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How to optimise your camera settings for street photography to get the best exposure

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Street photography is one of the more chaotic yet fun genres of photography that many people choose to pursue. Even if it’s not something that people do regularly, it’s something that many of us do anyway when we go on vacation as just a regular part of documenting our trip. But how do we optimise our camera for this sort of shooting if we’re used to doing something more controlled, like portraits or product photography?

In this video, street photographer Frederik Trovatten talks about how he sets up his camera for shooting street photography. While he’s using the Fuji X-T3, the principles he mentions are common to many DSLR and mirrorless cameras. He also touches on shooting street photography with negative film, too.

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This video answers the most common questions on law and ethics of street photography

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Ethics and law in street photography is something that can create a lot of confusion and debate in the community. No matter how well you know the law, you’ll often come upon situations that will be new to you. Also, not everything is black and white in street photography: sometimes even lawful things can still be unethical. To help you answer the most common questions on the law and ethics in street photography, Sean Tucker has filmed yet another fantastic video. He interviewed Nick Dunmur, a member of the legal team at the Association of Photographers (AOP), who will help you deal with anything that might be baffling you.

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How to optimise your night time street photography

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Ah, the night. What a wonderful time to go out and do some street photography! As a photographer who got his start in the streets of Tokyo, it was inevitable that I would end up photographing mostly at night. To me, the city becomes its ‘true self’ when the sun sets, and the artificial lights come on and illuminate the metropolis. But let’s save my romanticism for another time.

I hope to share with you my methodology, some tips and tricks, for night street photography. First off, please don’t expect any magic tips or secrets. I keep my photographic approach pretty simple, but fundamentals used well lead to great photography!
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Ten street photography tricks to make you sneaky, but not creepy

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If you want to capture genuine, candid moments in street photography, you need to be discreet. Oftentimes, getting noticed by your subject will completely ruin the moment you wanted to photograph. So, you need some techniques to stay unnoticed, yet don’t seem like a creep. In this video, Samuel Lintaro Hopf will show you ten tricks that will keep you low-key just the right way.

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Seven habits of boring street photography

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Street Photography is hard to do well. Really hard. Even if you are great, most of your shots will not be.

The internet is filled with boring street photography. The biggest problem is people thinking any photo taken on the street is now Street Photography. There is so much more to Street Photography than that so how do you capture more in your Street Photography?

One way to strive for great Street Photography is by avoiding some of the habits of boring Street Photography.

Here are 7 of the Most Common Habits of Boring Street Photography:

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What I avoid in my street photography and how

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Photographs are as much about what is not included as the subjects in frame. Being aware of the things I avoid is as helpful to me as the things I gravitate towards when it comes to composing an image. Adding or removing elements through composition is one of the most significant parts of adding/removing/changing the context of an image. Including or choosing not to include certain things can alter a story in very serious ways, so it is always important to have ownership over those choices.

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Instantly improve your street photography by relying on these three techniques

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There are plenty of ways to grow as a photographer and improve your skills. In this video, Martin Kaninsky shares three techniques for street photographers that will help you up your game. But, I think it’s useful to have these techniques in mind no matter your preferred photography genre, so make sure to take a look.

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I’m not good at street photography – I’m just not scared

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Today I used Lightroom Mobile to capture images on the street for the first time. I recently remembered that you can sync images from Lightroom Mobile right to the Lightroom desktop application. This was huge for me as I’m tired of syncing via Airdrop… It legit takes forever to select which images you want to import.

Anyway, when syncing the images I noticed each one took about 10-20 seconds, quite long, but worth it considering the images were RAW. This also gave me a little bit of time to inspect each image. I had nothing else to do so I looked over them one by one as they dropped in. I didn’t make any changes, simply evaluated them based on quality.

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3 tips for the optimal subject distance in street photography

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Do you have to get closer to your subject? Or should you get further away? If you go by Robert Capa’s famous quote, you already have the answer:

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”

I do agree that getting closer often improves your street photos. If you don’t care about the scenery at all, it’s a pretty great rule of thumb. However, if you love a bit more context, then a bit more distance truly improves the shot.

Let me show you 3 great ways to find the right distance for your street photos.

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The Power of Repetition In Street Photography

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In order to significantly improve your street photography, repetition helps tremendously! Focus on a certain aspect and shoot it over and over again. That way, each shot gets you closer to the vision you have in mind.

Back in 2013, I set myself the challenge to do something creative with just the lower part of the body. I dedicated a few photo walks to it. Even though it was a bit challenging at first, this philosophy eventually brought my vision to life.

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