HOW TO Shoot Candid STREET PHOTOGRAPHY Without Looking Like a CREEP

Street photography is one of the most popular genres of photography, but capturing candid and natural photographs is one of the hardest parts to master.

The simple reason is that the moment someone takes out a camera in public, they are instantly altering the natural and organic vibe of the scene.

Mobile phone photography seems to suffer a little less from this effect, since phones have become ubiquitous and nobody really pays much attention to them.

However, the instant a traditional camera is spotted in the wild, most people start to behave differently. They become more self-conscious, and possibly judgmental of the photographer’s intentions.

There’s obviously nothing wrong with that, and as a fellow photographer, I too feel a little self-aware whenever I see a camera pointed in my general direction. It’s just human nature.

However, in the interest of wanting to capture a street scene in its purest form, and as unaltered by the presence of a camera as possible, here are 3 personal tips which can help you be a little more stealthy, and dare I say it, tactical, when photographing in the streets.

Here is an example of a purely candid photograph. This happy couple was walking towards me, and I waited until they were about two steps away before taking the shot.

1 – Setting up your camera and using Zone Focusing

No matter how advanced your camera’s autofocus system may be, it’s still not good enough – or rather, not designed with the random and chaotic nature of street photography in mind.

Quite ironically, this problem was already largely solved in the old days of early manual film cameras. Street photographers of the time didn’t have all of the automatic bells and whistles which are available in even the most basic modern cameras, so they had to learn ways of shooting quickly and accurately with minimal setup time, in order to capture every fleeting moment.

Luckily, these setup methods are readily available in most modern cameras, and once you understand how to use them, you’ll begin to realise just how little your shiny new camera, as well as that expensive lens actually matter when it comes to street photography.

So what do I need to do?

Basically, you need to set up your camera to do as little automatic ‘thinking’ as possible. The only thing you will allow your camera to do on its own, is adjust the ISO - something that was impossible in the days of film. The rest of the thinking is handled by you, the photographer.

In a nutshell, you’re going back to basics and disabling all of the expensive features which make your camera and lens cost as much as they do.

Manual Mode

The first thing is to set the camera to Manual mode.

Then, if you’re using a zoom lens, zoom in to somewhere between 28 and 50mm.

The next step is to find a spot on the ground which is between two to four steps in front of you, and pre-focus the lens on that spot. Two steps for 28mm, and four steps for 50mm.

Once your lens is pre-focused, switch your lens/camera to ‘MF – Manual Focus’.

Your camera is now zone-focussed, and you have created a sharp focus ‘perimeter bubble’ around yourself.

What’s the point of all this?

It’s simple. Every photo you now take, will always have the area two to four steps ahead of you in focus, no matter where you aim the camera. Your camera will not ‘hunt’ for your subject, causing you to miss focus. It will take a shot the instant you press the shutter, meaning you won’t miss the moment.

This also means that if an interesting subject walks towards you, you can safely wait until they have entered the ‘bubble’ before you take the photo.

Although this photo was shot directly into the sun, the position of the lens flare helps set the mood and tone of the image.

Aperture

The next step is to set your aperture to a value which will extend the area of acceptable focus as far beyond the bubble as possible, whilst still allowing enough light to hit the sensor.

You’re basically creating a second ‘outer’ bubble which determines how far your photograph is in focus past the first bubble.

If you use a wide open aperture (small aperture number), then the area of acceptable focus will only be a few metres (or, depending on the aperture, a few centimetres) ahead of your focus point.

If you let your camera choose the aperture, it will always try to default to one which will let in the most light, thus shrinking your focus area. This is not what you want.

I find that during the day, an aperture of f/8 or f/11 gives me more than enough depth of acceptable focus to capture pretty much anything happening on my side of the street, extending and all the way to about half way across the road.

Shutter

Third, since the camera is in Manual mode, set the shutter speed to no less than 1/250 of a second.

This will ensure that most moving human subjects will be frozen adequately to be considered sharp. If it’s dark and the subject isn’t moving too much, or is standing still, you can slow the shutter down to 1/125, but no slower, as that almost always results in motion blur.

The faster you can set your shutter, the better.

On a sunny day you can easily get away with 1/500 or faster. However, know that when it gets dark, fast shutter speeds will result in your camera having to select a higher Auto ISO to compensate.

Which leads me to the next step - set your ISO to AUTO.

The reason for this is that when it comes to street photography, a sharp, grainy image always beats a clean, but blurry one.

Your intention is to capture the moment, so don’t think about potential ISO noise. It is not as bad as you may think, and you can always reduce noise later. You cannot re-focus a blurry photo.

So now your camera is ready.

• Your focus point (first bubble) is at a nice and comfortable distance ahead of you.

• Your aperture is set to give you as much area of acceptable focus as possible beyond the initial focus point. You can gradually open your aperture if you require more light, but be aware that conversely, your outer bubble will shrink. Luckily, your initial focus point will stay the same.

• You’ve set your shutter speed to freeze subject motion. You can freely change this setting depending on the situation and amount of available light, but try to stay above 1/125.

• And finally, your ISO is used to control your exposure. This was not a feature that was available in the days of film photography, as film only had one ISO rating. This is essentially the only ‘thinking’ your camera does, as it meters the light in the scene.

This photograph was shot from a little further away than four steps, but it serves as a great example of a photo falling within the 'area of acceptable focus'.

2 – Familiarise yourself with your camera’s weight and balance in the hand (roll, pitch, and yaw).

What?

Let me explain.

In order to ensure a stealthy and tactical street photography experience, you must not allow attention to be drawn to you and your camera. This means that you cannot raise it to your eye, or anywhere in front of you which may suggest that you’re about to take a photo – unless of course, that is your intention.

As such, you have to practice, preferably in the privacy of your own home, to aim your camera at your subject, while it’s casually hanging by your side.

This process takes time and practice, but you need to learn to judge and ‘feel’ your composition without consciously looking at your hand or the screen. You basically have to see with your fingers and shoot from the hip.

Your camera should ideally hang down in portrait orientation.

You must then develop a feel for how much of the camera’s weight hangs on your pinky finger, and middle finger. These two fingers control the ‘roll’ axis of the camera, which determines the horizon line of your photo.

Your thumb, which should rest at the back of the camera controls the ‘pitch’ axis (up and down). Your wrist controls the ‘yaw’ – left or right orientation of the lens.

This step will eventually become second nature, but it’s imperative you master it if you want to increase your success rate, and not end up coming home with photographs of people’s feet.

A scene like this is best captured by setting your shutter to 'silent'.

3 – Blend in and don’t make eye contact

This may seem obvious, but even if you’ve mastered zone focusing, and your hip-shot game is on point, the moment you make eye contact with your subject, they will inadvertently start to scan you up and down, and quickly notice the camera hanging by your side. It’s one of those uncanny human senses which can give you away if you’re being too obvious.

Don’t look directly at your subject. Look around or ‘through’ them, but don’t give off the impression that you’re tracking them as they walk towards you.

Ideally, once you’ve mastered the two steps above, you can walk down the street and take excellent ‘in the bubble’ photos with your right hand, while absentmindedly scrolling through your phone with your left hand.

This also means that you should dress as casually and non-descriptively as possible. A bright red cap will always make people look up at you, as will any article of clothing which is brighter than anything else you’re wearing.

Dressing in all black is a safe bet. Alternatively, try to wear something that will camouflage the colour of your camera behind wherever it happens to be hanging.

I hope you found these street photography tips useful.

Let’s keep this thread going. If you can think of anything else, feel free to add it in the comments below.

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Happy shooting!