What is Street Photography?
Street photography has been around for a long time and has some famous names attached to its practice. Eugene Atget, Walker Evans and Henri Cartier-Bresson ( the exponent of "the decisive moment") are just a few of the best know photographers who made the style famous. So What is Street Photography?, and can it be done with a mobile?
To some people this question means different things. If you are looking for a dictionary definition, Wikipedia gives a somewhat generic one : Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places.
To some people this question means different things. If you are looking for a dictionary definition, Wikipedia gives a somewhat generic one : Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places.
#36 Into Vinyl
Shot on 5th Feb 13
Shot on 5th Feb 13
Street photography crosses many disciplines ie photojournalism, documentary, editorial and portraiture. For myself, it is all of these and more, its social documentary story telling through unplanned, candid and sometimes humourous juxtaposition of individuals in their public surroundings, capturing styles and fashions, architecture and transport in the process. It is possibly one of the most misunderstood genres of photography by people who view it and judging by some of the remarks personally recieved by myself, the subjects being photographed.
Can it be done with a phone camera? Yes and no. Street photography is generally not done from a distance with long zoom lenses. True street is done using lenses upto 50mm, so you have to get in close to capture your image. In this respect phone cameras are ideal as they all have wide angle lenses. They also lend themselves to stealth image taking as most people will assume you are just using your phone. The problem comes with shutter lag and focus.
Can it be done with a phone camera? Yes and no. Street photography is generally not done from a distance with long zoom lenses. True street is done using lenses upto 50mm, so you have to get in close to capture your image. In this respect phone cameras are ideal as they all have wide angle lenses. They also lend themselves to stealth image taking as most people will assume you are just using your phone. The problem comes with shutter lag and focus.
Original shot achieved after three attempts, without edits
My day out trying the Nexus 4 for Street Photography was a bit frustrating. It is easy to get away with taking an image as you just look like you are using the phone. Its only when you lift the phone up to use like a camera and point it in someones direction that you give yourself away. The problem for me was the camera shutter lag, although good for a phone it would miss a lot of the situations I came across. Another issue is that there is no manual control on the camera function, the automatic continuous focus would jump around a lot and I would end up with quite a few out of focus shots. This will be solved when I discover a good alternative camera app for the phone.
Eventually I came across two young guys in the market at the old vinyl records stall. I thought it was great to see them there going through all the old cardoard boxes of LP's. As they were relatively stationary I stood at the stall to get all the front boxes in and held the phone (in stealth mode) as if I was dialing. It took three shots but I got the one I liked. To give it a sort of timeless look I decided to convert the image to black and white using the Snapseed App. I chose this app as it has a great black and white filter set and you can also get rid of the clean digital look by adding some film grain.
Snapseed works on global and selected area adjustments using nodal points that you add to selected areas of you image. My edit settings for the final image were as follows.
Eventually I came across two young guys in the market at the old vinyl records stall. I thought it was great to see them there going through all the old cardoard boxes of LP's. As they were relatively stationary I stood at the stall to get all the front boxes in and held the phone (in stealth mode) as if I was dialing. It took three shots but I got the one I liked. To give it a sort of timeless look I decided to convert the image to black and white using the Snapseed App. I chose this app as it has a great black and white filter set and you can also get rid of the clean digital look by adding some film grain.
Snapseed works on global and selected area adjustments using nodal points that you add to selected areas of you image. My edit settings for the final image were as follows.
- Cropped image
- Select black and white tab and set to neutral
- set grain to +10
- Selective adjust tab.... brightness node on subjects and set to +40
- Add another brightness node to boxes and set to +5
- Same node on boxes, switched to contrast and set to +40
- Details tab and set shapening to +10
- Drama tab #2 set to +25
Snapseed is available free for both Android and iPhone
Final image conversion
Street photography should be tried by all photographers as all the elements to great images are all around you and it doesn't need lots of equipment. The one thing it does take is a bit of courage. Its harder than you think to take photographs of strangers. You will possibly be confronted at times and questioned why are you taking my photograph, I have lots of times.
My advice is not to be confrontational. Explain that you are into street photography and the reason that you are taking their photograph is that you find them interesting, maybe even offer them a copy of the image. If all else fails show them that you are deleting the image, although you don't have to and are perfectly within your rights to photograph people in a public setting, at least in the UK.
I'm no legal eagle so if unsure of your rights for your country please check before going out. A quick google search will bring you to the laws of your land.
Give it a go . . . . maybe use you phone camera too.
Any questions or queries. Drop me a comment or email and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
See y'all next post.
My advice is not to be confrontational. Explain that you are into street photography and the reason that you are taking their photograph is that you find them interesting, maybe even offer them a copy of the image. If all else fails show them that you are deleting the image, although you don't have to and are perfectly within your rights to photograph people in a public setting, at least in the UK.
I'm no legal eagle so if unsure of your rights for your country please check before going out. A quick google search will bring you to the laws of your land.
Give it a go . . . . maybe use you phone camera too.
Any questions or queries. Drop me a comment or email and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
See y'all next post.