Street photography Article in the Guardian

[Kev Pugh]

There has been a lot of posts lately relating to street photography. Came across this and thought it might be worth posting.

Amateur street photography: a beginner's guide | Art and design | guardian.co.uk

 

[Jim Kuo]

Thanks Kev, it's actually quite a good read .

 

[Brian Moore]

It's interesting, Kev. Thanks for posting. However, I'd disagree that using a film camera makes immune from having to delete a shot you've just taken. Worst case, someone could demand the film be removed from the camera.

I haven't done much street photography, but when I shoot (with my Canon F-1 or T-50) I most often use a 28mm lens. That's very often wide enough to aim the camera away from someone yet still get them in frame. At such times people don't percieve you're shooting at them. I find this takes some pressure off me as well as the human on the other end of the glass.

 

[Dave Moss]

Found it a very good read thank you Kev I like your idea of taking it wide angle Brian and I presume cropping the shot that sounds like a great idea

 

[Darren Turner]

very interesting read thanks for the link.

I am by no means an expert however I am becoming more & more addicted to taking photos of strangers. My method which seems to be working quite well is using a 70-200mm lens at f2.8 so I can keep my distance from the subject as to not invade there space & hopefully not get seen. I dont think i could do this with a 50mm lens as the expert street photographers reccomend maybe with practice, patience & time i could give it ago.

I am at some point going to approach strangers & ask them outright do they mind if I take a portrait style photo of them………….what harm can it do…….GULP

I stand in a busy place IE a city centre then hang around for a while and just point camera in general direction of the flow of people then snap away. I don’t take the camera away from my eye once I have got an image I simply move to the left or right of even keep it there searching for my next subject through the view finder.

I also try my hardest not to make eye contact with the persons I have just photographed I looked beyond them if possible.

 

[Kev Pugh]

I think you do a great job Daz and the anwser you can get is NO so you just say OK thanks anyway..........and move on to the next target.........

 

[Hamish Gill]

yeah Daz, you got my trick there, just pretend they werent the subject... ive been asked a few times "Did you just take a photo of me"... my response varies from blank smile as if i haven't understood them and am possibly foreign to "no" and on one occasion i just said "yes"... she just asked me to photoshop it, i said "i wont need to" and walked off ... it actually becomes quite the game once you forget the nerves ... the problem is the nerves keep coming back alomst every time you get out the camera