I use a wheelchair, I can see both sides of this issue. I despise being stared at, let alone photographed. It’s incredibly rude and invasive. If someone took a photo of me on the street I would really appreciate being approached afterward (once you’ve got your candid shot) and introduced. I won’t mind if you’re a professional or just snapping with phone, just let me know you felt compelled to take my photo. Then show me the photo/s. I would think that I would be really lenient if I didn’t like how I looked to let them keep the photo. It would have to be a really bad shot of myself to ask you to delete it. From the other perspective, the above makes me hesitant to take candid photos of people as the *focus* because I’m too shy to approach them to introduce myself. So thus far I have simply not taken the photo. So I do please urge people to be mindful of the differently-abled. Many of us already feel exposed and self conscious without even having our photo taken 😊
Really good ideas here, even if I was familiar with some I appreciated your clear and concise presentation, and especially your twist on fishing. I practice mobile phone photography for now and never even considered bringing my backup phone to use as a prop until now! I will definitely be doing that tomorrow while I also look for "parts" of people too. Great video, really helpful!
Me, being invisible, taking a photo of a stranger using an SLR... CLICKACLUCK "Did you take a photo of me? Please delete the photo" "I can't madam, it's an analog camera" I need something less... loud haha
There is no way a picture needs to look, or shouldn’t look. If you are too afraid to shoot in a certain style, that’s ok but it doesn’t make people who do wrong or an annoyance.
Love the cellphone trick. How easy it would be to photography people with a cell phone, and they won't even know it. A camera sticks out now that people have migrated to the cellphone. So many people are engaged with their phone while walking, eating, conversing that they don't even see another person's cellphone. So easy to fake thumbing through messages, Facebook or anything for that matter. Just setup the phone and at the right moment, make contact with the screen. I've done it in casinos where it's frowned on. Privacy, you know. Yet they are being watched by all those cameras on the ceiling.
it's rare for me to see people taking pictures with actual cameras these days. i assume you would get better, sharper images with a camera though over a cell phone camera.
Really helpful video, I’m very nervous of shooting pics of people, I had a nasty confrontation years ago with someone who got in my face, the subject was under a fishing umbrella beside a lake and all you could see were his feet and lower (bejeaned) legs but it just gave a bit of life and atmosphere to a lake scene, someone off to the side fishing. The man spotted me with my camera, (I’m a 5’1 9 stone woman) stormed over right into my personal space shouting “You’d better not have filmed me”! I wasn’t even pointing his his way at the time but there was a lot of mouthing off and swearing from him and it put me off for life. Should’ve watched something like this first. I might have another try 😉
Next time this happens, you might apologize for upsetting him, explain that the photo shows only his his feet and clothed legs, offer to show him the photo, and offer to delete it if you don't really need it.
@@yeohi I hadn’t even taken the shot but I explained to him that if I had that’s all it would have shown, he still carried on ranting, he was clearly having a bad day and wanted to big himself up (that never works he made himself look small) by bullying someone.
Good art is often controversial. Playing it safe is better for the photographers sanity imo. It's why people like Gilden are so well respected. He's abrasive but the outcome is spectacular. Better than anything you or I will ever be able to do. And he just keeps doing it even though there is friction, danger and ethical questions involved. You have to have something off with you to continue shooting in that way, but it's also what makes it beautiful.
Exactly!! These predator type photographers are a sad example of our eroding culture, where common decency has been tossed aside and replaced with the childish selfish desire to just take what one wants, regardless of how it affects others.
Bin hin- und hergerissen bei dem Thema. Ja, man soll Rücksicht nehmen auf seine Mitmenschen. Und gerade in Deutschland gibt es genug andere Gründe gegen Street Photography. In dem Kontext schon auffällig, dass gerade deutsche Street-Fotografen auf UA-cam Videos posten über Unauffälligkeit auf der Street. Aber irgendwie hat Capra für mich mit seiner Aussage immer noch recht. Am spannendsten finde ich einfach die intensiven Close-Ups. Auch wenn ich selbst mich nicht trauen würde, so zu fotografieren. Und du dafür Städte wie New York, London, Rom oder asiatische Großstädte brauchst.
The Phone idea isn't that bad. Most cameras use there one App to connect with your Phone such as my Panasonic Lumix. With this possebility you can also compose your frame and shoot it with your Phone.
Gute Idee mit dem Smartphone. Ich schaue oft vor oder nach der Aufnahme bewusst an der fotografierten Person vorbei. So denkt derjenige ich hätte etwas ganz anderes fotografiert. Funktioniert fast immer.
I find that a lot of youtube is street photographers in new york and new york seems like the kind of place that a pushy in your face photographer wouldn't feel out of place but in the relatively small city i live in, in the UK acting this way is most probably going to cause conflict
Wow. I'm already doing all of these. I do the cell phone trick a lot. There's been a few times when I've taken a photo with someone walking towards me and they apologize for ruining my shot. I always tell them they made it better. Something I've done at a restaurant was set my camera on the table and placed the salt shaker just in front of it to have something in the foreground up close. It was out of focus but you could tell what it was. You could see the edge of the table as well. Then I waited for people to walk by the window. I got some good shots doing that. I usual have my camera strap across my body. The Cabrera will hang down my left side but the strap will go around my neck on my right side. Kind of hope some women carry they purse. That way I can hold the camera in either portrait or landscape orientation. I use a 28mm on a full frame. I'm starting to get good at pointing the camera with it hanging down in front of my belly and getting things in the frame. People may notice you with a camera but if you're not holding it up to your face they don't know you're taking a picture of them. I use zone focus so I don't have to use the auto focus. If I want to use a shallow depth of field to get some background blur I'll pre-focus on a spot and wait for someone to walking into that spot. That's a little harder to do sometimes. Another way you can hide is to stand behind the corner with your camera ready and peek around the corner to see when someone is coming and wait for them to get in the right spot.
@@xxxxz4862 that's a bit funny because my best lens is a doublet refractor with a 128mm aperture, if I know I'm going to be a specific distance I use it, I built it for astrophotography but it works great for seeing someone's pores from a km away. Otherwise i use a sigma 28-80mm and a random 200-800mm my brother grabbed on Amazon.
My only problem with street photography is that I live in a "Second-grade" city in China and being a white foreigner with bleached hair I have no way to morph in, they would be so intrigued that they'll even ask pictures with myself haha
The closer you get the less context you get also. So this is only relevant for non-layered single subject scenes like portraits. I typically do not like images that are just some person surrounded in bokeh or abstract colour, so the get closer advice is useless to me. 😂
I don't do street photography for the exact reasons you mentioned. Is there a size limit to the lens we should have? I wouldn't want someone putting a telephoto in my face lol, but would it work if I am standing several meters away?
The amount of ego people have these days is insane. You are not a brand. You are a human being on the street with other human beings. While someone being aggressive and in your face with a camera (think Bruce Gilden) is a pretty crappy thing to be doing generally, taking photographs of people in a public place has been the accepted norm for almost two centuries now. Not to mention the millions of cameras you are captured by every day as part of the surveillance state we know live in. Having a stranger want to photograph you used to be a compliment. Someone found your existence interesting. They thought you were pretty or found what you were wearing or your face worth documenting. People need to get over themselves.
@@streetphotographyguyonly with fine art photography isn’t entirely banal i’ll be honest, photographs of most things just capture something for the person who took it, they look nice may portray special/interesting moments in lives and in nature, but it’s still banal if you get to it, fine art is different, but still the banality kind of makes it beautiful because there is imo not like this purpose to it, it’s just a capture of what you saw and loved or found interesting and it may look beautiful to many, doesn’t lessen it’s worth.
I don't mind putting the camera up to my eye and using the viewfinder to shoot strangers. I'm one of those "It's my right to photograph in public" assholes. But if I'm using an 18mm I recognize that I have to be too close. In this case, if I want to get really close I just have my camera around my neck sitting high on my chest and I shoot by pressing the button in the app. It looks like I'm using my phone but I'm actually being sneaky haha.
It's actually not so complicated. We are allowed to use our eyes. And therefore can go home and create a painting or whatever, from what we saw. Ergo, we photograph everything we see with our eyes. So basically you can use it in court, in the country that tries to sue your photography. But I hate humans in my frame. I don't want such destructive evil on my photos. You should also move away from the cliché. Use the animals instead.
There's a big difference between recreating something from memory with your hands and capturing the scene with a device as is. That's why courtroom drawings are even a thing for example. Because humans are unreliable both in terms of memory and their ability to reproduce perfectly
You hate humans in your photos. You think humans are destructively evil. Since you're viewing a street photography video, I suspect you're being sarcastic and can't be serious.
I mean Bruce Gilden is a fantastic photographer and created a outstanding body of work but was it worth it to act so overly agressive like he is doing in some videos from NYC? I don´t think so, but that´s a very controversial topic among Street Photographers, i know...
I’m so tired of this style too, I find it lacking in any kind of emotional content: It’s not intimate, nor is in confrontational. I think it’s more interesting if it’s just about the light (a random silhouette doesn’t even need to be in the frame). However, I know lots of people who love it, so each to their own.. but for me it’s quite shallow and doesn’t hold my interest for more than half a second (at most).
You are totally right, but you have to consider I am doing Street Photography in a quite restricted, in regards to the law, country. In the US oder in Asia I shoot completely different. Many people are quite sensitive here when they see a photographer pointing at them...so when you find this style tiring or boring, I am totally with you. But the thing is, you need to adapt your style to the local situation...during Oktoberfest, or political rallies here in Munich it´s not so much of a problem, but on "normal days", it´s a bit different...
@@streetphotographyguy I hope you don't think I'm bashing your photography too much with my comment, now I read it back to myself it's a bit too negative towards someone who has made a nice video that has the sole aim of helping people. I'm still quite new to photography and found it a good watch (and the photos themselves are technically very proficient, I want to add). Thanks for your reply. I'm lucky enough to live in Asia, but when I visit my home country of England, street photography becomes much more challenging, so I can imagine that in Germany, your challenge is even greater. Respect.
@@alexlee3227 I didn't mean to criticize this kind of photo. I shoot them too. I meant to question whether getting these shots makes someone (including me) an "artist". I'm just tired of street photographers calling themselves artists.
if nobody on the streets doesn't want they're photo taken in public they should write a letter to every street camera in the city and every business that watches them when they enter a store to not take a photo or video of them...ridiculous that people dont understand nothing is off limits when in the publics view 🙄 its 2024.
Difference is all those photos aren't stored on some random person's harddrive who doesn't have to follow any data protection laws, or who even publishes them
Dont be agressive, be bold. Big difference.
I use a wheelchair, I can see both sides of this issue.
I despise being stared at, let alone photographed. It’s incredibly rude and invasive. If someone took a photo of me on the street I would really appreciate being approached afterward (once you’ve got your candid shot) and introduced. I won’t mind if you’re a professional or just snapping with phone, just let me know you felt compelled to take my photo. Then show me the photo/s. I would think that I would be really lenient if I didn’t like how I looked to let them keep the photo. It would have to be a really bad shot of myself to ask you to delete it.
From the other perspective, the above makes me hesitant to take candid photos of people as the *focus* because I’m too shy to approach them to introduce myself. So thus far I have simply not taken the photo.
So I do please urge people to be mindful of the differently-abled. Many of us already feel exposed and self conscious without even having our photo taken 😊
It's worth noting the rest of that Capa quote.....'and like the people you photograph'
I don't think Capa, as a war photographer, liked all the people he photographed.
Besonders in Deutschland ist es immer besonders schwierig "Street Photography" zu machen. Sehr gutes Video, ebenso das folgend vorgeschlagene von dir.
Really good ideas here, even if I was familiar with some I appreciated your clear and concise presentation, and especially your twist on fishing. I practice mobile phone photography for now and never even considered bringing my backup phone to use as a prop until now! I will definitely be doing that tomorrow while I also look for "parts" of people too. Great video, really helpful!
Me, being invisible, taking a photo of a stranger using an SLR...
CLICKACLUCK
"Did you take a photo of me? Please delete the photo" "I can't madam, it's an analog camera"
I need something less... loud haha
Olympus XA 😊
Rangefinder baby! I usually dont enjoy them but they really are ideal for street
My DSLR has a quiet shutter setting but it does affect the photo quality to some extent.
@@drewmorrison I don't think my 1970 film camera has a silent shutter setting
@@gamebuster800 70s camera? it is a box with a cloth on it? and you need to put the photo in some chemicals to reveal it? lol
The photo of the dog and legs @6:55 is perfection!
@@HughRaine Thank you so much! This was a beautiful encounter last year in Brooklyn
There is no way a picture needs to look, or shouldn’t look. If you are too afraid to shoot in a certain style, that’s ok but it doesn’t make people who do wrong or an annoyance.
Thanks for the video. I’m interested in street photography and I’m autistic, so this kind of breakdown of seemingly simple advice is very helpful!
Do minimalistic stuff bro, that way u keep ur distance and don't get to close if u doesn't want to
Great tips, thanks!!
Great video. Thank you very much.
Love the cellphone trick. How easy it would be to photography people with a cell phone, and they won't even know it. A camera sticks out now that people have migrated to the cellphone. So many people are engaged with their phone while walking, eating, conversing that they don't even see another person's cellphone. So easy to fake thumbing through messages, Facebook or anything for that matter. Just setup the phone and at the right moment, make contact with the screen. I've done it in casinos where it's frowned on. Privacy, you know. Yet they are being watched by all those cameras on the ceiling.
it's rare for me to see people taking pictures with actual cameras these days. i assume you would get better, sharper images with a camera though over a cell phone camera.
Really helpful video, I’m very nervous of shooting pics of people, I had a nasty confrontation years ago with someone who got in my face, the subject was under a fishing umbrella beside a lake and all you could see were his feet and lower (bejeaned) legs but it just gave a bit of life and atmosphere to a lake scene, someone off to the side fishing. The man spotted me with my camera, (I’m a 5’1 9 stone woman) stormed over right into my personal space shouting “You’d better not have filmed me”! I wasn’t even pointing his his way at the time but there was a lot of mouthing off and swearing from him and it put me off for life.
Should’ve watched something like this first. I might have another try 😉
Next time this happens, you might apologize for upsetting him, explain that the photo shows only his his feet and clothed legs, offer to show him the photo, and offer to delete it if you don't really need it.
@@yeohi I hadn’t even taken the shot but I explained to him that if I had that’s all it would have shown, he still carried on ranting, he was clearly having a bad day and wanted to big himself up (that never works he made himself look small) by bullying someone.
Thanks for useful tops
Good art is often controversial. Playing it safe is better for the photographers sanity imo. It's why people like Gilden are so well respected. He's abrasive but the outcome is spectacular. Better than anything you or I will ever be able to do. And he just keeps doing it even though there is friction, danger and ethical questions involved. You have to have something off with you to continue shooting in that way, but it's also what makes it beautiful.
100% agree! Gilden´s work is and always will be outstanding, no matter what.
It's not "beautiful ". It is obtrusive and bizarre.
Respected? It is tripe..
Exactly!! These predator type photographers are a sad example of our eroding culture, where common decency has been tossed aside and replaced with the childish selfish desire to just take what one wants, regardless of how it affects others.
Auf den Punkt gebracht. Guter Beitrag. Danke dafür
my friend such a good video full of advice...Really love the phone trick, I have never thought about it
Bin hin- und hergerissen bei dem Thema. Ja, man soll Rücksicht nehmen auf seine Mitmenschen. Und gerade in Deutschland gibt es genug andere Gründe gegen Street Photography. In dem Kontext schon auffällig, dass gerade deutsche Street-Fotografen auf UA-cam Videos posten über Unauffälligkeit auf der Street.
Aber irgendwie hat Capra für mich mit seiner Aussage immer noch recht. Am spannendsten finde ich einfach die intensiven Close-Ups. Auch wenn ich selbst mich nicht trauen würde, so zu fotografieren. Und du dafür Städte wie New York, London, Rom oder asiatische Großstädte brauchst.
In Deutschland wär das wahrscheinlich auch ziemlich schwierig umzusetzen, ohne dass die Polizei gerufen wird oder man eine auf den Deckel bekommt
These are very well-thought-out strategies for practicing the craft of street photography; thank you.👌
Ottimo video grazie!
I do the smartphone thing all the time! Haha
And when someone spots me, I look at them and throw them a smile.
Great approach! Thanks for your feedback Stephan
The Phone idea isn't that bad. Most cameras use there one App to connect with your Phone such as my Panasonic Lumix. With this possebility you can also compose your frame and shoot it with your Phone.
I zone focus and never look at a screen or put the camera up to my eye...
Gute Idee mit dem Smartphone. Ich schaue oft vor oder nach der Aufnahme bewusst an der fotografierten Person vorbei. So denkt derjenige ich hätte etwas ganz anderes fotografiert. Funktioniert fast immer.
Das ist auch super, stimmt!
I find that a lot of youtube is street photographers in new york and new york seems like the kind of place that a pushy in your face photographer wouldn't feel out of place but in the relatively small city i live in, in the UK acting this way is most probably going to cause conflict
Wow. I'm already doing all of these. I do the cell phone trick a lot. There's been a few times when I've taken a photo with someone walking towards me and they apologize for ruining my shot. I always tell them they made it better. Something I've done at a restaurant was set my camera on the table and placed the salt shaker just in front of it to have something in the foreground up close. It was out of focus but you could tell what it was. You could see the edge of the table as well. Then I waited for people to walk by the window. I got some good shots doing that. I usual have my camera strap across my body. The Cabrera will hang down my left side but the strap will go around my neck on my right side. Kind of hope some women carry they purse. That way I can hold the camera in either portrait or landscape orientation. I use a 28mm on a full frame. I'm starting to get good at pointing the camera with it hanging down in front of my belly and getting things in the frame. People may notice you with a camera but if you're not holding it up to your face they don't know you're taking a picture of them. I use zone focus so I don't have to use the auto focus. If I want to use a shallow depth of field to get some background blur I'll pre-focus on a spot and wait for someone to walking into that spot. That's a little harder to do sometimes. Another way you can hide is to stand behind the corner with your camera ready and peek around the corner to see when someone is coming and wait for them to get in the right spot.
*smiles in telephoto*
I can't make out the photog that he is referencing at around 6:30.?
I saw your video on my laptop, liked and subscribed to your channel on my mobile phone. ❤
Which Ernst Haas book are you referring to or which one do you recommend please. Thanks
Very good video!
The shot at 0:35 is wonderful!
Thank you for your kind feedback🙏
What is the name of the book you talk about st 6:25?
Hi! It´s Ernst Haas - Color Correction - 100%recommended, a wonderful book!
All good points for street photography ...
Thank you for the useful advice ❤
Robert Kappa died chasing that “not close enough” meme btw. Got blown up like a 🤡
my day only ends up bad when somebody sneaks a photo of me and I notice, if your going to be a creep at least be a good one.
Distance and a telephoto lens go a long way.
This is the best way to do it, but the gatekeepers will bvtch and say to do it with a prime lens.
@@xxxxz4862 that's a bit funny because my best lens is a doublet refractor with a 128mm aperture, if I know I'm going to be a specific distance I use it, I built it for astrophotography but it works great for seeing someone's pores from a km away. Otherwise i use a sigma 28-80mm and a random 200-800mm my brother grabbed on Amazon.
These are quite good, thank you! I always look forward to your videos.
Thank you so much Kary, so happy to read!
My only problem with street photography is that I live in a "Second-grade" city in China and being a white foreigner with bleached hair I have no way to morph in, they would be so intrigued that they'll even ask pictures with myself haha
The closer you get the less context you get also. So this is only relevant for non-layered single subject scenes like portraits. I typically do not like images that are just some person surrounded in bokeh or abstract colour, so the get closer advice is useless to me. 😂
Can I interest you in wide angle lenses?
I hope this video is helpful! If you need more Street Photography tips, just check out this playlist: ua-cam.com/video/S1yEOQVnLYU/v-deo.html
My best tip: Don't.
I don't do street photography for the exact reasons you mentioned. Is there a size limit to the lens we should have? I wouldn't want someone putting a telephoto in my face lol, but would it work if I am standing several meters away?
The amount of ego people have these days is insane. You are not a brand. You are a human being on the street with other human beings. While someone being aggressive and in your face with a camera (think Bruce Gilden) is a pretty crappy thing to be doing generally, taking photographs of people in a public place has been the accepted norm for almost two centuries now. Not to mention the millions of cameras you are captured by every day as part of the surveillance state we know live in. Having a stranger want to photograph you used to be a compliment. Someone found your existence interesting. They thought you were pretty or found what you were wearing or your face worth documenting. People need to get over themselves.
I don't see the point of 95% street photography. Most of it it's banal.
Definitely! But isn´t that the same with landscape, portraiture, and all other different genres of photography?
@@streetphotographyguyonly with fine art photography isn’t entirely banal i’ll be honest, photographs of most things just capture something for the person who took it, they look nice may portray special/interesting moments in lives and in nature, but it’s still banal if you get to it, fine art is different, but still the banality kind of makes it beautiful because there is imo not like this purpose to it, it’s just a capture of what you saw and loved or found interesting and it may look beautiful to many, doesn’t lessen it’s worth.
That's because 95% people follow advice like that given in this video.
I don't mind putting the camera up to my eye and using the viewfinder to shoot strangers. I'm one of those "It's my right to photograph in public" assholes. But if I'm using an 18mm I recognize that I have to be too close. In this case, if I want to get really close I just have my camera around my neck sitting high on my chest and I shoot by pressing the button in the app. It looks like I'm using my phone but I'm actually being sneaky haha.
It's actually not so complicated. We are allowed to use our eyes. And therefore can go home and create a painting or whatever, from what we saw. Ergo, we photograph everything we see with our eyes. So basically you can use it in court, in the country that tries to sue your photography. But I hate humans in my frame. I don't want such destructive evil on my photos. You should also move away from the cliché. Use the animals instead.
There's a big difference between recreating something from memory with your hands and capturing the scene with a device as is. That's why courtroom drawings are even a thing for example. Because humans are unreliable both in terms of memory and their ability to reproduce perfectly
You hate humans in your photos. You think humans are destructively evil. Since you're viewing a street photography video, I suspect you're being sarcastic and can't be serious.
you sound unhinged
No one has the right to ›catch emotions‹.
You're right. People like Bruce Gilden give us photographers a bad name.
I mean Bruce Gilden is a fantastic photographer and created a outstanding body of work but was it worth it to act so overly agressive like he is doing in some videos from NYC? I don´t think so, but that´s a very controversial topic among Street Photographers, i know...
There is black and white in life, not only in photography. Aggressing people like Gilden does is wrong. Period. end of the story
Does snapping a photo of a silhoutted figure walking through the light between buildings mean I'm an artist? Really?
I’m so tired of this style too, I find it lacking in any kind of emotional content: It’s not intimate, nor is in confrontational. I think it’s more interesting if it’s just about the light (a random silhouette doesn’t even need to be in the frame). However, I know lots of people who love it, so each to their own.. but for me it’s quite shallow and doesn’t hold my interest for more than half a second (at most).
You are totally right, but you have to consider I am doing Street Photography in a quite restricted, in regards to the law, country. In the US oder in Asia I shoot completely different. Many people are quite sensitive here when they see a photographer pointing at them...so when you find this style tiring or boring, I am totally with you. But the thing is, you need to adapt your style to the local situation...during Oktoberfest, or political rallies here in Munich it´s not so much of a problem, but on "normal days", it´s a bit different...
@@streetphotographyguy I hope you don't think I'm bashing your photography too much with my comment, now I read it back to myself it's a bit too negative towards someone who has made a nice video that has the sole aim of helping people. I'm still quite new to photography and found it a good watch (and the photos themselves are technically very proficient, I want to add). Thanks for your reply. I'm lucky enough to live in Asia, but when I visit my home country of England, street photography becomes much more challenging, so I can imagine that in Germany, your challenge is even greater. Respect.
@@alexlee3227 I didn't mean to criticize this kind of photo. I shoot them too. I meant to question whether getting these shots makes someone (including me) an "artist". I'm just tired of street photographers calling themselves artists.
if nobody on the streets doesn't want they're photo taken in public they should write a letter to every street camera in the city and every business that watches them when they enter a store to not take a photo or video of them...ridiculous that people dont understand nothing is off limits when in the publics view 🙄 its 2024.
Difference is all those photos aren't stored on some random person's harddrive who doesn't have to follow any data protection laws, or who even publishes them