Photography News | Issue 59 | photographynews.co.uk
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Technique
Shoot wide
9 With most forms of street photography we are interested in the narrative: context is king. It is of little use, therefore, to shoot a lovely crisp headshot from down the road on a 300mm lens, when any interesting or relevant background is excluded from the composition. Who is the subject waving to? What is he laughing at? Why is she shaking her fist?We really do need to knowwhat’s going on! Look at some of the work of the great street photographers – Alex Webb is a great contemporary example – and see how they manage to get close to their subjects while incorporating enough of the background to make a visually interesting composition. They have only been able to do this by using a wide- angle lens. A wide-angle lens of between 24mm and 35mm (full-frame equivalent) will take you to the heart of the story. It will get you close to the action with a sense of involvement which will come across in the final image. If you want to capture the true emotion in a street scene you should be close enough to become a part of that scene – and then the viewer will feel part of the scene also. Prime lenses are preferable to zooms: they are smaller and therefore more discreet, lighter and faster to use – zooming takes too long and makes you a lazy composer.
Above Street photographers are unseen observers – whether from a slight distance or close-up to the heart of the story they are revealing.
Don’t obsess about gear
ABOUT STREETSNAPPERS
Left Long lenses aren’t
part of a street photographer’s armoury. This was taken on a compact digital camera.
Brian Lloyd Duckett is the founder of StreetSnappers, a business which specialises in street photography education. With a maximum of six participants, these weekly workshops take place in cities around the UK and in Lisbon, Venice and Prague, and offer a solid grounding in street photography styles, approaches and techniques. He also runs a weekend Masterclass workshop for intermediate street photographers and offers one-to- one tuition and mentoring. Brian lectures to university students and to camera clubs and his first book, Mastering Street Photography, has become a best-seller. His next book, 52 Assignments: Street Photography , will be published by Ammonite Press in October.
10 Street photography is a simple pleasure and you need very little in the way of gear to become a highly competent operator. There’s probably no other genre of photography where you’ll see some people take better pictures with an iPhone than others can with a Leica. Look at the work of some of the greats such as William
Klein, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank: they produced stunning images using basic film cameras with none of the bells and whistles we have today. Don’t be at all concerned with what kit you have. Whether it’s an old film SLR or the latest mirrorless model, you can excel at street photography with the right mindset and an eye for the moment. Let’s face it, it’s a great feeling to have the latest gear, and perhaps we gain an element of
confidence from it, but does it really make us better photographers? Probably not. So, don’t spend your money on that latest lens or even bigger sensor – instead invest in books, education and travel. Visit galleries and study the work of the great photographers; learn the theory of light and composition; experiment with an old film camera; take a workshop. All of this will help make you a better street photographer.
streetsnappers.com brian@streetsnappers.com @streetsnappers
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