Before we get to the mistakes that many photographers do while they are trying to capture the natural beauty of streetlife, let me tell you what exactly to look for while doing street photography. Now, street photography is a versatile subject for photography enthusiasts. If you want portraits, soe bit of wildlife, landscapes featuring the concrete jungle. The most awesome thing about capturing the streets is that you can capture your subject in their natural habitat. This particular thing when your subject has absolutely no idea that he/she is being captured, and your photo will be the most natural and beautiful one with a cinematic essence in it. This brings me to the first mistake that you should avoid in street photography.
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DON’T ALERT YOUR SUBJECT.
Yea, try your best not to alert your subject. This is the reason why the best camera that one can use in the streets is a mobile camera or a small but awesome action camera like the gopro or maybe some slim mirrorless. These cameras do not attract attention since they are small in size and fast. Well, maybe you’ll not be getting an awesome quality photo as you could’ve get if you have used a full-frame DSLR. Well, composition before anything… On the contrary, sometimes alerting the subject may also result in some great composed pics. Well, you need to wait for the correct frame. You never know when you’ll get it.
This brings me to the second mistake many rookies and amateurs make…
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This image was taken on my D5200 with a 50mm f1.8G mounted on it. The subject was not alerted when I clicked it…
2. DON’T BE IMPATIENT
This thing applies for all kinds of photography let alone street photography. PATIENCE. Wait till you get it right… click the same frame a number of times till you are satisfied. Give time to your picture. Think about it. Think about how your frame can be better or rather way better than the others. Think outside the box… See the frame in a different way before clicking that button with your index finger. Make a story through a still by changing your perspective. Ok, let me tell you a small secret here… if you show a guy a picture of his kid the way he always sees his kid, will he feel any different? No. Rather he may find the picture different if you can show him a picture of his kid from the perspective of another kid. I hope you guys can get the hint. Now let me move on to my 3rd mistake rectification procedure.
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Notice the mistake I did here. I was in a hurry and I didn’t frame the picture correctly(the top part of the rickshaw was cut off and also I should’ve waited for the person at the background to leave the frame..
3. NOT USING A FAST ENOUGH SHUTTER SPEED
Well, you don’t know what will come to you. I make this mistake the most frequently and as a result I miss many awesome frames. Well on the street, no one's gonna stop and pose for you, rather you have to click the shutter button at the right time. That is the reason why it is recommended to use some fast focussing lens with wide aperture and don’t set your shutter speed too low. Wide angle prime lenses are the best for this scenario.
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I took this photo from the front seat of a Mahindra. Higher shutter speed helped me get a good frame
Again, on the contrary you can reduce your shutter speed if you want to show some movement or motion blur in the photos.
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Here is the picture that I took during the test-run of K3, the formula-student car made by the research group TeamKART. You can clearly see the motion blur that took place here.
4. DON’T LET THE WEATHER STOP YOU
Yea, don’t let it stop your creativity. Every weather gives you a different color pallette to work on. Like for a sunny weather, it’s full of light and you can get awesome colorful well-lit pictures. For cloudy situations, portraits and skin tones look very beautiful. Rainy time is makes every picture a piece of art. Don’t stop experimenting with your captures. But yea, be careful of your gear under all weather conditions. That camera is a very sensitive instrument. If you are reading this, I hope you love it more than your girlfriend… at least I do ;) … So take great care of your gear. 📷
Awesome moody frame helped by the clouds on the sky just after a rain. Clicked by me en route Gangtok gfrom Darjeeling.
5. BE RESPECTFUL TO EVERYONE AND BEHAVE YOURSELF OUT THERE
When you are out there clicking unknown people on the streets without their consent, it may be possible that some people get angry and attack you. Whatever happens, keep your cool and apologise. Try to make him/her understand why you are clicking his/her picture. Also sometime show them the picture that you have clicked of them. Interact with them. Believe me, you’ll learn a lot from the street if you keep interacting with people out there. Make friends, believe me if you make friends in some local area, you’ll keep on getting more and more awesome frames.
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I met this guy at Gangtok. Believe me, you’ll get inspired if you listen to his story and take a tour of his humble little home on the valley.
CONCLUSION: Well, these are some of the mistakes that I did when I started out on the streets and yea I learnt a lot from them. Well, it's not that I made only 5 mistakes… My list of mistakes go on and on and well this learning from your mistakes go on and on. Well, machine learning algorithm ;)
Anyway, I hope I make you understand what mistakes you should not me making from now on and which one you should be making. It’s good to make mistakes and believe me, maybe you can get some super awesome capture if you can make some mistakes out there. Technically, there is no rule in street photography and that is the reason I like it so much. You won’t be needing a high end camera with super zoom lens, you won’t be needing any stabilizers of tripod, what you need is some really good imagination and eyes that can see and recognize art.
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This is my favourite picture btw… <3
Neelarun Mukherjee
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