How To Shoot Street Photography on London's South Bank

South Bank Street Photography

The South Bank in the City of London is a fantastic place for Street Photography. Not only do you have the beautiful setting of the River Thames, the various uniquely structures bridges, the city skyline and St Paul's Cathedral to photograph, you also have a constant stream of people walking along with the river's edge eating and drinking outside cafés and chatting to family and friends. It really is a London street photographer's paradise.

The last time I was there with my camera, I was fortunate enough to capture a few shots that struck a nice balance between an aesthetically pleasing urban landscape image and a street photograph.

Urban landscape street photography allows the street photographer not only to focus on the people (main subjects) but also to create detailed layers in an image by incorporating the immediate surroundings, such as the walkway, the river and London's city skyline.

I will explain my process in creating these images, with the wish and hope you can use some of my techniques for your own urban street photography.

Examples

With the above photo, I noticed the girl with the red coat who was texting someone. But at the same time, there was a puddle, I saw this on the walkway. So I worked the composition quickly by moving myself so that she was towards the left of the frame and the puddle on the right. Because we are on the South Bank, I was fortunate to have the Thames River, the Millennium Bridge and city of London buildings and skyline on the other side of the river. I must confess that the guy on the right of the frame was not planned, however, I think that he adds an element of balance to the image. If this was just a simple street photo, I might have got in closer and negated the bridge and the skyline, choosing solely to focus on the texting girl and having maybe the River Thames, slightly out of focus behind her.

I managed to capture a couple texting on the opposite side of the frame. I positioned myself so that St Paul's Cathedral could be seen in the upper left corner. You will notice that there is a significant depth of field as the Millennium bridge stretches across the river. This is because I wanted to have as much focus on the location as the subjects which is my style of Urban Street Landscape Photography. I did crop this image slightly as I wanted both parties distance from the edge of the frame perfectly synchronised.

I wanted to go with a darker vibe for this image. It would never have worked had there not have been a raven on top of that gnarly looking riverside lamp. The dirty and messy, red emergency life ring housing works in harmony with the bird on the lamp. I had to quickly position myself so that the 50mm lens got both elements in the frame, quickly. Finally, I was lucky enough to capture a couple of birds in the distance, circling in the sky to add to the overall bleak ambience.

With this final shot, I used the River barrier railing as a leading line with the bridge and the people as the main subject. The railing, positioned on the right corner of the frame, naturally draws the eye into the image. I would have preferred to see a bit more going on, on the riverside, in the distance, but I am quite happy with the overall composition.

Aperture and Composition

Urban landscapes, just like landscape photography, employs the use of depth, leading lines, foreground subjects, and the main subject. Each third portion of the frame is utilised to reveal the layers of the image working as a whole.

Depth of field is important when building the composition, so an aperture of f / 8 to f /11 is essential for sharpness across the frame so that the urban landscapes look detailed and impactful.

Like I said earlier, the South Bank is perfect for Urban Landscapes including street photography as the immediate surroundings are aesthetically pleasing and the majority of the time, there are interesting subjects to include in your compositions.

The main elements of those surroundings are not difficult to incorporate.

The walkway, the river, the bridges, the buildings, and the sky.

It is simple to add a couple, or all of the elements within the Rule of Thirds, a leading line, foreground, main subject and background or any other compositional technique that you want to employ.

There is always something to photograph to get your street photography fix on the South Bank.

Go forth and create.