Street style photos. Why Street Photography is Not Documentary Photography

Nils Jorgenson tries to capture a meaningful street moment in his distinctive style. Both color and black and white photographs of this photographer evoke in the viewer either a feeling of calm or surprise.

Charlie Kirk

The information about Charlie Kirk presented on his website looks rather ordinary, which cannot be said about his photographs. This is a photographer from Japan. He enjoys filming in public places, with Kirk's particular interest being beautiful girls, umbrellas, drunk people and mirrors. Charlie's photographs have been exhibited at Format Festival Derby and FOAM Netherlands.

Stefano Corso

Stefano Corso's photographs contain a sea of ​​light and beautiful compositions. His work is shown in numerous exhibitions and galleries.

Felix Lupa

The phenomenal author, born in Ukraine, has been working as a freelance photographer since 1995. Felix Lupa's photographs are powerful and eloquent. It feels like he fell in love with street photography even before he realized that he was shooting in this genre.

Siegfried Hansen

Siegfried Hansen is a professional photographer. In street photography, pay attention to people or their faces. His works are also characterized by graphic elements.

Marcos Semola

Marcos Semola is a self-taught photographer from Brazil. He has already published several books on street photography and exhibits his work in different countries.

Alex Kog

Alex Coghe is an Italian photojournalist currently living in Mexico. Street photography is his calling. Alex says the street has become both a gym and therapy for him.

Brian Formhealth

Bryan Formhals is the founder of LPV magazine and an avid street photographer. At first, fascinated by film scripts, he saw himself as a director. But street photography lured him away.

David Solomons

For David Solomons, it all started with Magnum's exhibition "In Our Time", which left an indelible impression on him. He was an English teacher, but he signed up for a photography course. David is inspired by color photographs of such famous authors as Joel Meyerowitz, Alex Webb and Martin Parr.

Margie Lang

French photographer Marji Lang loves to travel and take pictures on the street. Her photographs are characterized by rich, vibrant colors and geometric lines. Margie has a beautiful portfolio with stunning, highly artistic shots. India is her favorite holiday destination and main source of inspiration. Most of all, the photographer focuses on topics: everyday life, pilgrimage, religion, social and cultural problems.

Yanidel

This famous photographer undertook a trip around the world that lasted 80 weeks. Upon his return, Yanidel updated his website with information about the new experiences he had while moving around different countries, and also showed his best photographs. His style is largely influenced by humanistic traditions. And the author’s main motto when shooting on the street is respect for human dignity.

Kramer O'Neil

Kramer O'Neill is an excellent photographer who pays special attention to the details in the frame. Photographing both objects and people, he fills the frames with meaning using lighting.

Sergey Maximishin

Along with numerous recognitions and awards, Sergei Maximishin became the winner of the World Press Photo Award. His photographs are phenomenal.

Sagi Kortler

Sagi Kortler stands out for his street photography style. For this author, street photography is more than a genre. He follows his intuition to press the shutter button at a specific moment.

The author does not plan his shots, he allows life to unfold before his eyes, and then photographs it as it appears to him, conveying his feelings. Sagi Kortler contemplates life and observes society, documenting the world in which he lives.

Devin Yalkin

Devin Yalkin creates stunning black and white photographs that convey the mood of the characters in the frame and provide food for thought.

Kate Kirkwood

In her works, Kate Kirkwood idealizes the unfamiliar magic of cities, which she takes particular pleasure in immersing in.

Ricky Seegers

Ricky Siegers is a photographer from the Netherlands who loves photographing people and their lives on the street. Most of his works are black and white and ironic.

Leonardo Amaro Rodriguez

Leonardo Amaro Rodrigues tries to expand the boundaries of his capabilities, overcoming internal barriers. His photographs express the photographer’s inner world without words. Using light, he shows everything he feels and thinks.

Gabi Ben-Abraham

For Israeli photographer Gabi Ben-Avraham, street photography is his favorite way to see the world. Although sometimes he has to stand for a long time and wait until an interesting object appears for shooting. It could be a cyclist, a dancer or a child.

The camera has become an integral part of Gabi. He takes her with him everywhere, waiting for the opportunity to take the best photo of his life. And luck smiled at him more than once, judging by the wonderful works that we see.

Chris Marquardt

In 2011, Chris Marquardt released the first two series of his photographs taken on the iPhone, whose applications are aimed at providing photographers with extensive shooting capabilities. The images turned out to be very high quality, despite the pocket size of the device. These photos speak for themselves.

Lucas Vasilikos

Lukas Vasilikos became interested in photography in 2006 when he attended a workshop by Manos Lykakis. Since then, he has been enthusiastically filming and expanding his numerous publications, including on websites.

Eleni Rome

Eleni Rim's color and black-and-white photographs are characterized by emphatic framing of frame elements or characters. Her photographs need to be experienced.

Konstantin Karaiskos

Bold and dynamic compositions, contrast between the subject in the foreground and the background are characteristic of the photographs of Kostantine Karaiskos. His works definitely deserve our attention.

Street photography has always been and will be the most accessible genre. Actually, creativity in this case requires the photographer’s keen interest in the world around him and compact photographic equipment. Where to look for stories? How to catch sincere emotions and remain invisible? What weather is good for a street photographer? Read the answers to these and many other questions in our material. An example will be the photographs of the leading Russian street photographer Dmitry Zverev.​

1. Use a discreet small camera

The legendary, great master of street photography and the father of reportage photography spoke about this. The French photographer was known for covering the shiny parts of his Leica with dark tape to remain invisible in crowds.

“People around us react much more calmly to a mirrorless camera, and it also allows you to shoot from the waist up without aiming directly at a person. People don't feel your attention - you never know what you're looking at down there - and some don't even suspect that they're being photographed. At the same time, the rotating touch screen is capable of instantly pointing your finger at any object in the frame, while simultaneously releasing the shutter. A qualitatively different principle of street photography has emerged.”

2. Dress so that your appearance does not cause undue attention from others

If you don't want to attract the attention of the entire street, don't dress too brightly. It's better if you blend in with the crowd. As for girls, a miniskirt and high heels will certainly attract the attention of the opposite sex, which will prevent you from fully concentrating on the shooting process.

3. Shoot with a silent shutter

Continuing the theme of stealth, it is ideal if your camera has a silent shooting mode. Passersby are likely to notice the loud click of the shutter, especially if you use continuous shooting. Thus, you may miss that moment or plot that is important to sneak up on so as not to scare you away.

4. Choose lightweight equipment

Weight is a very important parameter for shooting, because you may have to walk around looking for a shot for a very long time. It's best if your camera with a couple of additional lenses can fit into an ordinary backpack or handbag. Firstly, thanks to this, you, again, will not stand out among passers-by, and secondly, with a light, compact set of photographic equipment you will not get tired and will be able to walk much longer.

Dmitry Zverev, Russian photographer:

“I learned about OLYMPUS technology a long time ago, back when there was a film OM System. I was shooting with an OM-1n camera then. Since December 2013, I have been working only with cameras from the OM-D line. Along with excellent quality, the camera provides greater efficiency and comfort when working in most genres compared to DSLRs. Its main advantages are compactness and light weight, very developed functionality, and a rotating screen. I often use fixed focal lenses: 17 mm/1.8, 12 mm/2.0, 45 mm/1.8. They are very tiny, weighing just over 100 g, but they are bright and fast. Zooms, even the most budget ones, are also suitable for long exposures. I am ready to wait until my joints ache if, for example, I am forced to guard the frame in an uncomfortable position. The burst mode is a must, especially when the course of the plot is unpredictable, but more often I don’t use the fast burst (H), but with the speed limit (L). The OLYMPUS E-M1 shutter is capable of shooting 10 frames per second, and then the buffer fills up quickly even with high-speed flash drives. The most versatile of the lenses is 12-40/2.8. Its contrast and sharpness are exceptional even wide open, and the aperture is sufficient for handheld photography even in the evening.”

5. Look for unusual angles

Imagine: beautiful evening light flooded the street, but... you don’t see the frame. Think about how to show the light beautifully? Try to walk around the building, see how the composition is built in this case? Maybe the frame will become more interesting if you select the lower shooting point? Use a camera with a folding screen - “inconvenient” shooting points will simply disappear for you!

6. Pay attention to reflective surfaces

Shop windows, bus stops, car hoods, banal puddles and even wall tiles of new metro stations - anything that can reflect can make your shot interesting and unusual. Using a camera with a flip screen, you can easily shoot from the ground or from glass walls. You will see how a person “enters” his own reflection, you will be able to divide the frame into two equal parts, capture someone jumping through a puddle, naturally, remembering Bresson, or get a mystical photo where parallel realities are completely intertwined.

7. Use burst shooting

If you're watching a specific character, action, or waiting for the climax of a story, choose burst mode. With a shooting speed of 9 frames per second, you are guaranteed to capture what you wanted, and only then, when viewing, calmly leave the most successful option.

8. Experiment with long shutter speeds

The street is an environment where movement does not stop for a second. Cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and against their background - a majestic temple or the silhouette of a motionless stranger talking on the phone. By shooting shots at a long shutter speed, you can convey the dynamics of the urban rhythm or focus on a stationary object, which will add ambiguity to the frame.

Dmitry Zverev, Russian photographer:

“The metro as a subject of photography is always, one might say, at hand. The subway has quite tolerable filming conditions: dry, warm, light all year round from 5:30 in the morning until 1:30 at night. A great alternative to shooting outside if it's rainy or dark! The metro is a very interesting social environment. You see hundreds of people, interesting individually, in groups, and in crowds that generally behave in their own way; dozens of scenes unfold in front of you. You can't take pictures in the subway with a tripod. I work by hand or use some kind of support nearby. Instead of a tripod, I can put a bag of cereal on which the camera is well fixed.”

9. Alternate color and black and white modes

The debate about color and black and white will exist as long as photography lasts. Therefore, now we will not divide the plots into color and monochrome, but will simply advise bringing more variety into creativity. When going for a walk, for example, make a point to notice only objects in orange tones or combine shades of a certain color in the frame.

Or vice versa - concentrate on a monochrome light and shadow drawing, look at black and white works of classics and try to choose similar subjects.

10. Use cameras with electronic viewfinders

They will allow you to see the picture immediately in color or black and white. Don't rely on post-processing. By switching the shooting mode directly to black and white, you will begin to see differently, and even ordinary scenes in your execution will become more interesting.

11. Use different lenses

This advice will be relevant not only for beginning street photographers who are just trying out lenses with different focal lengths and looking for “their one,” but also for professionals who want to bring something new to their creativity. He shoots only with 20 mm, Cartier-Bresson was faithful to 35 mm, and gets very interesting angles by shooting with 75 mm primes. Using different optics will train the eye and expand vision.

12. Shoot not only during “regime” time

The rule that requires strict adherence, for example, in landscape photography, namely, to take photographs at dawn (before about 11 a.m.) or sunset (after 5 p.m.), loses its relevance in street photography. Snow, blizzard, rain, fog? It's time to shoot! Look how boldly the recognized masters of street photography or the same Bruce Gilden, who takes pictures during the day with a flash, violate it! Hard light also looks interesting in this genre. Don't set limits for yourself, and very soon you will find your own style!

13. Don’t neglect non-tourist areas of the city

Filming in the historical center of the city is not always comfortable due to the dense human traffic and the abundance of tourists. To catch an interesting story and emotions, you don’t have to go to your favorite center. Sometimes it’s enough just to step outside your apartment. Children laughingly swinging on a swing, or a grandmother feeding pigeons in the backlight of a setting day are wonderful subjects for photographs that capture ordinary and sincere moments from the life of the city.

Dmitry Zverev, Russian photographer:

“What I like most about street photography is its unpredictability. A documentary photographer never knows what kind of images providence will put in his “basket”. It adds excitement to the work. Shooting a real street (that is, on regular streets, where there are traffic lights, cars, shops, stalls) is very difficult, because the picture, as a rule, is very overloaded with details, and no scenes really emerge. I resort to cunning. My street is an urban environment, but not the streets themselves. I'm looking for places that are more stingy with details..."

13. Always carry a spare battery with you

Weather conditions, namely frost, or luck with subjects for serial shooting can play an unpleasant joke on you: the battery will not be enough for the entire walk. To prevent the camera from turning off at the most inopportune moment when you finally see that very shot, take a spare battery with you.

15. Choose a camera withWi-Fi

16. Be patient

Not every walk will be crowned with masterpieces. It depends not only on luck, but also on your mood at the time of shooting and a number of other external circumstances of city life. Treat the shooting process calmly: your goal is not to take amazing shots, it is much more important to learn to feel the life around you and capture moments.

Publication date: 01.10.2013

Ilya Shtutsa is not just a talented street photographer. Photography for him is a way of interacting with the world, a kind of game, the rules of which he is happy to share.

A few years ago, when I just discovered street photography, and at the same time photography in general (school experiences with Shift 8, apparently, cannot be seriously considered a photographic experience, there was no awareness there, moreover, after I abandoned “ shift”, the break was no less than 20 years), I accidentally found myself among the participants in one of the photo quests in Vladivostok, just at the moment when they were given tasks. The tasks were quite varied, 12, it seems, topics, one of which was “through the looking glass.”

It would seem that nothing could be simpler - open your eyes wider and go to the city, seize the moment and bring back a great photo. But... almost all of these people chose to take a staged shot. Moreover, to do this they had to get wildly perverted - I heard a conversation between participants who were going to buy a frozen chicken, put it in the toilet, light it in red and do several more strange manipulations, I don’t remember the details - and all this instead of just going and looking, that the dear universe will offer an answer to the existing request.

Actually, the main thrill of street photography is precisely that it is an extremely exciting game for two players - the photographer and... the world? Cities? Environment? The easiest way, of course, is to say that the game goes with the world, and goes on equal terms - if you, with your eyes wide open, go out into the city, as if into an enchanted forest, firmly knowing that unknown miracles await you around the corner, then peace must be with you will show miracles.

It looks like a fairy tale, but the very principle of street photography is best expressed by... a line from a Russian folk tale - “go there, I don’t know where, bring that, I don’t know what.” You can, for example, tell the story of a photograph in which a cardboard box on legs is chasing a running girl.

People often ask me if this is a production. No, of course, not a production at all. It happened in Blagoveshchensk-on-Amur, in June, the heat was forty degrees, I was returning home at night and suddenly, near the bus stop, I saw a cardboard box, from the window in which the light of a cigarette was peeking out. Bending down, I discovered a grimy face in the slot, and took a picture - with a flash, because it was very dark. Three guys came running out of the darkness at the flash and said - wait, he’s going to scare the girls, take it off, it’ll look cool. I retreated into the darkness, and a couple of minutes later, when two unsuspecting girls walked past, carelessly chatting about something, the box quietly rose to its feet, ran up to them and began to push them in the butt. The girls turned around, screamed and ran away. Then the situation repeated itself with another passerby. After taking a few photos, I asked the guys - why are you doing this? And I heard in response - what else to do, it’s boring.

Of course, it’s not enough to see something interesting, you also need to be able to show it to others, that is, in fact, take a good photograph. But here I will not discover any America, almost all good photographers advise the same thing - to shoot a lot and select very carefully, mercilessly rejecting 99 percent of what was taken, and look at a lot of other people’s good photographs. Start with the Magnum website, for example. By the way, it’s better not to limit yourself to photographs alone; it’s also useful to go to museums, watch good movies and generally cultivate visual literacy. But these are all truisms.

The above mentioned “go there, I don’t know where” is the ideal instruction for a street photographer. Ideal, but, of course, far from the only possible one. Of course, it's great to just casually wander down the street in search of a unique, impressive moment, relying solely on your nose, but shooting something on a given topic is very useful, if only as an exercise.

For example, I was very lucky three years ago (that is, practically at the very beginning) to find and join the Street Photography Now Project. This project was launched in mid-2010 by the London Photographers Gallery together with Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, authors of the book Street Photography Now, which almost immediately became something of a Bible for a new generation of street photographers. Over the course of a year, 52 famous photographers, such as Alex Webb and Bruce Gilden from the Magnum agency, Matt Stewart and other members of the In-public team, and others, gave each week some kind of instruction that everyone could try to follow by simply uploading their a photo taken during this week to the appropriate group on the Flickr photo hosting site.

Why do I say I'm lucky? Firstly, it was, in fact, a free one-year course in street photography from the best masters of the genre, and sometimes the authors of the instructions actively commented on the participants’ work - what else could a beginner dream of? It is also important here that since about 500 people took part in the project, their common intention to carry out the next instruction created a flow of enormous power, which greatly facilitated the task. For example, my photograph of women rolling a piece of tree trunk down the street was taken in response to Gary Alexander's Surrealism Today instruction.

I had a particularly busy week at the time; I didn’t have any time to wander around the city with a camera, and I was able to allocate only three hours to complete the instructions. That is, in three hours I had to go and find some surreal scene. The task seemed impossible, but I was sure that something would turn up - and so, after wandering for two hours in vain, I turned into another alley and saw it.

Secondly, a friendly community has been formed from regular project participants. These people did not want to stop playing after the official end of the project - and continued it on their own for the second and then third year! The only difference is that it is now called Street Photography Now Community and instructions are given half as often, which is why the flow has weakened somewhat, but not critically. A side effect of the continuation of the project was, in particular, the creation of an international group of street photographers, Observecollective.

Photographers who lived in the pre-digital era never dreamed of this. The Internet offers incredible opportunities for extremely fast learning, but this also has a downside (there are no free cakes - my department head at the institute liked to say). When thousands of pictures flash before your eyes every day, you very quickly begin to understand that most of them use a fairly small set of the same cliches.

This also applies to your own photographs - what recently seemed like a good find suddenly turns out to be another cliche, worn down before you by hundreds, if not thousands of people from all continents. What to do if you hit this wall? There is no definite answer to this question, but I think that you just need to continue shooting, enjoying the process itself (otherwise, what is all this for?), perhaps putting the photos aside for a while in order to return to them later with a fresh look. One of the instructions of the SPNP project mentioned above, given to the participants by the wonderful Indian photographer Raghu Ray, sounded something like this: “Until the supernatural comes into play, a picture remains just information.” This means that a good photograph must have some kind of magic.

It's hard to explain, but sometimes something happens, some kind of click, and something passes through you, breaking the tight cage of cliches and mental constructs. Such pictures, strictly speaking, cannot even be called our own; they were presented by some forces that are greater than us, and the one who held the camera in his hands is, at best, a co-author. But they are the only ones who, by and large, matter.

Street photography opens up an interesting and vibrant world of everyday life for photographers. Street and reportage photographers capture the most vivid and emotional moments of our lives, they shoot on the streets and in shops, in the subway and public transport, these photographers, putting their safety at risk, depict everyday life as it is. Our article will discuss how to take original reportage photographs and interest viewers in your work.

Wide angle lens

For street photography, it is common to use shorter lenses. A street photographer with a long telescopic lens will attract the attention of passersby, and people will resist taking the photo. A small, standard lens that offers a focal length somewhere between 24-50mm won't be too noticeable, and you'll be able to take beautiful wide-angle photos with it.

Camera settings

You shouldn’t look through the viewfinder all the time and try to photograph everyone you meet, otherwise you will not only be conspicuous, but you may miss all the most interesting scenes. Some masters are even able to take interesting photographs while holding a camera on their neck. You can hold the camera in your hands and take photos discreetly. Set to continuous shooting mode, the aperture should not be too large, otherwise in case of focus error the photo will be blurred, set it to f/8 or so.

Best Places for Street Photography

Look for the perfect shapes

If you shoot in the city where you live, you probably know places with interesting compositional forms. Perfectly straight lines and shapes look beautiful in the frame. Find such a place and wait for people to pass by. Note the staircases, gratings and beautiful bridges. You can photograph shadows on the wall, they can serve as a strong visual addition.

Shooting from the hip

Author: Fabio Costa

Practice shooting at hip level without looking through the viewfinder. We already said that this is practiced by experienced street photographers, and it really works. This way you will be completely invisible, people passing by you will not even suspect that you are photographing them. The photos will be unsuccessful at first, but practice will lead to amazing results.

When you notice an interesting person or an interesting subject to photograph, follow him. We are not talking about following someone, disturbing or bothering passers-by. This will not end well, but be careful, try not to lose sight of interesting images. You may be interested in unusual passers-by, people walking a dog, lovers, etc.

Creative moment

Look for ways to show interesting comparisons, combinations and associative stories. Don’t shoot with templates, look for interesting shapes and take shots that make your viewers’ imagination work. You can look for scenes where a billboard interacts interestingly with a passerby, or how statues and architectural compositions combine with people.

Paparazzi

This type of shooting is one of the most difficult for beginning photographers. Paparazzi are not always liked by passers-by, since few of them like unexpected photographs. Typically, paparazzi choose a large telescopic lens; with its help, experts can get as close to a person as necessary. Remember that with a large lens you will attract attention, but usually the paparazzi won't be bothered by this. If a person enjoys taking photographs, then show him the resulting photographs and send them by email.

Blurred people in the crowd

Use a slow shutter speed when shooting on the street to help take blurry photos of crowds. It is advisable to focus on one person or interesting object - he will be clear, and all other people in motion will be blurred. When shooting with long exposures, you will need a tripod, as without it, the photos will be blurry. If you don't have a tripod, you can mount the camera on a stable support. Successful exposure can only be determined experimentally. Start with 1/4 sec., see what happens and, depending on the result, change the shutter speed value.

Bright accents in street photography

City streets are filled with gray shades and gloomy scenes; it is not easy to find bright accents and beautiful colors here, especially when it comes to industrial or residential areas. Try to find something expressive, beautiful, catchy, but not vulgar - it could be a beautiful car or vehicle, a well-groomed flowerbed or a themed restaurant. Include such elements in your photos, so they will look more interesting and attractive. You can try shooting in black and white, or using software to make the photo black and white, leave one bright subject. Some compact cameras provide partial black and white shooting, where one element remains in color and the rest of the frame is black and white.

Most genres in photography can be easily identified or described at least by the subject. If a photographer photographs natural beauty and landscapes, then, therefore, he is engaged in landscape photography. If he photographs people, their faces and emotions, then we are talking about portrait photography. It is much more difficult to define the genre of street photography.

At first glance, it seems that street photography is photographing people, objects and interesting events taking place on city streets, in parks or other public places. But in reality, street photography may not necessarily mean shooting on the street. Perhaps the main thing that distinguishes street photography from all other genres is the photographer’s desire to find some zest in everyday events and the ordinary lives of people, to satisfy his curiosity in unexpected cases and to capture in his photographs the true diversity of the surrounding world.

Therefore, a true street photographer is not limited to any strict definition of the genre of street photography - he can concentrate on the comical situations that a person constantly encounters in his life, draw the viewer's attention to pressing social problems, or choose to photograph a certain event that seems interesting to him. Be that as it may, a street photographer constantly examines everything around him in search of interesting subjects and curious incidents, focusing his camera's attention, first of all, on people and their actions.

Becoming a street photographer is very simple - you just need to carry a camera with you wherever you go. This is how many professional photographers who became famous thanks to the genre of street photography started. You don’t need to go anywhere, just walk around your city and try to take interesting shots. This is the main beauty of street photography. You take your camera with you and go to work, classes, or just a walk around the city, and you can always find time to take some interesting shots.

Author: schaaflicht

By the way, for street photography it is not necessary to use an expensive SLR camera, because it will be difficult to carry around. It is enough to acquire some advanced and convenient compact camera, which, thanks to its modest size, can always be put in a bag or pocket. Carrying a camera with you at all times is a de facto rule for any photographer who wants to master street photography. Interesting and funny moments on the street often arise at the most unexpected moments. And if you don’t have a camera at hand, you may later regret that you missed a great opportunity to take the most successful shots of your life. Street photography means that anything can happen in the next second and the photographer must be prepared for it.

However, in addition to the fact that the photographer must catch some interesting moment on the street, he must also correctly play it in the context. By comparing the event that interests him with the surrounding environment, a street photographer always strives to create a certain story, a plot that can express the humor, irony of the author or the beauty of the world around him.

Typically, photographers go to the city center, where a huge number of people pass through the streets every day and many interesting events take place that just need to be noticed. This is where the photographer’s ability to wait comes in handy. Although modern digital photographic equipment allows you to take hundreds of photographs in a matter of minutes, in the case of street photography, the main thing is not quantity, but quality. It’s better to wait for an interesting, curious moment and take just a few successful shots, having previously studied the place, the light, the actions of people and the surrounding objects.

Skier delayed until summer

Photographer conduct and ethics are important considerations when it comes to the genre of street photography. When photographers first start out in street photography, they inevitably experience a certain amount of shyness and inhibition. Many people are simply not comfortable being on the street with a camera and taking pictures of people who immediately pay attention to you. If you really want to become a street photographer, you will have to forget about shyness and what other people think of you.

Regarding the behavior of a photographer on the street, there are no universal recipes. Many famous photographers have used special techniques to get lost in the crowd and remain invisible. For example, someone covered the camera from prying eyes or filmed from the hip so that people passing on the street would not realize that they were being filmed. This street photography technique also means that you must look like a typical representative of that urban area in order to be able to completely blend in with the crowd and at the same time shoot people closely without getting into the frame. We can say that in this case the photographer is required to possess real ninja skills. However, this is not at all necessary. Some photographers achieve success, on the contrary, due to their directness, courage and openness. In a word, everyone must find their own approach here.

It is believed that filming people on the street without permission is prohibited. People often get annoyed when they suddenly realize that they have been caught on camera. Some even openly express their dissatisfaction and enter into conflict. Only a smile can help a photographer out in such a difficult situation. Try to smile at strangers on the street more often, and a positive response will not be long in coming. It is better, of course, to politely ask permission to take photographs from the person who has interested you in something. If someone does not want to be photographed, you need to show respect and leave them alone.

It must be said that not all street photographers share the opinion that one should try to ask permission to take photographs from people simply passing along the street. In particular, many believe that true street photography should be impartial, which means that the photographer is not responsible at all for the fact that a person or event is captured while shooting in a public place. However, if you decide to become a street photographer, then you cannot avoid communicating with strangers, and therefore you need to learn how to talk correctly with the person you just photographed.

We must not forget about respect for people. On the street you can find a lot of photographic scenes that can capture a person from, to put it mildly, not the most beautiful side. Sometimes photographs of homeless people taken on the street look like pure exploitation of their misfortune. Taking pictures of these people just for the sake of taking a photo is probably not a good idea. But coming up with an interesting subject for a photograph that would evoke in the viewer a feeling that encourages him to help the homeless is a completely different task.

When it comes to shooting technique, street photography requires the photographer to get as close to the subject as possible. Always try to get closer to people and take more detailed photos. For street photography, it is important to use wide-angle lenses. Such lenses, firstly, look much less threatening than large telephotos, and secondly, they create a frame perspective in which the viewer will feel like part of the scene, and not an outside observer. In street photography, you can also shoot black and white, monochrome images, thanks to which the photograph better conveys human emotions captured at some decisive, interesting moment.

When shooting outdoors, you should always pay attention to the background and lighting features. The background should be chosen so that it can add additional expressiveness and attractiveness to your photo. And at the same time, it should not distract from the main subject of photography. Light is important for any genre of photography and street photography is no exception.

A street photographer is the complete opposite of a studio photographer, who tries to properly arrange the light, optimally position the subject, and determine the appropriate camera settings in order to get the desired result. It's different for a street photographer. His main task is to capture any curious moments and unusual things, isolating them from the whirlpool of everyday life in the metropolis. Therefore, the characteristics of photographic equipment are not so important for him. But, despite the fact that for a street photographer, in general, it does not matter in principle which camera to use - a DSLR or a point-and-shoot camera, he must clearly know how best to use it. A street photographer shouldn't waste his time changing various camera settings. All this should happen almost on a subconscious level.

Beginners who are just taking their first steps in the genre of street photography often have various doubts and difficulties. They just don’t know where and where to start filming on the street, what story to choose? But you should immediately discard these doubts and indecision. After all, this is the essence of street photography - you cannot plan what will happen in the next moment and what story will suddenly seem interesting to you. You just need to get started, take your camera with you and go outside, where a wide variety of interesting moments await you.