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Lessons I’ve learned over ten years of street photography

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I’m not a professional, but I take my street photography seriously. Because I enjoy it so much, I’ve invested a lot of time learning the craft and practicing it. I’m not great, but I’m better than I was.

This article is about the things I’ve learnt or experienced over the last 10 years. When I started out I read stuff like this and it helped me a lot. The following is what I would have told myself if I could go back in time to when I got started.

It might take you half an hour to read the whole article, but if you’ve only a couple of minutes, read the nutshell version.

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Ditch these five bad habits to become a better street photographer

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Street photography is one of the genres I personally find the most challenging. Even though I love street photos, I’ve never really managed to master this genre myself. In this video from Roman Fox, I learned why it may be so. He talks about five bad habits that can hold our street photography back, and I recognized myself in most of them. So, if you’d like to become a better street photographer, keep reading and make sure to watch the video.

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How to take street photos like Vivian Maier

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Vivian Maier is probably the biggest photographic phenomenon of 2010s. After her negatives were discovered, her immense talent was shared with the world, and there’s even a documentary about her. If you look up to her work, Frederik Trovatten has a really interesting video for you. In the very first episode of How to Take Photos Like…, he analyzes Maier’s work and tries to replicate her unique style.

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Six techniques for getting better at street photography

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It goes without saying that if you want to get better at something you have to practice. Simple, right? The thing is, that unlike more structured pursuits such as sports or music, the idea of practicing street photography seems a bit hard to wrap one’s head around. But before we get into that, we should establish the best methodology for practice in in general.

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5 pieces of street photography advice you should ignore

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Street Photographers are not known for their reserve. We are happy to give advice on gear, framing and technique. But I believe the best photographers are those who also seek advice and look to learn from others. But not all advice is equal, and some ideas are outdated, narrow minded, or just plan wrong. In this article I am going to go question some of the advice that has almost become folklore in Street Photography, and pose the question, is it time to move on?

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How I describe the world to myself to improve my street photography

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One of the best exercises for street photography I ever adopted was to focus my internal monologue into a process of constantly describing what I am seeing. I have always been introspective about the way I work, when it comes to what influences my overarching approach, what draws my eye moment to moment, and what I look for while curating.

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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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