Student needs help with colour street photography

Hello!

I was just wondering if there is anyone here that could help me with

an assignment. I need to find some examples of colour street

documentary photographs. Does anyone here know of any big names in

colour documentaries? I would also appreciate if you could give me a

few tips on colour street photography (film speed, ideal light

conditions and camera setting, etc) Thank you very much!

Steve McCurry is a good start, especially since his books are readily available. Or just pick up a National Geographic; color documentaries galore.

"Film speed, ideal light conditions and camera setting" are a matter of style. Personally I use Fujichrome (really!) and meter manually. I like all types of light; it is simply a matter of finding a subject that agrees with it.

bruce davidson's subway shots might be of interest and

martin parr's would still be street/documentary though probably not

in the classical sense. david alan harvey's recent book: divided soul

is great also.

as for tips/techniques...i say just start shooting, be patient, act natural, remember that it's legal to shoot in most public places.

the mental thing/fear is probably the most difficult part for most people. start with a 50/35mm lens and smile:O)

Try the work of Raghubir Singh. Or Alex Webb. Here on photo.net, look for Rob Appleby, Brad Evans, and grant, all doing street photography.

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Some photographers known for their black and white street photography also do/did color work, for example, Bravo did color that's worth finding.

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Even I do it sometimes.<p>

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<img src="http://www.spirer.com/images/culture.jpg"><br><i>Two Cultures, Copyright 2003 Jeff Spirer</i></center>

Hi Rami,

I'm a street photographer and let's see what I can do for you.

I use Leicas and other rangefinder cameras. I do so mostly because

they are light and quiet. I tend to prefer wide angle lenses. But

this means shooting people up close. My favorite is the 35mm lens.

It is not too wide but has excellent depth of field, which is

important when you pre-focusing or scale focusing--often necessary

for fast action. But I also like distance sometimes, for which 50mm,

90mm 105mm are great. I'll talk about shooting techiques a little

more later.

You don't need a Leica or even a rangefinder camera. You can use an

SLR. Two things I'll recommend if you do. Don't use auto-focus and

don't use zooms. Auto-focus is not as fast as scale focusing and not

a discriminating as your eye. Zooms are too slow in framing and

focusing and usually do not have depth of field scales.

If there are two lenses you ought to have they are a 35 and a 50.

One is medium wide angle and the other is actually short telephoto.

With these you can do a lot by moving forward and backward.

Lightness, agility are necessary in street photography.

I use color 800 negative film for 95% of my shootings. In bright

light it is slow enough that you can stop down and speed up without

washouts. In subdued light it has an extra kick over ISO 400 whereby

you can open up the lens and still shoot at a reasonably fast speed.

Before going on, you need to know that "street photography" is

somewhat of a misnomer. You should call it candid photography. It

means that you are not posing people but shooting them in the "wild."

Often I shoot blind as in the photo below. You do this by guessing

the distance and stopping down, letting depth of field make up for

small error. I shot the picture below with a 20/4. Shooting blind

means framing the picture in your mind rather than in the viewfinder.

It takes some practise. Don't shoot blind unless it is absolutely

necessary.

Usually you are trying to shoot unobserved by your subject. This

means you are being a little bit like a thief. You need to consider

why you are photographing a person you don't know. Unless there is a

compelling reason don't shoot people in obviously embarrassing

situations--I think you know what I mean.

Lighting is all situational and you need to be prepared to shoot in

very bright to very low light environments. There are problems in

both and ways of getting around them.

Street photography (or candid photography) is story telling. You

need to understand people in order to tell stories about them. Read.

Especially literature.

A candid photograph needs to be a good story told. Your photograph

may be technically perfect but if it does not have a strong sense of

story is fails. I think that the shot below shows this. Technically

is acceptable. But I don't think it tells much of a story. It seems

to me just an okay but not great photograph. But maybe you see

something I don"t.

Okay, that's enough. Go out and shoot. And enjoy.<div></div>

Hi again!

Wow! Thanks for all the great help! First of all let me say im sorry, I feel my questions were too vague and I didn�t shed enough light on my equipment. I use a pentax p30 with a 28-80mm lens. I am in my second year of college photography and I have done many projects on street photography but never in colour, only with tmax 3200 film, as I tend to shoot more night life. If I may ask a few questions, that would be great! I need to know a brand of fast colour film to use that is versatile in indoors and outdoor situations that wouldn�t be too grainy and is available in England. Again thank you so much with providing the names of photographers for me to research it has been extremely helpful!

<i> um, i dont see a story in that one </i><p>

They're trying to ignore the guy 2 feet away with the camera.

Rami,

Try NPZ and rate it at ISO 640.

Happy Trails...

Rami: Try Fuji Venus ISO 800 color film. A man for all seasons. Also, get a Pentax 50/4 or 50/1.4 lens. They're cheap.

Naw, definately no story in my photo. Unless they are waiting for Godot.

I do a fair bit of candid photography and find that 400 film is pretty much a minimum. It's mostly due to the fact that I'm shooting in a city so it's rare that my subject is in direct sunlight. I suppose 800 would work too and if you're used to grain from 3200 bw then it really wouldn't be a problem. Anyway, it's the subject, and like Alex said, the story that's in the photo that is important.

I guess this is kind of changing the topic, but it fits so here it goes...

I enjoy candid/street photography (to be honest I just dislike posed photos) and at the moment I'm using an Elan 7 and a 28-105 f/3.5-4.5. I've been pretty happy with it, but I'm looking for a faster lens for available light and more blurred backgrounds. There is of course the 50mm standard lens, but I find myself using the longer range of my zoom more than the wideangle and wondered what people thought of an 85mm lens for street photography.