This tip will change the way you make street photography
Hey, in this post I will share with you a secret about making street photography.
The secret is not even a secret as it reveals itself to each of us while getting experience on the street, but it requires a whole series of attentions to bring your photography to certain results.
The secret is in a nutshell: remove the idea of perfection.
It sounds like nonsense, but let me explain. As a photographer who also teaches I have seen so many who make a serious mistake: they waste too much time. Too much time in looking for the moment. Too much time setting up the camera. Too much time even to raise the camera, point and shoot.
Guys, this work, the work of the street photographer, requires one essential thing: to be reactive. But how is this determined?
First of all, you must have an empty state of mind, empty of the idea of the perfect shot. The perfect shot doesn't exist either. You don't photograph yourself thinking about setting the camera for every shot you plan to take. It doesn't matter if you go zone focus or prefer to rely on autofocus. It doesn't even matter if you are a photographer who prefers to shoot in priority of shutter speeds, apertures or shoot everything manually. In any case I recomment to use the 1/3 rule: if you shoot manual, choose ISO Auto. If you go with Aperture Priority, you should control ISO and, of course, Shutter Speed and so on.
Other tips to implement for this are:
Don’t make eye contact unless you want to provoke a reaction of your subject
Raise up the camera and shoot at the last moment
Be prepared also with faillure because is part of the game
Stop to think that street photography is about to capture a unique moment. In fact we can make several photos of the same scene, justlike the masters with their contact sheets showed us.
As an educator I met a lot of photographers coming from other kinds of photography and they think to use the same approach. And this is the first error. You can’t think to use the ISO as low as possible just like many photography schools teach. And stop to raise the camera announcing the shot. The camera needs to be raised up at the very last time.
I have seen also a lot of photographers acting as photographers. They are posers. They are not thinking to what they have in front of them and rather they act as actors playing the role of the photographer ´because they see themselves as cool. It is pathetic. I can remember a student who asked me, after seeing me photograph, to see if I had actually taken the photo. He couldn't believe it until he saw it on my camera's LCD screen. He was amazed. My wife says it takes talent for this. I argue that talent does not exist without trying and without hard work. For me now, taking pictures is as natural as breathing. What are you doing, do you think about the fact that you breathe? Or do you just do it? The same is with photography. It is an instintive reaction and I don’t have to think about it. The reaction is faster than the thought itself.
