10 Great Street Photography Tips to Get You Started In 2023
It’s 2023. You want to learn Street photography but you don’t know where to start. Here are 10 tips that you can use as projects when you hit those City streets.
1. Blend in with your surroundings by dressing appropriately and avoiding standing out as a tourist.
First off, let’s make sure we are safe. Wearing brightly coloured, unusual clothing will only draw attention to yourself. Add if you are walking around with an expensive camera you really don’t want to draw attention to yourself! Also, you don’t want people to be distracted by your beauty. You want to capture your subjects as naturally is possible without distractions. Therefore dress like everybody else.
2. Use a wide-angle lens to capture the bustling city streets and the hustle and bustle of daily life.
There are many benefits to using a wide angle lens when you are out and about in the city. With so much going on, a wide angle lens can capture much more detail. This is great because it can place your subjects in a wider context within the city streets with details all around them, including buildings, cars and other people in the frame which can add a sense of story to your images. You can also get very close to a subject with a wide angle lens, such as a 28 mm lens or a 35mm lens. You can also use the wide angle lens to shoot from different perspectives, such as a low angle, emphasising the buildings and your subjects within them. You can even use the wide angle lens to emphasise the subjects face or a detail on their body such as their hands. You can also use to your advantage, the fact that wide angle lenses have greater a depth of field than telephoto lenses , which ultimately means that more elements in the frame will be in focus. Rather than just a shallow depth of field portrait, you can create a sense of story, with everything in focus, in the frame. With a greater depth of field you can capture a sense of movement in your Street photos.
3. Look for interesting light and shadows to add depth and drama to your photos.
If you are out and about on a clear, and sunny day you will find that the buildings, the transport, the shops, the structures and the people of the city will cast interesting and beautiful shadows that you can take advantage of as a street photographer. Captive somebody walking into a shaft of light, underneath a darkened bridge. Or even capture somebody walking into a shadowy tunnel that is surrounded by daylight. Take notice of how shadows change as the Sun moves at different times of the day. Somebody walking down the street, past a fence that is casting shadows on the ground may look better, earlier in the day, rather than later, or vice versa. There are endless opportunities here for the keen Street photographer.
4. Take advantage of reflections in windows and water to add an extra element to your shots
If you are looking to add complexity to your images then start practising taking shots of reflections in windows. If you time it right and capture somebody walking down the road on the opposite side of the street, whilst you are facing a window, it can look really interesting and complex. You can even take it further by making sure that the window that you are shooting through incorporates interesting item that you can frame your subject with, or even capture your subject within. During the rain or after the rain you can start to use puddles as reflections as foreground elements when shooting from a low angle. No rain, no problem! You can even use a bottle of water.
5. Try different angles, such as shooting from above or below, to add visual interest to your photos
When you are shooting from above, be it on top of some stairs, on another level, you can sometimes use the fishing technique and wait for the right person to enter the frame. I shooting from above can also emphasis patterns and shadows on the ground. And if you want to make your subjects look larger than life, people or Grand architecture, then shooting from a low angle is also a great option for the cityscape street photographer. Try shooting from the hip, pointing your camera upwards, and you will find a number of unique and interesting perspectives to show your subjects from.
6. Be patient and wait for the right moment to capture an interesting scene or interaction.
The fishing technique is a tried and tested Street photography method that has been made famous by the greatest Street photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson. It’s simply involves yourself searching out for that composition that you know is going to work. Such as somebody walking into a shaft of light, or a bike coming round a corner, or somebody holding an umbrella in front of a large bill poster with rain on it. So you need to set yourself up add Wait for that right person to enter the frame at the right time. It requires patience, concentration and perseverance. But when it pays off, it really pays off!
7. Look for patterns and repetition in the architecture and design of the city.
This can be achieved when shooting from a high vantage point, looking down on people and structures. You can also find patterns and repetitions to shoot on Bill posters, textured walls, Street lamps, inside churches, subways, and pretty much anywhere if your eye is keen enough to find them. Like with all of these tips, you could spend the whole day finding interesting patterns and repetitions within the city streets and on the city buildings.
8. Take photos of people doing everyday activities to capture the essence of city life.
When doing Street photography in the city, there are stories to be found everywhere. The street cleaners, the office workers walking down the street on the phone, the couples holding hands, the little dog with the raincoat on, the sunbathers in the park, the security guards looking angry, the window shoppers, etc, etc, etc…
9. Use the rule of thirds to composition your shots and add visual interest.
If you are just starting out with your photography hobby then using the rule of thirds to frame your compositions is a great place to start. When you place your subject along one of the lines or at one of the intersections on either the right side or the left side, you can create a sense of tension and balance in your images, and the viewer's eye is naturally drawn to the subject. Having your subjects on one cornered intersection at the right or the left will look good in the frame and is pleasing to the eye. Try separating your foreground, such as the street, the buildings, and the sky on each third portion of the rule of thirds, whilst having your subject on an intersection, and keep practising until it becomes second nature to you
10. Experiment with different camera settings, such as aperture, shutter speed, to capture different effects in your photos.
Try opening up your lens to the widest aperture for some interesting, soft focus Street photography. Or close the aperture down slightly four some Street portraits, which always require confidence when you are in the city. Instead of using a fast shutter speed to Capture your subjects, use a slow shutter speed for some unique, blurry, ghostly shots of your subject walking down the street, or standing buy a lamp post having a cigarette. If you are shooting at night, then opening up your aperture, and slowing down your shutter speed becomes the basis for all of your night Street photography. So during the day, playing around with these settings, becomes the best time to experiment.
Try out these awesome tips today and keep on practising until you master them. It’s the only way to get good at Street photography.
Go forth and create.