few bright areas, and some areas with dark, mysterious
shadows. If you check your histogram, it should be bunched a bit more towards the left
side.

Flash can be startling to your subject when making street portraits and frankly most of the
light is lost anyway unless you are very close-up. What’s more, your subject is almost
certainly not going to like it. So my advice is to switch off the flash before you leave
home. Others may disagree with this but in my experience it’s not worth the hassle.

You can increase your ISO a fair bit for night shots but be prepared for increased digital
noise. You can reduce the excess digital noise to some extent in post-processing but try not
to rely on it. Keep it as low as possible by ensuring your exposure is as good as possible.

Some people like digital noise and believe it adds a gritty feel to their shots. Some think it
looks ‘artistic’, others that it looks authentic and harks back to the golden era of street
photography when great names such as Cartier-Bresson and Doisneau used film cameras.
Others like to remove the noise in post-processing afterwards. Either way, more noise
means less detail but really, it’s a creative choice and a personal one.

Above: La Coupe d’Europe de Montgolfieres (The Biannual European Balloon Race)

(1/30 s; f/4.5; ISO 2000; 22 mm)

If you are shooting at night and don’t want to use flash, a higher ISO is essential. I would
aim for ISO 400 or less if you want to keep digital noise to a minimum and avoid a grainy
look. Above 400 you will find that more and more noise becomes apparent with a
concomitant loss of detail. You cannot get the detail back in post-processing so you
probably want to choose the smallest ISO for the light available.

The shot above was made not long after dusk, in Jonzac, a small town near where I live in
France. Jonzac is home to a bi-annual European-wide balloon race and although I had
spent several hours watching balloons go up during the day, this night shot was one of my
favourites. The two people are dwarfed by the huge balloon above them, and the glow
creates a magical atmosphere.

 Above: Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux (1/60 s; f/6.3; ISO 6400; 22 mm)

Above is another night shot, this time of the famous Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux taken
on a hot summer night. At night the Bourse or Stock Exchange building, is lit up and the
lights are beautifully reflected in the so-called Reflecting Pool. During the day, the Place
de la Bourse is popular with children who love to take their socks and shoes off and go
paddling in the water. This young boy was obviously out late, captivated by the cool
sensation of the water on his feet. I hope his parents knew where he was!

Synthetic Light

Tungsten street lights, neon lights, window displays, advertisement signs and LED lights
are a few of the man-made light sources you can find in your travels. Street lights today
are most often sodium-vapour lamps and they emit a yellowish coloured light which many
people dislike. If this is you, it’s possible to colour-correct in post-processing or even
convert to black and white.

The next shot is lit almost entirely by LED lights and demonstrates that man-made light is
not necessarily less beautiful than natural day-light.

 Above: LED Lights (1/30 s; f/3.5; ISO 1000; 18 mm) – Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com

LED lights are becoming more and more popular and are bluer than sodium-vapour lights.
They are still quite small and you need to have multiple lights or arrays of lights to be
sufficient to photograph by but as you can see, the result can be very atmospheric.

Large advertisement displays also work well as a light source, and can be found at bus
shelters or in railway stations. If there are strong colours in the advert, those colours will
be reflected in your final image and can be used creatively.

The next image is a daytime shot taken in Paris in 2010. That year, around three million
people demonstrated in 239 cities in France against the French pension reform which
raised the pension age by two years. I happened to be in Paris on the day that two trade
unions mobilized 300,000 people, divided into two, six-hour processions. This kind of
event can be great for street photography, if it is peaceful!

 Above: French Pension Reform Strike, 2010 (Paris, France) - (1/500 s; f/14; ISO 100; 25
mm)

Although the shot was made during the day, I used a fast shutter speed (1/500 s) and a
small aperture (f/14) to underexpose most of the image while intensifying the flame of the
torch and the smoky atmosphere. The flame seemed to me to be symbolic of the feelings
of anger and injustice of the French people.

So don’t give up and go home if you think there is not enough daylight to make photos.
Look out for creative opportunities with synthetic lights by making them the main subject
of your image.



SECTION 4: CANDID, POSED &

ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS

–––––––––––—

In a photograph a person’s eyes tell much - sometimes they tell all. Alfred Eisenstaedt,
German photojournalist (1898–1995)

–––––––––––—



Candid Portrait Photography

Candid street photography is a type of street photography which shows people as they are,
without intervention from the photographer; in other words, the subject has not been
posed.

Candid shots are more easily found when you are using a small compact camera rather
than a large DSLR. If you really want to use your DSLR, then either zooming in on your
subject or using a wide angle lens to include the whole scene are two possible approaches.

Some people think that a zoom lens allows you to keep a feeling of intimacy but as the
depth-of-field is smaller due to the compression of the background, I personally feel that it
looks as if you shot from a long way away, and therefore the feeling of intimacy is lost.

Above: Afternoon Nap (1/125 s; f/11; ISO 400; 50 mm)

But the important thing is to be as unobtrusive as possible and also avoid seeming
voyeuristic. It’s a delicate balance at times. Nobody wants a photographer sneaking up on
them, paparazzi style. You need to gauge your subject’s temperament in advance and
decide whether or not it’s a good time to make a shot. In the shot above, my subject was
happily asleep – on a pedestrian bridge! This particular bridge crosses the Yellow River
(known in Mandarin Chinese as Huang He), the second longest river in Asia so as you can
imagine, this is a big bridge and very busy. However, the subject didn’t seem at all
perturbed. Perhaps the presence of so many people somehow made him feel safe.

Above: Canal-side Dweller, Shaoxing, China (1/60s; f/4; ISO 200; 18 mm)

The next shot above is also a candid photo, shot from a sampan on the canals of Shaoxing
in Zhejiang Province, a town renowned for its hundreds of canals and bridges. I captured
this shot as my boat drifted along the canal, a few feet below the water-side dwellings. I
don’t know who he was smiling at, certainly not me, but I particularly liked the framing of
the shot, and the natural, unposed feeling.

If you want to ensure you get candid shots, try using continuous shooting mode to make a
series of images. Sometimes you can capture the perfect facial gesture that way or an
interesting gesture that you might have missed if you had been shooting in single shot
mode. I don’t like to use this method too often as I think it’s a bit like monkeys and
typewriters. If you give enough monkeys a typewriter each and let them bash around at
will, sooner or later you will get something equivalent to a Shakespeare play. Or not.

Another way to get good candid shots is to photograph people while they are engaged in
doing something interesting such as work for example. The shot below shows two people
in their workshop, engaged in the making of a duvet. The workshop opens on to the street
and it stays open while they work to allow air to circulate. This was lucky for me as it
gave me the opportunity to look in and to make a series of shots.

Above: Making a Duvet by Hand (Lanzhou, China) - (1/80s; f/7.1; ISO 800; 10 mm)

I used a Canon 10-22 mm wide-angle lens for the shot at the widest setting which is why
there is some distortion at the sides of the frame. However, a focal length of 10 mm meant
that I could include both people, husband and wife, and the whole of duvet which was in
the process of being constructed.

Posed Street Photography

Posed street photography is the antithesis of candid street photography. The photograph
below is a posed shot although it was the children themselves who adopted the pose, I did
not direct them at all.

The image shows children from an impoverished background - they are not used to posing
in front of cameras. Perhaps they are so poor that they have never seen a camera. Their
faces are very serious – no cheesy smiles - but I captured a sense of dignity in the image
which I really like, and although it is posed, the image retains some of the feel of candid
street photography.

Above: Railway Children (Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China)

(1/100 s; f/11; ISO 400; 50 mm)

There aren’t too many upper-class folk out on the streets just hanging around, waiting to
have their photo taken but the poor, the homeless, drug addicts, alcoholics, the blind, lame
and other unfortunates are all too evident in inner cities. For photographers, this is one
area where moral questions arise.

Some people believe that taking photos of destitute people is somehow taking advantage,
and it can be. It is easy in a photo to make a homeless person or an alcoholic look utterly
abject, an object of pity or derision, whether it’s candid or posed street photography. And
you may find that in your photos you have depicted them without dignity although you
didn’t mean to.

When I went to Egypt many years ago, I was shocked to find people lying on the street,
under blankets, with one arm sticking out, palm up, expectantly awaiting to have coins
placed in their hand. I had never been beyond Paris until then and it was a real eye-opener.
I didn’t take pictures of any of those people as I didn’t want to take photos that were
exploitative.

Above: Guess what’s in my hand? (1/200 s; f/5.6; ISO 100; 18 mm)

But life on the streets is as it is, it is real life, and I believe there is nothing wrong with
making a photo of a destitute person as long as you don’t lose sight of the fact that this is
another human being with their own unique story to tell. That’s why you’re out there, to
find stories, the good, the bad and the ugly. You are there to witness.

Whether it’s candid or posed street photography that you prefer, try to let your impartiality
be present in your shot and always treat your subject with respect. Most of all, look for the
beauty within each person’s soul - it may be hidden, but it is there, and if you capture it
you may have a winning shot.

Often a photo is good because of the facial expression of your subject. Facial gestures are
fleeting and difficult to capture though. You see it, and it’s gone before you get a chance to
press the button. Although you might consider photographing in bursts of continuous shots
to capture a range of expressions from which you can choose the best, I believe the best
way to get good expressions is to engage with your subject for a while. Once they get used
to the camera being around, and you clicking away, they will relax and forget you. Then
something natural will present itself. Just give it time!

Above: Happy Child (1/400s; f/3.5; ISO 200; 18 mm)

Environmental Portrait Photography

Above: Railway Children (Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China) - (1/50 s; f/3.5; ISO 800; 10
 mm)

Robert Capa, the war photographer, famous for his statement: “If your pictures aren’t good
enough, you aren’t close enough”, died when he moved from his Jeep to get closer to the
action and unwittingly stood on a land mine so perhaps his advice shouldn’t be adhered to
all of the time. Making an environmental portrait is one of those times.

When making environmental portraits you need to move a bit further away from your
subject in order to include more of their working or living environment as it is the details
of their daily life which add interest to your shot – the more you include, the better
because the really great thing about environmental portraits is that they tell us so much
more about a person than a standard portrait shot of someone placed in front of a wall or a
photo of someone made in a studio. A wide angle lens is almost essential as you want to
include as much of the surroundings as possible.

Environmental portraits often work best when you take a little time to interact with your
subject and get them to relax a bit, even forgetting the camera if possible. While you are
chatting to them, take in the surroundings. You want every element of your image to count
in the final shot.

Think about the background in particular and try to eliminate anything irrelevant by
judicious framing or by using a larger aperture to limit the depth-of-field. Bear in mind
that you can crop the image later in post-processing.

Let the action unfold in front of you, and be ready with your camera set so that you can
respond quickly. You may want a larger aperture to blur out the background a bit but bear
in mind that a faster shutter speed might be the better choice for a quick reaction time. The
choice is yours.

The shot above of three children shows them in one of the rooms of their two-bedroomed
dwelling. The other room is where there mother sleeps. There are no washing facilities, no
running water, no bathroom, and no toilet. All these facilities are in a communal building
and are shared with local residents.

The next shot is a group portrait in which I included much of the environment. As often
happens in environmental portraits, the background proved to have its own level of
interest, and whether the girls were laughing at the boy’s ripped trousers or not, I will
never know.

 Above: Ripped Trousers (India) - (1/250 s; f/5; ISO 200; 72 mm)

The final shot below was a grab shot I made whilst on a bicycle rickshaw tour through
small villages in Goa in India. The man didn’t seem to care whether I made a shot or not
but I liked the framing and the inclusion of his home in the background, coupled with the
relaxed posture and indifferent facial expression.

 Above: Nonchalant (1/320 s; f/4.5; ISO 100; 86 mm)



SECTION 5: TIPS FOR BETTER PHOTOS

–––––––––––—

If you wait, people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view. - Steve
McCurry, American photojournalist (born 1950)

–––––––––––—



Overcoming fear

This is one of the hardest aspects of street photography for many people especially if you
want to get shots close up. I have found that many photographers don’t like having their
own portrait made and are often very shy in front of cameras. They therefore assume that
the people who they want to make photos of will naturally feel the same way but this isn’t
necessarily true. In fact, many people are flattered that you want to take their picture.

1. Take it slowly

First of all, take heart in the knowledge that one of the world’s most famous
photographers, Robert Doisneau, had great problems in the beginning with his shyness
and fear of making photographs on the street.

Doisneau started by taking photos of children because he didn’t feel intimated by them.
It’s a bit more difficult in today’s climate to make photos of children but I have found that
people who have dogs are very happy for you to make photos of their beloved pooch.

I met the woman in the photo to the right in a small village in France. I petted the dog and
praised him before asking her if I could make the dog’s photo. She happily agreed and I
made a few shots before sneakily including her as well in one of the images. When she
realised she had been included, she threw back her head in laughter. That’s when I got the
final image, the one you see here.


There is also a larger version at the beginning of the book. Although she was in her
slippers and didn’t have her teeth in, she was happy to have her photograph made, and
actually thought the fact that she had been tricked very funny. I didn’t find out her name
but I do know that the dog was called Poonie.

2. Blend in, move quietly

Another tip that helps, is to blend in with your background. This means avoid wearing
brightly coloured clothing, move slowly, and so on. Also, some photographers like to use
a zoom lens so they can capture people from a distance but the problem with that is that
zoom lenses are often very big and can be heavy and clunky when the camera is hanging
round your neck. Having a prime lens may be a better option as it is smaller, lightweight,
and almost disappears into the body of the camera. It will make you feel that the camera
(and you) are less obtrusive).

 Above: Hello Kitty (Zoo de la Palmyre, France) (1/500s; f/4; ISO 800; 28 mm)

In the shot above, I have used words to make an observation. The little girl has a T-shirt
with the words ‘Hello Kitty’ on the back which refers to the well-known fictional
character and the huge range of soft toys and gift items which became a global
phenomenon. She clutches a toy leopard while a real leopard silently walks past on the
other side of the glass.

I am a great lover of animals so this picture for me is a comment on how many people see
them, either as zoo exhibits for their amusement or as cute and cuddly but never as wild
beasts with needs and rights of their own. To get this shot I had to be patient, and I moved
quietly so as not to disturb the child. So be like the big cat in the picture, move quietly,
with stealth, and you will get your shot!

3. Engage your subject

 Above: Kiosk Vendor (Shaoxing, China) - (1/160s ; f/4; ISO 200; 27 mm)

One way to overcome any fear of photographing on the streets is to actively engage your
subject. This is a bold move but if you engage people in light conversation or even just
smile at them, you can often weigh them up quite quickly and decide just how friendly
they might be – or otherwise! Once you have engaged them for a while, indicate that you
would like to make a photo of them. Your shots are street portraits at this point, not really
candid photos, but it will let you get started and with repetition and practice will help you
to overcome your fears. Once you are feeling a bit more confident you will know
intuitively when you can make photos without asking and when you need to ask first.

4. Disengage your subject

Do not get so close to your subject that they feel you are standing in their space. Move
back a bit. You can still use a wide focal length but you will have more of the scene
around your subject included in the shot. This lets you show the person in their
environment which can often make for more interesting images. Plus your subject will not
feel threatened if you have moved back a bit and will be more likely to ignore you. It will
also give you more confidence when shooting.

5. Be patient

Usually when the subject of your photo involves two or more people, at some point they
will become involved in something other than you and your camera. Life moves fast, so be
ready to make your shot just as soon as they are engaged in another activity.


Above: At the Exhibition (Pingyao International Photography Festival 2007, China –

Photo taken in front of an image by the American photographer Robert Frank (born 1924)
(1/160 s; f/10; ISO 800; 31 mm)

6. Final thoughts

Finally, keep in mind you are not stealing souls, as people in some cultures used to think.
You are a visual artist, creating works of art. Take your work seriously – this will help to
take your mind off your fear.

Format

 Above: Local Resident, Montendre, Chartente-Maritime, France
(1/125 s; f/8; ISO 400; 55 mm)

If you are planning to exhibit your images, either online or in an art gallery, or if you are
going to present them in a book, you will need to think about format and cropping. I crop
many of my images in post-processing but I only crop them to the same ratio as the
original or else I crop them to a square format (a ratio of 1:1).

The reason for always maintaining the same ratio as the original is quite simple. It looks
more professional. If you have a gallery full of images each of which are slightly different
ratios, it looks odd, and gives the impression that you are a pretty indecisive person!

If I really have to crop out a lot of an image then I might try square format. It is a
particularly pleasing format for head and shoulders portraits and has a long standing
tradition amongst serious photographers particularly those who like to use 6x6cm medium
format cameras.

But today most photographers have digital cameras so the choice to crop to a different
ratio can be made in post-processing. Also, you may have a camera that lets you use the
square format and will display a cropped square in Live View mode.

Cropping to square format can be a good creative choice as it can improve the
composition of your image. Many fine art photographers use the square format in
conjunction with black and white. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you can
make a weak image into a great one. Use it to improve images you think are quite good
already but could be strengthened.

Find a good background

Above: Arms Deal (Beirut) - (1/500 s; f/4.4; ISO 160; 15 mm)

It’s so important to be aware of the background in a scene as well as the people you are
planning on photographing. This is one skill that definitely needs practice but the more
you do it the more control you gain.

You can find interesting billboards or advertisements as you wander through the streets. If
you position yourself near one that is visually interesting, and wait patiently, you might be
rewarded with fun or interesting juxtapositions between people in the street and the advert,
such as in the shot above. Some street photographers have made this style of shooting
their main way of working so give it a go if you think you might like it.

The shot below demonstrates another example of a fortuitous pairing between an
advertisement in the background and people in the street.



Above: In Your Dreams (Dalian, China) - (1/80 s; f/10; ISO 200; 38 mm)



At other times you may just want to lose the background by choosing a different angle or a
wider aperture to create a smaller depth-of-field and some nice blur. Either way, the
background can make or break a good shot. The shot below was made very hastily in
response to a wonderful Chinese gentleman who crossed the street specifically to say hello
to me and to have his photograph taken. We didn’t communicate very well as neither one
of us spoke the other’s language but he was friendly and he waved nicely so I made a
photo.

Above: Chinese Gentleman Says Hello (Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, China)

(1/320 s; f/4.5; ISO 200; 21 mm)

Unfortuantely the shot was made without changing my camera settings and the
background was actually quite sharply focussed in the original. Also, there were areas of
strong red and blue which I felt competed with the softer colours in the foreground.

So I used the magic wand tool in Photoshop to isolate the man from his background,
added a little bit of Gaussian blur, and desaturated it slightly. I left the foreground and the
man himself unedited. So if you don’t get it quite right in the field, try those three steps in
post-processing. Here are the before and after shots side by side for comparison:

Eye contact

Above: Keeping Clean (1/200 s; f/5.6; ISO 200; 55 mm)

Eye contact can be important. It gives your photos a connection between the subject and
the viewer. Yes, even with animals! It is not always important, but as you can see from the
expression of the dog, he is not too happy we are watching him at a very private moment.
Oh ok, a bit fanciful you say. Well perhaps I am being anthropomorphic or perhaps those
kind of dogs just look like cheesed off all the time.

If you do decide to take shots where the subject’s eyes are looking directly into the lens,
make sure that is the sharpest point in the image. Most DSLRs let you set the AF focus
point in advance (unless you are in a totally automatic mode). There will be a choice of
different points to choose from. I always choose the one in the centre so that when I go to
take a shot, I can focus on the eyes by placing the eyes mid-frame, and then I press the
shutter half way, and finally I recompose the shot as required. It needs a bit of practise but
if the eyes are in focus the shot will work even if the rest of the shot is fuzzy.

Hands

Above: Creating a Calligraphy Block (Xi’an, China) (1/60 s; f/7.1; ISO 400; 50 mm)

Although facial expressions are one of the most interesting things to photograph, hands
can tell a lot about a person too. We all work with our hands, even office workers type or
use the telephone. Even when we are not directly using our hands in a particular task, we
gesticulate, we wave, we touch, hold, throw our hands up in the air. So much of our body
language is communicated through hand gestures.

The above shot of someone creating a calligraphy block was taken in a street market in
Xi’an in China. We don’t need to see the man’s face to feel his patience and concentration,
and to realise that many years of learning have gone into the skill of crafting this detailed
stamp block, his hands say it all.

Another example is given below. This shot was made in a mosque just outside the men’s
washrooms. The man with the long stick, sitting on the floor, is counting money that has
been given to him by one of the men visiting the mosque. He is obviously a beggar but he
wears the traditional hat which men of the hui Muslim community in China wear so he is
clearly welcome at the mosque.

Above: Counting Money (1/125 s; f.3.5; ISO 1600; 24 mm)

Perhaps the final image in this section best demonstrates my point. In the image below the
young boy’s face is quite neutral and you don’t notice his hands straight away. But they
are more important than his facial gesture (which is actually quite neutral) because of the
two toys he his holding. Each toy carries a very different message. It makes us wonder,
what will he be like when he grows up? If a good street photo is one that tells a story then
this is a story in the making.

 Above: War or Peace? (1/200 s; f/7.1; ISO 1600; 50 mm)

Humour

Humour in street photographs is often slightly on the wicked side, and I do feel a smidgen
of guilt when I look at the picture below but the advert for ice-cream juxtaposed with the
large lady to the left, struck me as humorous because it contains the word ‘Magnum’.

I am sure most people know that Magnum is Latin for ‘big’, and in fact the advertisers ran
a campaign (which may be still running) which advertised a particular ice-cream with the
slogan of ‘MAGNUM, THE BIG ONE’, hence the title.

 Above: ‘Magnum, the Big One’ (1/160s; f/7.1; ISO 100; 38 mm)

Words

As you saw in the shot above, the use of words in street photography can often be
humorous but other times they can make a point or convey an idea.

The image below was shot in a small town in India. I had walked along the street near
these women for several minutes and as they turned to go down a side road one of them
looked over her shoulder at me. As she half-turned her body, the word ‘Freedom’ on the
bag jumped out at me and seemed to me to be the antithesis of the veiled bodies on that
hot summer’s day.

 Above: Freedom (Margao, India) (1.320 s; f/8; ISO 200; 67 mm)

Look out for words on posters or advertisements in windows and so on which you can
incorporate into your images. You may need to be quick off the mark if you want to get
the shot, so make sure your camera is set to TV mode, around 1/125 second or faster, and
let the software choose the aperture. That way you can forget about the settings and
concentrate on what’s in front of you.

Captions and titles

 Above: The Chaperone (1/125 s; f/5; ISO 200; 31 mm)

The importance of a good title for your image is something that many photographers
overlook. The title should convey the essence of your idea to your audience in a clear and
concise fashion. It is not a description so two or three words should be enough.

A good title can be just a noun and an adjective. You may need one or two small helper
words such as ‘of’ and ‘the’ but if you try to create a title of just a couple of words, it
really focusses your mind and demands that you be clear about the concept in the image.
Check back through the titles I’ve given to each of the photographs in this book and you’ll
get a better idea of what I mean.



SECTION 6: QUICK TIPS

–––––––––––—

One should take a photo only when one feels full of love for one’s fellow man. - Robert
Doisneau (1912 – 1994), French photographer and pioneer of photojournalism

–––––––––––—



Don’t pay for photos. If you are travelling in a country where the economy is poorer than
your own, you may find some people have expectations regarding your wallet. Have I ever
paid for a photo? No, and I probably wouldn’t, certainly not in advance. However, I have
given money to people on some occasions where I thought it would be helpful, not where I
thought it was expected. When I was travelling through China, I once gave 100 Yuan to an
elderly gentleman who I was told was three months behind with his grand-daughter’s
school fees. 100 Yuan was just £7 to me but to him it was the equivalent of a whole
month’s rent.

Don’t hesitate, click first, think later - or as the Nike slogan says: ‘Just do it!’

Use a prime lens for a whole day and see how it changes the way you work. When you
don’t have a zoom lens to move in and out, you have to move your body instead. This
involves you much more in the scene and makes you less of a voyeur. By changing the
way you work, you change the way your photos look.

Be very careful when photographing children, even if the parents are standing right
next to them. I was attacked once at a bus stop for taking a general shot of the people
waiting for the bus to arrive, and there was a cute little girl standing right in the middle of
the scene. The mother was incensed and tried to rip the camera from my neck. Always ask
first if it’s a child you want to photograph.

 Above: The Art of Communication (Jonzac, France) - (1/97 s; f/4.9; ISO 100; 8.3 mm)

Train yourself to be decisive. If you take a series of photographs of the same subject,
usually the one that works best is either the first or the last. You know when you’ve got
the shot you wanted. When you think ‘That’s the one’, when you feel it clicked inside of
you, move on to something else, don’t overwork it.

Avoid using zoom a lens - it distances you literally and metaphorically from your subject.
Wide angle lenses are good - they let you take in a large area of the scene easily and they
are better when light levels are low.

Smile! Of all the street photography techniques, the most important one has got to be -
smile. Try to connect with people all the time (unless they look scary). It really works.
You will remember the event. I spent an hour and a half in a family’s home in Inner
Mongolia because I smiled at them in the street as I was passing by. They didn’t speak
English and I didn’t speak Mongolian but we got on like a house on fire, so much so that
they offered me dinner in the family restaurant, and, more importantly, their friendship.
The photos I made were exhibited in the National Art Museum of China in Beijing as part
of a 60-year celebration. And it all started with a smile!

 Above: The Family Restaurant, Inner Mongolia (1/30 s; ISO 400; f/3.5; 18 mm)

Always have a UV (ultra violet) filter on your lens - it works as a transparent lens cap.
It’s inexpensive, protects your optics, and one day you will be glad it was there. With a
UV filter in place, you will be able to respond really quickly to what’s happening in front
of you as you won’t waste time taking the lens cap off!

Take your camera everywhere. I mean, everywhere.

Get feedback. Garry Winogrand said that photographers often mistake the emotion they
feel while taking the picture as judgment that the photograph is good. The only way to
know whether the photo is really communicating that emotion to others is to ask them.

 Above: Sensing the Qi (Shaoxing, China) - (1/80 s; f/5.6; ISO 200; 200 mm)

Don’t just ask your best friend or a member of your family who you know is going to say
what a wonderful shot that was because they want to be supportive. Ask someone who
will tell you what they like and what they don’t like. If you know someone whose
photographic work you admire, even better as they can give you feedback which will help
you to do even better next time. Never get complacent!

“Don’t think, but look.” This is a famous quote by the philosopher Wittgenstein. What it
means to me is, give your brain a rest, switch off, become aware of the spaciousness that
surrounds you, of how everything and everyone is in their right place, nothing
overlapping, it’s all good just as it is. Walk around with that awareness and just look, give
your analysing, left brain the day off. Don’t hunt for shots, just wait for them to happen.
Make your street photography into a form of relaxation.

 Above: Time to Relax (Pingyao, China) (1/125 s; f/5.6; ISO 200; 18 mm)

And my final tip… As a street photographer you will be moving around a lot so please
keep in mind that it is very important to be careful when you cross the road!

 Above: The Out-Patient (1/125 s; f/16; ISO 200; 55 mm)



RECOMMENDED READING

If you want to be a great photographer then you need to study great photographs and find
out how the giants of the past worked. Below I have listed some of the most important
names in the field of documentary photography including a link to a Wikipedia article for
each one and a link directly to their book page on Amazon.com. Never give up learning
and growing, and good luck with your street photography.

John Thomson - Scottish photographer (1837-1921) on Wikipedia and on Amazon.com

Eugène Atget – French photographer (1857-1927) on Wikipedia and on Amazon.com

Brassaï - pseudonym of Gyula Halasz - Hungarian photographer (1899-1984) on
Wikipedia and on Amazon.com

Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographer (1908-2004) on Wikipedia and on
Amazon.com

Willy Ronis - French photographer (1910-2009) on Wikipedia and on Amazon.com

Izis – pseudonym of Isräelis Bidermanas - Lithuanian-Jewish photographer (1911-1980)
on Wikipedia and Amazon.com

Robert Doisneau – French photographer (1912-1994) on Wikipedia and on Amazon.com





ANY QUESTIONS?

Do you have any questions or comments? I would love to hear your thoughts. Please feel
free to email me at anne.darling@gmail.com.

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book and share your thoughts with other potential readers. If you enjoyed reading this
book, I would very much appreciate it if you would post your thoughts and give it a star
rating. Follow this link to take you directly to the page:

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Many thanks, and I wish you all the best with your photography.