Category Archives: streetphotography

How to Shoot Street According to The Admins of The Hardcore Street Photography Group

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tulisan ini saya copy dari ditzky’ MP

Ludmilla Morais:

  1. Make sure to walk at least a couple of times back and forth in the area you are going to photograph, to learn as much as you can about it, ’specially about the light condition and people’s traffic; trust me, if you are not much of a post-processing photographer, those factors will really become handy.
  2. Learn how to channel your energy toward the work you are going to develop. The bad and the good can be well applied, and the results may come out better than you expected.
  3. Look at photography books as much as you can – educate your eye, research, but don’t become a copycat. Using someone else’s work and technique as a font of inspiration is good; trying to emulate their work is horrible.
  4. If you like to shoot with friends, learn how to give space, and make sure they know how to do the same.
  5. Your camera has to become an extension of your body – it won’t bite you – don’t carry it around as if it was a 9mm.
  6. Listen to what’s going on around you. By tone of voice, you will be able to perceive the amount of emotion in people’s conversation – emotions that most likely will be followed by great body language, and voilà! You got a good shot!
  7. Be content with your photographs, but don’t rest on you laurels; the next shot will always be better. Persistence is the key.
  8. Be cheeky. Get in people’s faces when required, but always keep in mind that not everyone will be receptive to your enterprise. Don’t allow insults to bum you out.
  9. Be cordial and excuse yourself when needed, and sometimes when not needed, too.
  10. Be innovative and adventurous. Inhale, exhale, and be proud of yourself for doing something you are passionate about.
  11. Share opinions, critiques, and points of view with a close friend, but go mostly with your heart. Critics are good to purify your taste, but cannot be transformed into your only lead.

James Wendell:

  1. Patience is key.
  2. If you find an interesting background/scene, hang out for a while. Something or someone might turn up and make a possible image into an actual image.
  3. Wait for life to unfold in front of you.
  4. Move your body, not your zoom lens. By getting in close to your scene or subject, you’re going to have more intimacy with the moment.
  5. The picture should be in your head before it’s in your camera.
  6. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Edit, edit, edit, down to one.
  7. Don’t be afraid to shoot from the hip, i.e., chest, eye level, or above your head. I say afraid because people tend to think this technique is a cop-out. While I don’t recommend beginners using it, or anyone relying on it too heavily, I think for the advanced shooter it can be the ultimate Zen way of shooting. If you know your lens’ angle of view, I think this technique can free you up to experiment with different angles that you might not find when the camera is held up to your eye.
  8. Listen to Radiohead. (But I dont recommend it :p -dit)

Ben Roberts:

  1. Hold your camera so that it is ready to shoot straight away. I adjusted my camera strap so that it loops round my wrist. My camera is always in-hand, and the loop around my wrist keeps it from being dropped or stolen.
  2. Look for interesting situations, and be brave. Lots of people’s backs makes for a dull photograph.
  3. Look for stories and locations on your doorstep. Get to know an area, and visualize how you could get the best shot out of a location. Keep on going there until you get that shot.
  4. The sun is your studio. When you wake up in the morning, look at your ceiling and see if you can work out what kind of day it is. Learn how different qualities of light (intensity, angle) affect the surfaces in an image. Learn how to use a light meter, and put what you learn into practice on the street. Find out what happens to an image when you expose for the highlights or shadows.
  5. If you think you have found your comfort zone, step out of it. It will always be there as a safety net.
  6. Find some people who you know and trust, and whose opinions you respect. Get them to critique your work every so often – it can give you a fresh impetus to go out shooting, and also help you to think differently about how you are making photographs.
  7. Don’t go shooting in packs: Meet up with friends, sure, but go shooting alone and then meet up again later.
  8. A photograph of some graffiti is not street photography. It’s a photograph of some graffiti.
  9. If you go to a street carnival, get there an hour or more before everyone else. There’ll be more interesting photographs. Often the best photographs can be found on the margins of big events.
  10. Make sure you wear good underwear. When you’re out on the street for a long time, your chances of getting run over by a bus increase. Wear good underwear in case this happens.
  11. Find a girlfriend who understands or shares your passion. By “understand,” I mean she doesn’t mind you not being around, and doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to your cameras. (If you have a girlfriend like this, I hate you.)

taken from JPGMag Issue 9: Street
the copy can be downloaded here (12,4Mb)