Introduction to street portrait photography

Lead: What details should we pay attention to in street portrait photography? Photographer Ming Thein explained the shooting skills of street portrait photography in his blog and how to avoid invading other people's private space during shooting. In fact, as long as you play basic etiquette and empathy well, coupled with a relaxed and natural smile, I believe you will be able to shoot vivid and interesting street stories. Street portrait photography is actually not difficult!

There are many methods of street portrait photography. General photographers think that street shooting may take a long lens, take a sneak shot, or adjust the aperture of the lens to F8.0, and then aim the flash at the other person's nose. It seems that this is the real street portrait photography.

If forced and tough methods are used to shoot portraits in the street, it will definitely make the subjects feel uncomfortable and their private space will be violated. In fact, we have another way to take street portrait photography in a less aggressive way. First of all, we can prepare a wide-angle lens with a focal length less than 35mm. The advantage of using a wide-angle lens is a wide field of vision, which can be used in blind shot. When composing a composition, we can probably grasp an angle and not shoot through the viewfinder, thus reducing the aggression of picking up the lens at others.

However, this method requires a lot of practice, such as manual focus prediction, or prediction of composition frame and level, which is much more difficult than picking up a camera to compose a picture. Therefore, many street photographers are more inclined to choose the traditional focus shooting.

If you want to shoot a good street portrait, you should try to avoid threatening and scaring the subject. If the subject is unhappy, the photo will definitely show an unhappy atmosphere. If the subject notices your existence or gives you a serious and impatient expression or look, then we can try to respond with a relaxed and happy smile, which will not only resolve this embarrassment, but also have more opportunities to take more vivid and interesting photos.

Photography course

Finally, even if we randomly photograph pedestrians on the street as tourists, or record their movements and expressions, street portrait photography must abide by the following norms.

Don't use a tripod: in public, using a tripod may hinder pedestrians on the road or be regarded as a photographer who takes commercial images, so in most cases, it is not recommended to use a tripod.

Places where photography is forbidden: In some private places, warning signs prohibiting photography will be posted, so put away the camera and don't violate the rules.

Don't use them for commercial purposes: Please don't use these street portraits for commercial, marketing and profit-making purposes.

Don't take photos in sensitive areas: avoid taking photos in politically sensitive areas or near state organs, police stations and military bases.

Photographer Ming Thein believes that before taking pictures in the street, you must seriously think about what good and friendly public manners are, and those topics are not worth taking risks. On the one hand, keep a friendly attitude and politeness, and maybe you will find that street portrait photography is not as difficult as we thought.