Chapter 4: Technique

Use the techniques in this chapter to challenge yourself as a storyteller, make the most of your equipment, and energize yourself when you feel uninspired.

21. Shoot a theme

When you head out for some shooting, try having a theme in mind. This is an effective method for giving your images more storytelling power. Plus, it’s more interesting to view a set of photos that have a common theme than one without any sense of cohesion.

Your theme can be almost anything. Often, the simpler a theme is, the better. Here are some ideas for simple themes to shoot: Handbags, hands, children, hair, feet, shadows, reflections, the color red (or any color), posters, tattoos, doors, dogs, and so on. And remember, it’s better to go out and shoot only people’s hands than to have no theme at all.

22. Tell great stories

When you are out shooting, imagine the people around you as actors and your surroundings as a collection of stages. You are the silent, invisible director.

Just as in a real play, some actors are stronger in certain scenes than in others. And some actors interact better with certain actors than with others. It’s your job to make the most of your scene by figuring out the interactions. What’s happening around you? Who depends on whom? What are their feelings toward each other? Is it a drama, or is it comedy?

On the street, keep your eyes open for interesting actors. It’s a mistake to limit yourself to the young and beautiful. Look for the elderly with weathered faces. Look for people wearing interesting or unusual clothes, like red velvet shoes, brilliant white fur scarves, or extravagantly large sunglasses. Clothes are interesting visual markers that tell us something about how a person wants to be perceived.

Once you’ve found your actors, try to capture them on a suitable stage. Look for lines, shadows, or arches that provide interesting framing or context. Look for tall and ominous buildings, quaint storefronts, or sparkling lights at night. If you see an interesting stage but can’t find any interesting characters, wait around. Use your waiting time to plan your shot. Think about how you want to position and frame your actor. Once a suitable person walks onto your stage, you’re ready to shoot.

23. Get eye contact

The famous saying, “The eyes are the windows to the soul,” applies strongly to street photography. Making a memorable street photograph requires connecting viewers and subjects. And to do that, we need to see our subjects’ souls.

When I see an interesting person I’d like to photograph, I take several shots. I try to take the first shots without the person noticing me. Then, I hold up my camera and wait for the person to sense my presence. When the person does and is looking right at me, I press the shutter.

Few things fascinate us more than the human face, and a face is even more fascinating when the eyes are looking straight at you. You might feel uncomfortable making eye contact with strangers. That’s natural. But you might just produce a compelling and powerful image—one that connects your subject with your viewer.

24. Use zone focusing

Imagine that a briskly walking subject enters your view finder. Your adrenaline kicks in as your subject passes right before your designated background. You press the shutter. But instead of a click, all you hear are your camera’s auto-focus mechanics hunting for a focus point. When you finally hear the confirming beep-beep, your subject is long gone. The fact is, auto-focus systems on consumer cameras are simply too slow for street photography.

Zone focusing means shooting in manual focus mode, with a pre-set and controlled focal point and depth of field. As a result, your camera will react immediately when you press the shutter and your subject will be in focus.

Set your camera to f/8, pre-focus at the distance where you expect your subject to be, and check the depth-of-field marks on your lens to determine the range that will be in focus. The darker it gets, the more you want to increase your ISO to keep your shutter speed faster than 1/320 sec. However, once it is too dark and your shutter speed isn’t fast enough, I suggest abandoning zone focusing and either using autofocus or focusing manually.

The two focal lengths that I recommend when using the zone focusing technique are 28mm and 35mm (full-frame equivalent). The reason is that the wider your lens is, the deeper your depth of field when your camera is pre-focused at certain distances.

Type in dext.se/3coo for YouTube video

25. Switch up your lenses

Regardless of how much you love something, that thing will eventually get boring if you let it become part of your humdrum everyday life. Street photography is no different.

A simple trick to maintain your excitement about street photography is to periodically change lenses, thereby forcing yourself to work with a less familiar focal length. That will keep you on your toes. You will see the world in a different way—literally.

Try switching among the three street photography standard focal lengths: 28mm, 35mm, and 50mm (full-frame equivalents). With the 28mm, you must get very close to your subject to get an interesting image. It also allows you to include more of the background. A 35mm lens is versatile enough to let you move in close or take a step back, whichever you want. Finally, the 50mm is the focal length Henri Cartier-Bresson used. It provides a “normal” perspective, much like what we see with the naked eye. Once you have chosen your lens, try sticking with it for a pre-determined period of time. It can be one month, six months, a year—the length is unimportant. The point is that you’ll learn to understand the nuances of each focal length. Your eyes (and your brain) will adapt, so you’ll be able to frame your shots even without your camera. Eventually, you will be able to predict exactly how your shot will look before you shoot it.

26. Experiment with different perspectives

Most photographs are taken at eye level. And because we see the world from this perspective as well, these eye-level images might strike us as all too familiar. Instead, experiment with different angles to bring out the unusual and engaging. When you shoot from a low or high angle, you offer a fresh perspective to your viewers. Also, these perspectives might allow you to include more of the background in your photos.

Crouching in public is a bit unusual, and you might draw attention to yourself doing it. To some people, it might even signal “photographer!” So when you crouch to take someone’s photo, do it quickly. When shooting from a crouching position, try to integrate the subject with the background. If there’s a tall building behind your subject, crouch and shoot with the camera held vertically. If there are horizontal leading lines in the background, hold your camera horizontally.

Another technique is to shoot down from a bird’s-eye view. Try, for example, the top floor of a building! This perspective will make people look tiny in comparison to the urban landscape. By paying attention to your environment before you shoot, you can compose your shot more easily and quickly.

27. Shoot from the hip

Modern-day street photographers call it “shooting from the hip,” just as cowboys called it in the Wild West. Of course, photographers shoot only pictures. Apart from that, the technique is pretty much the same: aim and shoot from the hip!

The idea is to improve your chances of capturing truly candid moments by shooting unnoticed. Sure, people will notice you. But hopefully they won’t notice that you are taking pictures.

When you shoot from the hip, be sure to use a wide-angle lens and zone focusing (see Tip 24 on page 70). You should also be aware that this technique is difficult and requires a lot of practice to master.

Shooting from the hip can be a great way to get more comfortable on the streets. But ultimately, it’s best to stick to conventional shooting. Because even though you might become good at framing your shots from the hip, you’ll never be able to do it as well as with the camera held to your eye.

Type in dext.se/8shu for YouTube video.

28. Shoot at night

The painter Vincent van Gogh once said, “I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” I think Van Gogh was right. Urban areas are most ripe with shooting opportunities at night. This is when the streets come alive and artificial lights, absent during the day, suddenly illuminate the night. These lights create a romantic and eerie ambiance, casting mysterious shadows on objects, buildings, and people.

To avoid blur from camera shake, the general rule of thumb is that your shutter speed should match (or be shorter than) your focal length. This translates to a shutter speed of 1/50 sec. for a 50mm lens, 1/35 sec. for a 35mm lens, and so forth. That’s why night shooting requires a fast lens— that is, one with an aperture of at least f/2.8. With a slower lens (such as one with a widest aperture of f/4.0), it becomes almost impossible to get a fast enough shutter speed. And even with a fast lens, you will need to increase your ISO to 1600 or 3200 to get the recommended shutter times.

A tripod will slow you down too much. But if you really need to stabilize your camera, try putting it on the ground and taking photos of stairs, people’s shoes, and the lights at night. Or try resting your camera on a table, against a wall, or alongside a lamppost.

You can also experiment with turning the rule of thumb above on its head. Try taking photos with very long shutter times and see what effects you create. Taking blurry photos of silhouettes at night on a colorful neon-lit street can create soulful (or ghostly) images impossible to achieve during the day.

29. Juxtapose elements

Creating interesting street photography is sometimes a challenge. But one technique comes in handy when you feel stuck: juxtaposition! This means capturing two elements that directly contrast or contradict one another.

For example, if you see a beautiful young woman, try capturing an elderly woman beside her. If you see a colorful background, try capturing a man who looks downcast and is wearing all black passing in front of it. If you see a single, tiny child amongst a group of adults, capture that! The simpler the composition, the better.

Juxtapositions can also be used to create humor and a sense of whimsy. If you see a sign on a wall with a finger pointing out, wait until a person passes the sign so it looks as though the finger is pointing directly at that person. If you see a guy kicking a ball, try to position yourself so it looks as if he is kicking something else. Create visual puns with your images. Once you can capture photos that make viewers laugh out loud, you will know that you have created effective street photography.