The following street photography tips are from renowned photographer Professor Hines. We hope that the experiments and theories described by Professor Hines. They will definitely come in handy for you guys.
Image by Horacio Lozada from Pixabay
LENSES FOR STREET PHOTOGRAPHY. First tip
Some of the tips that I have as far as shooting Street photography. My first one is prime lenses. The reason I love using prime lenses is the image quality that you get with the prime lenses. Forces you to move your body which is a very big point.
You have to get low, you have to move to this site, move to that side, and come in closer, it makes your image look different. It changes the story that’s being told and then I also love it for the faster apertures.
Now a lot of people use wide-aperture lenses and use them wide open the entire time. That’s not always great for everything that you shoot. And this is an example of these two of the same images. But one is shot at F 1.8 the other is at F 6 point 3 look at the differences between these two images, you can’t tell what’s in the background on the first image.
Yes, my focus it’s on the locks that are on the fence but you can’t see them here. What is in the background?
If you totally lose the story, whereas the other images stop down the six-point-three it’s very subtle. It adds to the image you kind of see where you are. You see that there are buildings back there but then it adds to your actual focus of the locks on the screen sparsh street photography.
What are some of the lenses that I utilize would be my 25-millimeter f2? I love my 40-millimeter close focus and my 85-millimeter 1.8 Zeiss batis lenses.
So with the 85 millimeters 1.8, it’s a lens that I’m very comfortable with, and what I love about it is being the spy photographer that I am. It gives me that distance between the subject that I’m capturing.
And also gives me that nice focal length to where I still get what’s around in the background based on where my distance is to my subject while also still having.
It is not really losing the street photography quality that people look for. If people typically look at thirty-five or fifty-millimeter lenses. But the 85 is really my Michael two limbs for doing street photography, so the second thing is on camera settings.
CAMERA SETTINGS. Second tip
One of the reasons I prefer aperture is anytime I’m in situations where the lights on the road are different. If I’m photographing something that’s very well-lit. But then I can turn to a place where it’s in a dark area. I don’t want to spend too much time adjusting my settings. Or adjusting my camera because I missed the shot I just saw.
So if I’m only concerned about the depth of field in my image, I don’t have to worry about adjusting for lighting changes. I usually have my client which is a branch where I go through these differences in highlights and shadows.
I don’t have an issue getting the exposure perfectly right for that specific image. So this is one that has kind of tricked a lot of people into a photo that I love from Grand Central where I saw it. A picture of a guy who is just on his phone with his briefcase beside him oblivious to everything that’s around him. And many people assume that I use a tripod.
I don’t shoot street photography with a tripod. So I use it if I’m close to walls or obstacles. I will use it if I can prop my camera on something. And so in this example, I was using 55 1.8. I saw this man and I knew that this was my subject.
So I just wanted to slow down the shutter to make it look like there’s movement around but there’s no trace of it. I like to focus on what he’s going through. So in a photo like this people wonder how you select your subject.
There are so many people. How do you focus on just one person and analyze people? I just look through the crowd and see who looks interesting. Who should I focus on sometimes? I might be in Grand Central, they have the stairs with the platforms so I’ll just go up there.
I kind of scan the whole floor and see what looks fascinating to me. where I pick out people that I think are gonna be interested.
OBSERVATION. Third tip
My third task in street photography is to look around. Analyzing the weather, analyzing what people are doing, predicting the four things, and looking at the surrounding objects and reflections.
So there are times when I’ll see the perfect picture but it’s not my subject. I want to take a picture. So I just got into the position. If they are still coming in the same direction. I just got my camera ready and I’m like once they’re in that spot boom, I take a picture. If they somehow know you, go in a different direction.
Sometimes I missed the picture but I knew what I wanted. So though they went a different route. If only I took the picture when they weren’t on the spot. I would have just had a regular photo.
I wouldn’t have liked it as much so I always try to anticipate where people are going to go. where people are going to move and what are people going to do.
Just be ready, I keep my camera turned on. I keep my finger on the shutter so that the way I can just hold my camera and take the shot. It’s like the image. A click is being done where I just happen to see a bicyclist come into my frame.
Frame by the camera I had a 25mm lens on. I just weighed it and the subject came into the frame where I wanted them to take the picture. This is just a picture of me walking downtown right now with photographers and one thing a photographer will say is shooting when the sun is high between 112 and 3 in the afternoon.
It’s the worst time to take a picture, but it’s not bad in New York City. It’s time to take a picture because the buildings act as natural reflectors, natural filters. So this is an example. Where the buildings were actually a reflector, it softened the light and then directed it towards the street to give them a good spotlight on the street. Regions and I just happen to occupy.
The lighting was perfect for shooting in this city. At different times of the day, you can get some really great photos and that’s what I love about being here in New York. You know this was taken with the 25-millimeter and I just camped out. I took other images of people walking.
Because I wanted to take advantage of that light and I only had about five to seven minutes after that the light had shifted more to my left. So you just have to really be quick to know your year, know what you’re shooting, and have everything set to where you can take those frames.
Because what you see isn’t gonna always be there. It’s gonna change. So there’s gonna be another photo there and it might not be the one that you want.
NO NEED FOR PERFECTION 4th tip
So the next thing is that there is no need for perfection. What do I mean by that? I mean, sophistication is not everything. Break the rules and be comfortable and know your gear. Some people will say oh that’s a great photo. You took and I think it’s a big mistake I took because I wasn’t focused on the background with the people who are smiling.
But when I got the camera and put the picture in the post. I saw it and I said wait. Those people are in focus and they have great reactions on their faces. I cropped this image so much that I took a 24-megapixel image. And probably cut the thing down to about 10 or 12 megapixels.
I said ‘no. This is the frame I wanted to bring and just framed it the way I did. Where I turned a terrible mistake into a great picture. So I like this picture.
I thought it was a great capture, a total mistake but I loved it. So this was one that I took in DC with the manual ins device lock, see a 50 millimeter f/2 lens and it’s not perfectly in focus. That’s not what I was going for.
I just loved the look on this lady’s face when she saw someone on the other side of the train. I just loved the look on his face. And I wanted them to be something that was just right.
Little did I know that subtlety was not what I was looking for. And I just wanted to capture the emotion that she was showing on her face in that situation. So finally as far as I envision my final image. So I take your picture and edit it in your mind first. And then feel the scene before I take the many photos I have.
I always like to see it in my mind value. I like to visualize it because if I visualize an image, I know I’m going to use that image. And I think it’s a very good picture. If I don’t really see a picture there, I usually don’t take it, because that’s pretty much it.
I’m forcing something and I don’t want to force something that I don’t feel creative about. And then there was also one where, you know, people asked where my focus was when I was looking at editing this example.
I know that the one I am photographing the sunset with is a train. And then I see the lights with train three. The trail of red and yellow lights is my focus at the top. I’m going for my red orange and yellow colors. So that’s where I focus my attention to edit for those colors.
I add it to the scene based on things that are my subjects. So at this point, everything else is basically an accessory to my articles. And everything else has to fall into place where that focus is. Just like that, I created this particular tone. And created this particular edit section and it looks like it’s too much.
As for how I take street photos, I hope these tips are helpful to someone else.
