It’s not noticeable, but this photo was taken from a kneeling position because the subject is so petite. The leaning pose against the wall also helps lengthen her and directs focus to her pretty smile—since the lines of the wall and buildings across the street all form an X leading to her center. It draws the viewer’s eyes in.
We try to let our subjects be themselves when they pose. Some of them have shy, demure poses, and that’s okay.
Some people might be very gleeful and smiling when you photograph them, some may be more pensive. Try to let them be themselves, because if they’re uncomfortable, it usually comes across in the shot. A serious expression can still be excellent for your photo if it’s genuine.
This man is of average height, so we shot him from about eye level. Kneeling down helps to elongate shorter subjects. If you yourself are tall or you have something to stand on or a steady enough hand, you might want to experiment with shooting by holding the camera above your head. You get a higher perspective, which shortens subjects. (You rarely want to do this. Those higher angles are better suited to event photos.)
This is an ideal pose for many body types. It was such a pleasure working with this subject because she instinctively understood her body and felt very comfortable in front of the camera.
Here’s one of our favorite sitting down shots. Remember, we use the same rule when shooting shoes, bags, or anything else that is at a lower level: Crouch down to the level of your subject and try to avoid shooting looking down. There will rarely be a time you want to do that.
Again, vary your angle to showcase something great, like an amazing hairstyle. Having your subject sit down is also a nice change of pace and a good way to help someone who is nervous and having a hard time posing without feeling awkward. (This particular subject was not nervous. We just had her sit down so we could use the lines of the railing in the shot.)
One pet peeve we have is when people stand with their legs too close together, touching. It makes their legs form one block, and you lose the definition and silhouette of their body and outfit. We usually have our subject stand like this young lady, who is demonstrating a well-done basic pose. Remember that many of the people you encounter are not professional models, so try to learn basic poses to suggest for them. If you notice that your subject is unsure how to pose, jump in with a few gentle suggestions.
Subjects often provide the best serene candid shots when they’re just going about their business, taking a phone call on a coffee break, for example. This image is also a good example of composition—note that the lines of the bench and brick wall converge toward the subject. The background gives a sense of depth and location, while still allowing the subject to be the main focus.
We encountered this subject sitting just like this, and it looked perfect, so we took the shot as it was. The challenge was the people directly behind the glass inside the coffee shop. Fortunately, the glare on the glass obscured them enough to keep the focus on the striking fellow. Remember: When your subject is seated, make sure to crouch down on one knee to photograph them at their level.
Some people might put their hands in their pockets, while others might put their hands on their hips or stand perfectly still. Ask your subject to try different stances, but always let them pose naturally on their own first.
— Don’t take all of your photos from one position. You don’t want to come back to the editing room with ten of the same photo and no variety. Vary the angles you shoot from—the more the better. Shoot high, shoot low while kneeling, move left and right. You’ll get various lighting results and have more options in case your subject is blinking or blurry.
— Don’t shoot your subject too close up or too far away. You’ll want room to crop the photo if it is off center, but you also don’t want to be so far away the photo’s resolution suffers because you have to crop down and zoom in. As a general rule, the subject should fill about two-thirds of the frame.
— Don’t publish photos of people with unflattering expressions. This might be chewing gum or talking during the photo, squinting from the sun or wind, or just feeling or looking awkward at the time of the shot. Try to get the subject to relax.
Here’s the San Francisco rendition of wide-leg jeans. We almost didn’t approach this woman because she was wearing a big jacket that obscured most of her outfit. But we had a feeling that something wonderful was hiding underneath and decided to go with our gut. To this day it is one of our favorite San Francisco photos. It just goes to show how important it is to peel back the layers on someone’s ensemble. You never know what you might uncover.
This subject had an adorable scarf on originally, but we choose this shot of her so that you can see more of her jacket and sunglasses.
You will be surprised how comfortable many people are when they agree to be photographed. Don’t be too shy to ask if you can style them, if you feel you can make the shot better. We moved this girl’s hair from behind her shoulders to lay in front, since those wavy locks are a beautiful detail of her personal style. It is usually the small changes that create the most impact.
— Don’t take photographs of shoes and bags at your eye level. That is to say, crouch down to the level of the item and take the photo. Kneel, or put your camera low to the ground. You will end up with a superior photo because of the interesting background, sharp detail, and good angle on the subject—which in this case is the shoe or accessory you are focusing on.
— Don’t forget to angle passersby out of your shot. This is the worst kind of distraction. You can mitigate this problem if the people are far enough in the background or your camera and lens setup provides a lot of bokeh.
— Don’t place a subject with a light-colored outfit and/or hair against a light background, and likewise, don’t place a dark outfit against a dark background. The outfit and subject’s details will be lost. This sounds obvious, but when you shoot in a hurry you might forget. This is especially true for platinum blonds against a white background. Their hair will be hard to see and they might appear bald or washed out at first glance.
— Don’t forget to adjust your subject’s minor details. Be their mirror. Help them fix pocket flaps and collars that are askew; laces, buttons and zippers that are undone; or bags and accessories that are not angled to face the camera.
MODEL RELEASE
A sample model release.
In consideration of my engagement as a model, upon the terms herewith stated, I hereby give to
[photographer] his/her heirs, legal representatives and assigns, those for whom the photographer is acting, and those acting with his/her authority and permission:
a) the unrestricted right and permission to copyright and use, re-use, publish, and republish photographic portraits or pictures of me or in which I may be included intact or in part, composite or distorted in character or form, without restriction as to changes or transformations in conjunction with my own or a fictitious name, or reproduction hereof in color or otherwise, made through any and all media now or hereafter known for illustration, art, promotion, advertising, trade, or any other purpose whatsoever.
b) I also permit the use of any printed material in connection therewith.
c) I hereby relinquish any right that I may have to examine or approve the completed product or products or the advertising copy or printed matter that may be used in conjunction therewith or the use to which it may be applied.
d) I hereby release, discharge and agree to save harmless [photographer], his/her heirs, legal representatives or assigns, and all persons functioning under his/her permission or authority, or those for whom he/she is functioning, from any liability by virtue of any blurring, distortion, alteration, optical illusion, or use in composite form whether intentional or otherwise, that may occur or be produced in the taking of said picture or in any subsequent processing thereof, as well as any publication thereof, including without limitation any claims for libel or invasion of privacy.
e) I hereby affirm that I am over the age of majority and have the right to contract in my own name. I have read the above authorization, release and agreement, prior to its execution; I fully understand the contents thereof. This agreement shall be binding upon me and my heirs, legal representatives and assigns.
RESOURCES AND SUPPORTS
MODEL RELEASES
A model release is a contract that says a model is allowing a photographer the rights granted in the document, usually pertaining to the sale and publishing of the images for commercial use.
Many adults have no problem publishing photos taken in public or any public place where one does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy (bathrooms and fitting rooms are examples of places that are out of bounds). This is how paparazzi make their living. As a street style photographer, you can make a choice about where to draw the line. We recommend that you take the professional approach and ask permission when photographing a subject and get a model release signed if possible. Respect people when they ask to not have their photos commercially sold or reproduced. (Models for instance, often cannot sign model releases without their agents’ or companies’ permission.)
Often the best photos are candid, and some of the most well-known street style bloggers take candid photos. This is a fine line to walk, so do try to get permission and have a release signed, and if the subject clearly is camera shy or hostile, cease shooting and apologize. Don’t forget, if photographing a minor, you’ll want to get their guardian’s permission first.
BLOGGING
Now that you’ve started taking great street style photos, you probably want to do something with them, like posting them on a blog of your own. In this section, we’ll cover the fundamentals you should know about creating and maintaining a street style blog.
Copyright Law
Copyright law for websites states that the instant original content is published on a website, it is considered copyrighted and the intellectual property of the creator. That said, it is a good idea to have a copyright footnote somewhere on your site to remind potential plagiarists and content thieves of this.
Here is a basic example copyright footer:
Copyright © Your blog name here. All rights reserved.
Different Types of Street Style Blogs
Before you embark on the journey of creating your own blog or portfolio, you might ask yourself what kind of street style photographer you want to be.
Regional. Focused on covering street style in a specific area. This is usually the way one starts out, since it can be a very costly and time-consuming endeavor for a beginning street style blogger to try to cover more area than a single city.
International. This is the big time! If you have the means or the success to cover street style all over the world on a regular basis, give yourself a big pat on the back and keep up the good work!
High fashion. This usually goes hand-in-hand with a blog covering one or more cities that are major fashion centers: New York, Paris, Milan, and so on. Bloggers following high fashion usually have to look for fashion models on the street and attend or camp out in front of high fashion events.
Documentary. This is a mixture of fashion and documenting/cultural-anthropology. This sort of blog photographs all sorts of subjects, not really searching for quality in fashion, but rather documenting everything from everyday looks to outlandish costumes on Halloween.
Niche. Of course, there are always blogs that cover very specific subjects, styles, and aesthetics exclusively. These might include men, children, seniors, ethnicities, accessories, or sub-cultures (such as goth or hip-hop.)
HTML Coding
When it comes time to design your website and post the results of your labors, you might need a little HTML knowledge. Most blogging platforms are about as easy to use as Facebook, but knowing some basic html codes will help you compose your photos and text into more specific parameters. Don’t be scared! It’s not as hard as it sounds, and there are plenty of websites and books available to help you.
When you use your blogging platform, be it Blogger/Blogspot, wordpress, tumblr, or any other alternative, you usually have an option to edit the actual html that composes your posts. There will be a tab or button that allows you to see it, listed as “HTML.” (Convenient, isn’t it?)
Once you click on the button, you can fiddle with html as necessary. It can be daunting, and editing it incorrectly could mess up how things look, so you should copy and paste the original code somewhere so that you can reinstate it in the event something does go wrong.
Basic HTML Codes:
There are, of course, many codes to learn. We will give you the ones that are most commonly used and most useful for a street style photographer/blogger. Learn these, and then expand your knowledge as needed.
<img src=“(insert image URL here)”/> This is the most basic and common code you will be using. It will post your image, and all you need to do is copy and paste the URL of your image where the parentheses are. Easy peezy. IMG stands for image, and SRC stands for source.
<img src=“(insert image URL here)”width=”(insert pixel number)”height = ”(insert pixel number)”/> You can add to the code to resize the image for the post. Just add the corresponding pixel numbers in the width and height sections. You don’t have to do both width and height; if you leave out one or the other, it will keep things proportionate for you, so if you put a width of 500, it will give it the appropriate height to retain the image’s original dimensions.
<b>(Insert text here)</b> This code makes all text within it bold.
<i>(Insert text here)</i> This code makes all text within it italicized.
<u>(Insert text here)</u> This code makes all text within it underlined.
<h1>(Insert text here)</h1> This code makes all text within a headline, bolding and enlarging it greatly. You can use h1 or h6, and all the numbers between, with h1 being the largest and h6 being the smallest.
<p> This creates a paragraph break.
<br/> This creates a line break.
<hr/> This will create a horizontal line.
<a href=“(Insert desired link URL destination)”>(Link-text goes here)</a> This will make a section of text into a clickable link.
<a href=“(Insert desired link URL destination)” target=”_blank”>(Link-text goes here)</a> By adding the extra bit about “target blank,” you cause your link to open as a new window when someone clicks it. This is very useful, since you probably want people to stay on your blog/website as long as possible.
<a href=“(Insert desired link URL destination)”><img src=”(insert image URL here)” /></a> This turns an image into a clickable link. The height and width parameters, as well as the target blank one, can also be used as you typically would.
Photo Hosting Sites
Flickr is the site we use for theSFStyle.com, and it’s been good to us. The cost is extremely low, and the reliability is solid. There are many options, however, and Wikipedia has a very comprehensive, informative, and unbiased list with information about fees and storage space: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_photo_sharing_websites
Blogging Tips
— Do set up a unique URL. It is negligible in cost, and usually really easy to set up when you start your blog on Wordpress or Blogger.
— Don’t have a longwinded title for your blog. It is not conducive to people remembering your name. Try to be unique, but also bear in mind searchability and keywords. Try to come up with a URL that has some correlation to your blog’s name.
— Do have a cool and easy-to-read banner or title logo for your blog.
— Don’t use fancy or obscure fonts and hard-to-read colors. You want your text to be uniform across as many browsers and devices as possible. There’s a reason that Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, and Verdana are standard.
— Do not have your photos grouped together and displayed too large or small. It lessens the impact, divides the viewer’s attention, and looks unprofessional. We recommend a width of 600 to 800 pixels.
— Do have between four and seven posts displayed per page. Having only one post can be very annoying for a visitor to have to click through, while having too many can make your blog load slowly.
— Do make it easy for readers to engage with your content by having “like” and “share” buttons for each post.
— Do monitor commentary on your website. If you choose to leave it open for the public to post as they please, you might get the occasional hateful comment (known also as “trolling”). More often, you will get bots/automated programs leaving spam links to other sites.
— Do start simple. Do have all your social media (Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and so on) as easy to see and click buttons. But don’t go overboard. It’s okay to have a lot of necessary banners and links, but they should be as organized and uniform as possible. You don’t want anything to distract too much from the images that you’ve worked so hard to procure.
— Don’t have music, busy background or wallpaper, and gaudy animated flash images and effects. These distractions have no business on a professional website.
— Do use text that helps bring up your blog more often on search engines. If SEO (search engine optimization) is important to you, use keywords in your text content when possible. But don’t shoehorn in terms that don’t relate. Your site needs to make sense and not look forced and obvious.
— Don’t plagiarize images and content. Always ask permission whenever possible and provide links back to the source. You wouldn’t want someone stealing your work, so be respectful.
— Don’t post anything you’re not proud of. Less content is better than bad content. Blurry and unflattering images will lower a new visitor’s opinion of your blog. That said, you’ve got to work hard to be able to provide high-quality content regularly.
— Do OPTIMIZE your images. Don’t let your blog load slowly or, worse, not at all. Since street style and fashion blogs are image heavy, it’s very important for your images to be as high quality as possible while still being small files. You want people who are using smartphones or slow Internet connections to be able to load your site.
— Do make sure all your links work. Not only are bad links annoying to your readers, but Web rankers like Google PageRank take into account how many dead/broken links a site has and lower the site’s score.
— Some platforms and blogs have the option of having your content load continuously, so the visitor can just keep scrolling down the page rather than clicking a link to read older posts. This is not inherently bad, but bear in mind that if you do not have some sort of archive link to get to older posts, then your viewer has to do a lot of scrolling to reach your older content that is buried a long way down.
— Foul language and explicit content of any sort is not recommended unless that’s the specific angle you’re trying to play to. Anything that limits how many people can come to your site will limit your growth. A lot of people read blogs at work—so even if they don’t mind curse words or nudity, they might not come as often to your blog if it contains NSFW (not safe for work) content.
— When you get to that point of growth, don’t be afraid to brag a little. Have a clean and organized press page with links to your published works.