Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Walking and Shooting



I look at creating my images as a two step process: getting the shot, then processing it. I have a good idea of the processing steps I will take the image through once I upload it to my computer, and that to a great extent defines how I go about shooting. For instance, I know what I can and can't do to control and adjust the light and shadows of a scene so as I walk along looking for shots I try to visualize what the final image should look like. That holds true for the focus, aperture, and horizontal/vertical composition.

For now I'll deal with just the first step - getting the shot. I don't often go out shooting with other people. When I'm not alone I generally end up with either no pictures or lousy ones. It's distracting and I can't stay focused on what's happening around me when I'm chatting with someone. I try to avoid having people 'tag along' so they can watch me work (because, they say, they want to see how I do it). That makes me way too self conscious, and they often get in my way when I want to move in a certain direction to get the shot I want. And most importantly, I like to be alone. When I'm alone with my camera and out on the street I get buzzed, and I don't want to share that with anyone. It's too good.

Sometimes I go out with people to instruct them. For that, I have my camera with me but there's no pretense that I'm out to take my own shots. I watch what they do and talk about their technique and approach to shooting. The first mistake almost everyone makes is having the camera hang around their neck or over their shoulder, or at their side in their hand. It's a mistake because if you see a shot and the camera isn't instantly ready to take it, by the time it is ready the shot is gone. Or just the action of picking the camera up and aiming it will draw attention and ruin the scene. Unless, of course, you're far enough away from the subject and shooting with a longer lens so that the subject doesn't see you. In which case - you're too far away from the subject to get a great shot anyway. Cornell Capa's maxim was that if your pictures aren't good enough, it's because you aren't close enough. That may sound like an oversimplification, but it's the second biggest mistake photographers make in shooting street. 

Street opportunities are like quantum particles, spontaneously popping in and out of existence. If you don't have time to pick the camera up, and you're right on top of your subject, you certainly don't have time to fiddle with buttons and dials. You need to have the camera set to make the correct exposure with the correct aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to get a good exposure, and the depth of field you can work with.

So, given all that, what do I do? Firstly, what I don't do is worry about whether I should or shouldn't take a person's picture. I'm not an attorney so I can't offer this as any kind of legal advice. I do not use my images for commercial purposes. They are editorial, so I do not need to have a signed release. In the United States of America if a person is out in public they have no right to the presumption of privacy. I can take their picture. If they are aware that I have taken their picture (most often they are not), they might get pissed off and say nasty things, but that doesn't bother me. Only a few times have I ever had a physical confrontation. If that remote possibility is a problem for you, don't shoot street. 

Secondly, I keep my camera in front of me at the middle of my chest with my hands wrapped around it and my finger on the shutter button. The zoom lens is set to 24mm, the shooting mode is set to continuous - high, the focus mode is continuous, and the exposure mode is aperture priority/auto ISO. I adjust the aperture depending on whether I'm in bright light or shadows, always paying attention to what will happen to the depth of field with whatever aperture I choose. Setting the lens to 24mm gives me the widest area of coverage with my regular shooting lens (usually when I go out to shoot street I take just that one lens. I don't like to be weighed down by a heavy camera bag with stuff I'm not going to use anyway). 

Thirdly, when I see a shot about to happen I get into the best position I possibly can as I walk towards my subject, and I fire off a series of three to five exposures as we approach each other. I've practiced this enough to know how to hold the camera to get the proper axis for the lens and I can get pretty close to the composition I want for the image without having to look through the viewfinder. That gives me the advantage of 1) not having to draw attention to myself by raising the camera to my eye and 2) seeing the action all around me as it unfolds.

As I was walking up Eighth Avenue (with my camera in front of me and my finger on the shutter) I saw this gentleman who was smoking a cigar approach me. I love cigars. My eye was immediately drawn to him. I wanted the shot to look threatening, and it worked out great because he's got that hat shadowing his eyes, looking right at me (me, of course, not at all looking at him directly), and everyone else in the scene has their backs to the camera which isolates that one gentleman facing me. I fired off several frames as we passed each other. This was the only one in which he was looking directly at the camera, and of all the shots this particular one required the least amount of cropping. The image came together beautifully. Nothing to it.

Processing, however, was a whole different story.



11 comments:

  1. Fantastic write up Gene. I kind of figured that you were slightly covert in your approach. Nice that you describe the pros and cons of "Walking and Shooting." I've been toying with the idea of doing something similar using my very old Contax IIIa rangefinder film camera. But film...not so user friendly. And the 50mm lens is kind of tight. Probably get a nice quiet digital rangefinder. Any suggestions?

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  2. Mark, you asked about a rangefinder for street work. As you said, film is not so user friendly and 50mm is tight. I've been looking for something for quite some time now, and some cameras look tempting, but as the saying goes .... close but no cigar. I was tempted with the new Nikon P7100, and less tempted with the Fuji x100. They both had the same problem - I want to be able to change lenses, and I want to use my old Leica glass. I've been waiting for the Fuji X-Pro 1. It's supposed to have an m mount adapter, which would be wonderful (even though it has an aps-c sensor) and the Fuji 18mm lens - adjusting for the crop factor it would be 27mm - looks very nice. I'm waiting to see how it shakes out, but if it's anything like it's reported to be (so far) I'm going to spring for it.

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  3. Totally agree with you about the technique. I sometimes also use a wireless remotecontrol in my pocket. Then with the camera hanging in front of me on my stomach, I can control both the shutter and the camera also up and down by leaning back or not. Here I had to lean back to get the camera up: http://500px.com/photo/4177837 With that technique I don´t think no one ever have noticed they have been photographed by me.

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  4. Where I mostly snap street shots, this kind of covert approach would certainly see you regarded with suspicion and probably, if not arrested, certainly in a position where the cops are breathing down your neck after some over zealous member of the public has convinced themselves that you were up to no good. This, despite the fact that the law in the UK is pretty much the same as in the States - no one in a public place has an expectation of privacy; you can snap anyone you like so long as you're not breaking the law in any way, such as harassing anyone or obstructing the public highway etc.

    So for this reason I tend to always snap openly and obviously now. Most of the time, people still don't notice me or at least don't realise I'm taking their picture. Though it does make getting shots at the kind of close proximity you manage difficult. I do kind of like shots where people clock me, though, I must be honest ;)

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  5. Hello Gene,
    I love this!Thanks for sharing your experiences about street photography.I found this very useful.Thanks again.I am really interested about shooting streets photos(you know that ;-) )You did not mention are you shooting in RAW or JPG format.I always use RAW in my case PEF which is the Pentax RAW file.I usually use zoom 18-55mm set between 25 and 35 mm or wide zoom 10-20 mm set to 20 mm.White balance is always on automatic,and the exposure mode is usually aperture priority(sometimes time priority).ISO set between 200 and 400,because of lower quality on higher settings.You biggest advantage is that you live in big city with milions of residents instead of my small town with only 300 000 residents.It is very important to move slowly and released with friendly look on your face.The best way to be invisible is to shootin in crowd.Even the shutter on your camera become inaudible ;-).Thanks again and sorry for my not perfect English.hope you understand my dear friend :-) See you! http://500px.com/pefshooter

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    1. Darko, I shoot only RAW. It gives me the most information to work with when I edit my photos. I use a 24-70 f2.8 lens and most of the time it's set to 24mm. It's always much better to shoot wide angle for street because it gives the photos a feeling of presence, of being in the moment. As for being near a city, it is definitely an advantage living a short train ride from New York. It's one of the best cities in the world for shooting street. You have a standing invitation to visit, my friend.

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  7. Hi Gene!
    Thank you for your invitiation to your blog at 500px. It is very intersting reading and very usefull. Since I have not done street photography this is completely new world to me. And description of your tehnique is something uknown to me. I was wondering which f do you use. Since you use continious shoting and focusing (focus point is in the middle) you probably use small f (closed aperture) to have everything sharp and wide angle. An then crop to get the right composition. The problem with not seeing trough the viewfinder is that you can not focus on peoples eye and you can not move the focus point. And in portrait and stret photography is important focusing on an eye. And what do you with focusing when you use f 2.8?
    REgards, Robert

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Gene!
    Thank you for your invitiation to your blog at 500px. It is very intersting reading and very usefull. Since I have not done street photography this is completely new world to me. And description of your tehnique is something uknown to me. I was wondering which f do you use. Since you use continious shoting and focusing (focus point is in the middle) you probably use small f (closed aperture) to have everything sharp and wide angle. An then crop to get the right composition. The problem with not seeing trough the viewfinder is that you can not focus on peoples eye and you can not move the focus point. And in portrait and stret photography is important focusing on an eye. And what do you with focusing when you use f 2.8?
    REgards, Robert

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Gene!
    Thank you for your invitiation to your blog at 500px. It is very intersting reading and very usefull. Since I have not done street photography this is completely new world to me. And description of your tehnique is something uknown to me. I was wondering which f do you use. Since you use continious shoting and focusing (focus point is in the middle) you probably use small f (closed aperture) to have everything sharp and wide angle. An then crop to get the right composition. The problem with not seeing trough the viewfinder is that you can not focus on peoples eye and you can not move the focus point. And in portrait and street photography it is important focusing on an eye. And what do you do with focusing when you use f 2.8?
    REgards, Robert

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    Replies
    1. Robert, Thanks for your comment and questions. I shoot in aperture priority, and the f stop I use depends entirely upon the light present. If I'm in good daylight I usually use f8, but if I'm in deep shade or indoors I use f2.8. Now I will say something that will make the pundits of photography shudder (ahem....) sharpness is overrated. Sure I want the sharpest image possible, but if bringing the camera up to my eye will destroy my chances of getting the shot, I'll settle for nailing the shot with pretty good, or even ok, sharpness. I definitely blow some shots by shooting like that, but that possibility is far outweighed by the number of shots I get that would have disappeared if I had tried to, as you say, focus on the eye. Besides, and I'm not saying how I do it, or which images I do it on, if an image is close to good, software works miracles.

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