Street portraits - Technique

Ok, so we figured out the approach thing. If we get the approval, we need to focus on subjects expression and how we want to portrait the subject.

In order to do that we must leave all the technical details behind us. We can’t worry about depth of field (aperture setting), shooting mode, white balance or stuff like that. Of course there are times when you need to adjust on the spot but I suggest to prepare everything, test exposure before approaching the subject. After that if some changes are need and subject is calm enough to wait, you can adjust.

Important tip: What I do first when I walk out, since I know I am going to shoot faces mostly in shade I set my camera to A, check if exposure is OK and then continue the walk. If light changes, I just check if I have enough shutter speed to get clear shoot and adjust the ISO to get what I want from shutter speed. 

For me, the main thing for a succesful portrait besides obviously expression and interesting face is creating a good separation of subject from the background. One way, the easiest one is using shallow depth of field (aperture opening from 1.4 to 2.8 or more on telezooms) to separate face and leave blurry background.

If we don’t have large aperture openings we can use textured walls or clear walls and place subjects against them if they are willing to cooperate. That will give us clear separation.

Important tip: It’s not a big deal but sometimes it can ruin a shoot. Be careful when selecting background when you compose. Look for any lines, pools, trees behind subjects head and avoid intersection with their head.

In the next post I’ll tackle the light issue … most important thing in photography. From the amateur viewpoint of course.

Street portraits - Approach

Wanted to start with techniques first, since they are 50% of your street portrait, but will leave it for the next part.

Negative answer (amateurs biggest fear) 
Wanted to get this out of the way first. It’s not a big deal. You can’t expect the everyone is in the mood of having their picture taken by a total stranger. Some don’t even like to be photographed. It’s a game of statistics, some people are up for it, other’s are not. It’s not the end of the world if you get couple of negative answers. 

Self confidence (spread the positive energy)
You must be self confident and it must look as if you know what you are doing. I say this cause most people don’t want to be bothered by a guy who is clueless at first sight. Self confident look will give you 70% chances for a POSITIVE answer then looking clueless. Displaying your emotions is great too. Smile a lot, look excited that you’ve meet them and it will boost their felling’s as well.

The Talk
I usually approach them with smile and hello. Ask them where are they from, see if they are interested in talking … make sure they see that I have camera and I just ask them after couple of lines if I could take a photo of them.

Important tip: What if they asked you why do you shoot? For what or who? You can tell them that you are doing some kind of project that was gave to you by your photography teacher or something similar. This works most of the time, cause if they are good people as they mostly are they will want to help you out.

The first one is usually to break the ice. In most cases they open up, start talking about things. I ask questions, they ask questions and I shoot all the time. Sometimes I spend 30 minutes with them, enjoying the conversations and getting shoots you just can’t get when you talk to someone for 10-15 seconds.

Important tip: Sometimes they are indecisive and you need to tip the point to your side. That means that you need a little more persuasion with smile of course and they will agree. Couple of words from your mouth and you can get an awesome subject and great photo.

Many times we walk together and talk, of course I shoot :) You need to get them to open up. If seniors (that I mostly shoot) I ask them about their grandchildren and other happy times subjects … that’s when they truly shine.

Sometimes you meet a guy with sad story. He tries to look tough, but eventually will break and open up and there it is again … priceless emotion. Focus the eyes. They will tell you everything. 

So, that’s it for the first part. Need to keep them as short as possible, will continue soon.

Percents in this article are purely fictional! :)