Tips for Capturing Lovely Street Portraits

Street Photography is one of the most interesting genres of photography, exciting and at the same time challenging. In street photography, photographers are able to interact with the environment and blend with the crowd as they shoot away. One part of Street Photography is capturing photos of people who are part of the environment you’re shooting. This is called Street Portraiture.

Capturing Street Portraits is a fun and interesting thing to do. Capturing raw emotions of people is one of the best parts of taking Street Portraits. But taking Street Portraits has its own challenges too. In this article you will learn how to overcome these challenges that will surely help you achieve great Street Portraits.

Planning

Before you go and take Street Portraits at any location, it is always best to plan everything ahead of time. If you are doing it for the first time it’s best that you go with group of friends or a group of photographers. If you’re planning to take Street Portraits some place you haven’t been before, do not forget to research the place beforehand. Try checking the Internet for information about the place or location of your shoot. Look for images and specific spots that might be of interest to you. Take note of interesting places and spots so you can use them as backgrounds for your Street Portraits.

Prepare a checklist of things to bring, spots to check out, and other important stuff that you don’t want to forget on the day of your shoot. If there’s an event happening on your planned day of shooting, make sure you arrive at the location as early as possible, so you will have more time to take photos of the place and people who will participate in the event.

When you think you have everything ironed out and prepared, you are ready to take lots and lots of great Street Portraits.

Shoot Day

More challenges will arise as you arrive on your shoot location. One challenge would be approaching people and asking them for a pose or asking for permission to take a photo of them. When approaching people,be polite, try not to be aggressive and don’t forget to smile. Explain to them why you want to have their pictures taken. If they don’t want to have their photos taken stay polite, say thank you, walk away and ask other people. If they let you take a photo of them be thankful and shoot away. Don’t forget to ask them if they want to have copies of their Street Portraits when you’re done shooting. Communicating with your subject is an important part of taking street portraits.  If you found interesting spots during your research, you may ask your subject to go to that spot and use it as background for your street portraits.

Some photographers prefer to take candid shots. When taking candid shots it is advisable to use fast lenses, such as 50 mm f 1.4, 1.8 or 85mm to avoid having blurry photos. Another important thing to remember when taking candid Street Portraits is never to use flash. The main goal in taking candid Street Portraits is not to get noticed by your subject.

Here are some of the best Street Portraits I’ve seen online.


Photo by: Sebastian Kobs


Photo by: Nwardez


Photo by: Ivan Constantin


Photo by: drburtoni


Photo by: BBluesman

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