Street photography

Street photography generally refers to photographs made in public places — not only streets, but parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and myriad other settings — often but not always featuring people going about their everyday lives. In one sense it can be thought of as a branch of documentary photography but unlike traditional documentary its chief aim — or at least its chief effect — is seldom to document a particular subject, but rather to create photographs which strongly demonstrate the photographer's vision of the world. Good street photography often ends up being good documentary photography without really trying, especially after the passage of a few years, but unlike documentary it seldom has an explicit social agenda or rhetorical intent. It tends to be more ironic and distanced from its subject matter.

Techniques

Overcoming Shyness

Shyness and Street photography seem to be mutually exclusive. However most successful street photographers have started as shy photographers. Shyness is a reluctance to make the photograph — it can paralyze you before the moment of exposure.

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Some photography instructors have recommended starting-out by trying to be stealthy and using long lenses — others suggest bypassing such crutches and leaping "deep end of the pool" into the street with a normal or wide-angle lens. Sometimes the use of extreme wide angles and appearing to be pointing the camera somewhere else than the subject can help, at the expense of direct involvement with the action. Other photographers (most notably Philip Lorca diCorcia, who actually has set up elaborate strobe rigs onto street corners in advance of unknown action) stand at one point on the street and wait for the subject to appear. Magnum photographer Bruce Gilden's famously-direct method, of just suddenly walking up to people in New York at close range with a powerful strobe — he has claimed to have never suffered an aggressive response — shows that the demeanor of the photographer before and after the moment of exposure is a key element to interaction on the street — with the latter more important.

Related Topics:
Philip Lorca diCorcia - Bruce Gilden

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Invisibility

It is said that Henri Cartier Bresson would wrap a large handkerchief around his camera and pretend to be blowing his nose while he took the picture. There are many variations to the stealthiness theme, some involving the use of waist-level finders in cameras but the general idea is to keep the subject/s from being aware that they are being photographed. Another aspect of invisibility involves "blending-in" with the crowd. Dressing like an archaetypical foreign correspondent, wearing a Trilby hat, photographer's vest and camera bag generally will guarantee that everyone is aware of you. Observe the ways of the crowd and try to dress and behave in an inconspicous manner, according to the circumstances.

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Some photographers thrive on directness, however. Martin Parr, for example, is typically quite open and direct about his business, and photographs using a hard-to-hide ring flash unit on a large camera. Street photographers who are fond of wide-angle lenses will often work so close to their subjects that they surely must be seen. Each practitioner must find their own balance.

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While exceptions such as Beat Streuli exist, in general street photography made from a distance, with a long lens, is considered flat and uninteresting -- the dominant aesthetic has stressed the photographer's presence "in" the scene, potentially interacting (subtly or otherwise) with the subjects but nearly always from a nearby, almost tactile, distance.

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Since the days of Paul Strand, some photographers (such as Helen Levitt) have also used trick lenses which shoot to the side, rather than directly in front of the camera. Leica and other manufacturers have long made such mirror attachments.

Related Topics:
Paul Strand - Helen Levitt - Leica

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Dealing with confrontation

It all depends on a photographer's quick assessment of the situation. Almost always, a photographer can smile and give one of three excuses: (1) "Oh, hi, I'm a photography student working on a project;" (2) "Don't worry, sir, I was taking a shot of ________, you weren't in the photo;" or, for the most daring, (3) "I'm a photographer with the New York Times doing a story on ." Alternatively, in most cases if the photographer apologizes and retreats, or even just continues walking while acting like they've taken no notice, the angry subject will continue on with their own business. In very rare cases, it may be necessary to hand over the film to someone who is truly intent on physically harming the photographer — though in the U.S. there is no legal grounds to force you to (even in the face of police demands to do so).

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Asking permission

This is surely a good way to avoid uncomfortable confrontations with subjects, but it seems like cheating to many photographers, because it betrays the sense of truth and objectivity with that street photography is often thought to have. It creates the potential for the subject to act, pose, appear differently than they would have naturally because they now are aware that they are the subject of a photograph.

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Technical Photographic Issues

Film Speed / ISO Sensitivity

Outside, in daylight, any ISO will do. At dusk and in the evening, a street photographer will probably experience failure with anything slower than 800 or 1600, unless they have a tripod (but why would a street photographer carry a tripod?).

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Shutter Speed

Some images can be enhanced by good use of slow shutter speeds to show motion. However, given the fact that most street photography is done handheld and with a 50mm lens, most photographers will insist on using a shutter speed of at least 1/60th of a second. Remember the rule: for handheld shots, the minimum shutter speed should be 1/x, where x = the length of your lens.

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Aperture & Depth of Field

A medium aperture, in the range of f/4 to f/8 will generally be preferred for fast shooting in daylight (this will vary according to the format used: 35mm, digital, 6x6, etc). The extended Depth of Field will render the subjects in focus even if they're moving or the photographer cannot exercise careful focusing. For static subjects, the use of large apertures, f/2.8 or wider, can help separate the subject from the background through shallow Depth of Field.

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Pre-focusing

The aperture a street photographer chooses to use has some impact on a pre-focus setting, but if a photographer can determine that he will be approximately 10 feet away from most of his subjects, he may wish to pre-focus at that distance, thus avoiding the manipulation of focus at the decisive moment.

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