Street Photography Tips

Last weekend, I met up with other Indonesian Photographers (part of a group called Motoyuk) for a Fixed Focal Length Challenge (where you are supposed to shoot with only 1 focal lenth, or use a prime) at Ancol, North Jakarta. This is the 2nd time I was joining them, the first time at Monas.


I love street photography, going around shooting candid pictures of strangers in public.
It can be a little unnerving at times, because you never know how strangers will react. I'm also terribly afraid of being robbed or beaten up! So first rule of street photography is

1.Know your surroundings, always be alert.
Where possible, I keep my camera in the bag, and observe people around. In a "slum" area, I would be more hesitant to whip out my camera to shoot, or even just on the streets at night. So joining other photographers is a good way, and at Ancol - there were tons of others taking pictures, so it was perfectly safe.

2.Know your equipment, get your settings ready.

I shot with my favorite 35mm f1.8 lens, which is small, light and inconspicuous - great for street photography.

When you shoot on the street, you'll be looking at candids, interactions of people, and anything else that catches your eye. You'll need to be quick, as you need to snap as you see the moment. Often, there isn't time to try and figure out your camera settings, or ask your subject to wait.

So know how to quickly change your camera settings to what is suitable (focus points, ISO, aperture).

Although I have a f1.8 lens, the depth of field is too shallow, for a quick snap. I often go around with F4, and shoot in aperture mode. Then snap away before they notice!


3.Shoot from the hip
There are times you want that candid moment, and the moment you lift up your camera, the subject immediately reacts. So when times like that, I try shooting from the hip, i.e. I sling it, let it dangle at the hip, and as I walk by the subject, I snap away, whilst looking elsewhere - try as natural and inconspicuous as possible. RESIST the impulse to check your camera immediately, but as you walk away, then check.

The hit rate is obviously going to be low - most will be mis-focus, have strange framing, but sometimes you get one you like. Like this picture of this girl and boy. I didn't want people to think I was a pervert, snapping away at a naked boy. So I shot this from the hip, as I walked on. So you see the picture is actually mis-focus, the background people sharp, instead of the boy and girl. But I love this picture - how the girl is walking on, trying to ignore this rather naked boy on the beach.

4.Chat up your subject.

You'll need to develop a "thick skin" and interact with your subjects. Like this kid, I smiled at her, and her father - and saw that the father was friendly (not the daughter thought), I said "smile" in Bahasa, and the father also encouraged her to, but to no avail. She just had this "who on earth are you" look! But I snapped away, whilst trying to engage with her. Then I waved and thanked them.

I also spotted this group of folks fishing. I asked about what bait they used, whether they caught any fish (they did, and then they showed off their catch to me) - then I smiled and snapped away, saying "I'll take a picture ok?" Which they gamely replied - "sure"!





5. Pay attention to your composition, when you can.

There'll be times when you will have time to compose. For this picture on the right, I sat down looking away, I knew I wanted a shallow depth of field, so changed the aperture to f2.8; started taking picture of the wooden fence. After about 5 pictures or so, I noticed this guy just sitting there zoned out, so I quickly recomposed, focused on him, and snapped away, before he realized I was snapping at him. Because I was using the rule of thirds, the camera wasn't point straight at him. I also had time to compose the leading lines and frame the picture.

So do give it a try. Experiment, and see what works for you. But keep shooting!

Learning the Flash #1

So, since getting my SB700 flash, and messing it up at my first wedding shoot, I've been quite determined to learn how to use a flash properly.

So I read 2 books - Bryan Petterson's Understanding Flash Photography and Joe McNally's Hot Shoe Diaries.

I loved Bryan's first book - Understanding Exposure, really helped me to shoot in manual mode, and understand a lot about the camera and photography.
For his book on Flash Photography, I must say that the pictures he posts, are quite... underwhelming. I flipped through it before, months back, and decided that I wasn't convinced about using Flash, from his examples. But after I got my flash, it was selling at the airport, and I needed to read something - so I got it anyway. He strongly advocates using the flash on manual (forget TTL), and whilst technically good, I'm not so convinced that he's the best ambassador for Flash Photography.

Whilst struggling through Bryan's book, a friend recommended Joe's book, and kindly lent me a copy. Joe's book, are filled with fantastic examples on how to properly use the flash. He is a TTL kinda person (which I was relieved!), and I really like his pictures. He really knows how to shape light, and bring out the best using the flash. I'm still halfway through the book (it's 300 over pages), but it's quite inspired me to really give Flash photography a real go.

So, the boys and I went down to the basketball court last Sunday evening. We had great fun shooting. I noticed the light was beautiful, and decided to try shooting using the gorgeous golden light. Anyway, as the sunset, I broke out the flash, tried shooting on camera, off camera, with diffuser on, with the orange CTO gel attached - and without. My son was great in jumping over and over again, doing different things, different angles. But I must say that I did like the shot above.

I shot in shutter priority, setting it at 1/1000 at first, before lowering to 1/500 as the sun set. I wanted it to be fast enough to freeze my son in mid air. I used the Tokina 11-16mm, and the largest aperture was F2.8, so I used that to allow the most light in, plus pushing up the ISO.

Flash was off camera, on the floor with orange "gel" (actually a plastic diffuser that came with the flash, normally used for incandescent lighting) attached - giving the impression of the warm glow of a sun set - set to TTL (auto mode) and told my son to go for it!

One limitation was that since I was using my on-camera flash as trigger, the flash had to be on the left (where the sensor is), and in front of the camera. I worked with it, but was limited in the angles I could shoot. (once I'm much more serious in flash photography, I might go invest in wireless trigger that can TTL sync).

And I liked the orange glow of the net and my son, in contrasts with the blue sky. This would have been an impossible shot to shoot, without a flash. I'm now convinced even more, that it is essential to practice and try and master the flash! There's a time and place for available light shooting, and time and place for the flash - when used properly.

Keep on learning and shooting!