What makes good street photography

Hope you don't mind my joining in...

 

Tom, do you find people interesting? Do you like watching people? Do you notice the little things people do or the way they look? If you don't then maybe you'd better consider taking other kinds of pictures. Street photographers usually share some degree of fascinataion with the human condition.

 

Most good street photography is about content; where the picture tells a story, conveys an ironic or funny situation, or elicits an emotion with which the viewer can relate; or maybe it's just a clever arrangement of elements that's open to interpretation. Very good street photography usually combines some interesting content with good composition as well. In other words, a picture may contain interesting interconnected elements that can tell a story, but the elements must also be arrnged in a manner that is pleasing to the eye.

 

That's the clinical breakdown, or at least as best as I can put it. From the practical end, just like anything else, technique is important. The best analogy I can give is sports photography. The photographer has to be able to anticipate action. You sometimes have to pre-focus. And you have to learn to be quick about it.

 

The best way to start, at least in my opinion, is to start taking mental phtotographs of everything you see that catches your eye and that you find interesting. Try to figure out how you would have liked the picture to look. While it is good advice to carry a camera around everywhere and shoot as much as you can, that's not always practical. So start by shooting everything in your mind and consider all the elements of the photo you want. For example, would that grabage truck in the background have ruined the shot? Or would that police car have added to it? Practice noticing details.

 

Aside from your brain, the most important asset you have is your feet. Move around...a lot. Check the angles, the direction of the light, the background...you can actually control these things by moving around.

 

Everyone does things differently, so take what you find useful from these comments and discard the rest.

 

Good shooting...

 

Dennis

<I>Tom, do you find people interesting? Do you like watching people? Do you notice

the little things people do or the way they look?</I><P>

 

Dennis nailed it. It's about curiosity and being fascinated with the little stuff. Also, as

Grant once said, being able to look at things/people with "innocent eyes." Difficult to

do...

I do mainly nature photography, but if I'm on the street and I see something funny/ironic like this I'll snap off a shot....<div></div>

i'll have to 3rd that "do you like watching people......" comment. I have always watched people to see how things evolve with them right then and there................now i just do it with a camera.........and at a much faster pace.......

<i>Mr. [Qualls], Thanks for correcting my spelling, that name has always confounded me. How are you adjusting to life in the big city?</i><p>

 

I've lived in Seattle (well, just moved to the 'burbs) for about twenty years now -- moved here in 1983, and after two years unemployed in north Idaho had a job in a week; haven't been unemployed for as much as two weeks at a time since (except for most of a year back in Idaho in 1985). Wouldn't move back to Idaho on a bet, though if I had a way to make a living, I wouldn't mind the small town life along the Oregon or Washington coast.<p>

 

Consider this -- I shoot mostly 120 these days. When was the last time you saw 120 film in Idaho (well, they probably have it in Boise, and likely stock a small supply at the University Bookstore in Moscow)? It was scarce enough when I was last there in 1986, and to get it processed I'd have had to mail it to Spokane, Boise, or possibly even Seattle.

What Alex Shishin wrote really works for me. Thank you sir!

Bravo Alex Shishin.