5 Street Photography Tips You MUST KNOW - Advice from a Photojournalist
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 พ.ค. 2024
- In this video, I want to share with you five tips that I know will help improve your street photography.
I draw upon my 15+ years as a professional photojournalist to give you advice to how you can take your street photography to a new level using these tips. By knowing and understanding these techniques and mindsets, I hope you can also use them to improve your images.
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In summary, here are my 5 advanced composition techniques to elevate your images this year:
00:00 Intro
01:57 Unexpected Moments
04:03 Experiment with Compositions
06:01 Fly on the Wall
07:29 Play With Light
08:45 All the World’s a Stage
10:44 Summary - Patience is Key
Embark on a journey to refine your photography compositions and discover the artistry in everyday life with me.
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This was the absolutely best street photography video I have ever seen, no boring settings and technical geekery... just discussing the important points that create the image. My weak spot has always been patience when I wait in "the World’s a Stage"
I'm not interested in boring settings and geekery either 🙂 Yes, patience is key for street photography. Keep persisting ✊
Thanks for watching 📸If you have any questions about these tips about street photography, please let me know in the comments below. I really hope they help you improve your images. Want more content like this? Don't forget to like 👍 this video and subscribe to help me reach the channel's next milestone, 10,000 subscribers! ✊ Download your copy of my new eBook ➡ gallagher-photo.com/learn
Much appreciate your expertise and the way you pass it on. Thank you.
Thanks for watching and commenting, Jonathan ✊
Excellent video for a nature photographer who sometimes finds themselves on the street... and lovely images to illustrate your points. You gave me plenty to think about. Many thanks.
That's great to hear. Thanks for taking the time to comment. 👍
Really enjoyable watch, with solid ideas to use while out and about on the street. I've always said that if you want to get better at photography, you should practise street photography. It offers every type of situation that a photographer can encounter; people buildings, obstructions, and constantly changing light conditions just to force you to get used to thinking on your feet.
Each tip is solid and usable, and a good reminder for beginners and advanced what to concentrate on.
Cheers for a great video, Sean
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Sean. Yes, street photography is a great chance to hone your skills. 👍
Well said, Sean. You’re just amazing 🤩!!!
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One if the best street photography tutorials I've seen yet.... Top takeaway fir me is "Find your backdrop first.".... This sticks in my mind.
Thanks, Rex. Glad you enjoyed the video. Yes, the key to the backdrop technique is patience, then some more patience(!) until the scene appears in front of your camera.
awesome video and photos. finally a channel that gives you a value. thank you very much
Thanks, TJ ✊
All valid points Sean, cheers!
Thanks, Anastas 👍
All essential points, delivered minus the all-too-prevalent TH-cam bloviating. Nice work.
Bloviating. Good word. Thanks for watching. ✊
Your video gave me the travel and photography bug back. Thank you for sharing these inspiring tips and photos.
Great to hear. There's nothing quite like travelling and taking photos! 🙂📸
Great video, Sean. I love your definition of street photography, which I've learned to define it: as photography in public spaces. I think many street photographers get caught up in things like definitions and settings and forget the essentials of photography and composition.
Thanks, Craig. Yes, I hope to encourage people to think more about the principles of great street photography, rather than get caught up in the technical side. Appreciate the comment. ✊
Nice and clear on this topic! 👍
Thanks, Xavier ✊
Excellent work! Thank you!
added the WECHAT! thanks for that! really need a photography community in China
Welcome to the group, Rudi 🤝📸
Just ordered your ebook…..so glad I found you on TH-cam!
Susan, you're awesome ✊ Thanks for your support. I hope you enjoy the eBook!
It's is a value lesson. Thank you very much for sharing your experience with us.
Glad it was useful. Thanks for watching and commenting ✊
I find Street photography pure art form..
Your tips are great...can't wait to experiment 😊...thanks again Sean
Thanks for watching. Glad they were helpful 👍
Great ideas and absolutely amazing example photos!
Thank you ✊
Big fan of your work. Great video
Appreciate the support, John. Thanks for watching ✊
Great video. TFS your tips. ❤❤❤
You had me at the title. If there’s one breed of photographer that’s going to know more about street photography than a copy of street photography weekly, it’s a press snapper. After all, it’s what we did for a living, day in and day out, and the tips you have here are priceless. Great advice 👏👏👏
Thanks, Riley. From a fellow pro, I appreciate the comment and support ✊
Finally a great video about photography that isn’t about the gear. With that said, would you mind sharing what camera you put onto the top of your stills camera to capture the first person perspective clips?
Thank you, Andreas. I don't believe the gear makes you a better photographer which is why I prefer discussing techniques, mindsets etc. The on-camera footage is filmed with a GoPro10, but any action-cam will give you a similar effect.
Thank you! Great tips!
Glad they were useful, Michaela 👍
Very good video. Worth subscribing to your channe. And purchasing the book. Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed the video, Entrigue. Thank you for purchasing the eBook. I hope it helps you with your photography! ✊
Great video Sean,gd advice
Thanks for watching 👍
Very thoughtful video sir, and thankfully so much more informative than most other "street photo tips" rubbish. Subscribed! And are you based in China? I recognize several of the places in the video. All the best, -J.
Thanks for subscribing! ✊ Glad it was useful. Yes, I am in China 🙂
I think 🤔 this could be the most important video of yours ever on your channel for me to watch. I believe this’s exactly what Street Photography is. 🎉
Thanks ✊ More to come soon! 😀
Very useful video , thank you so much , lots of love and appreciate from tamil nadu (India )
Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment, Muthu ✊
Thanks!
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Brilliant
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Great video
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Hi. Great video, thank you. I'm super anxious about getting off auto. What setting do you recommend for street photography or is the composition more important than worrying about going manual?
Hi Rosemarie. The settings that you use aren't important. It's ALL about the picture. As you said, composition is very important. If you want to go "semi" manual, try using aperture priority. I use that a lot. F8 is a good number to with as it gets plenty in focus. Good luck! ✊📸
According to choosing the moment on the day I prefer mid day because I shoot mainly in black and white. This will give me more sharper shadows.
Similar to what my favorite Ray Metzker did.
Find that light that you love 👍 Metzker's work is very interesting indeed.
thanks for the wonderful tips.... i am actually interested in photojournalism. i do some street photography to improve my skills. i started learning during lockdown in corona here in India. made me pick a skill and learn it. now i am very much interested in becoming a documentary photographer for local magazines. could you guide the viewers how to approach this . even though photo journalism isn't a money making machine like other genres i still believe the world needs such photography now more than ever to bring awareness where is world is leading to.
Great to hear you are also interested in photojournalism 🤝. I am planning to do a video about how to become a photographer/photojournalist and use my own experiences to help give ideas for those who also want to follow the same path. That will come soon. In the meantime, check out my video about how to become a photographer with National Geographic: th-cam.com/video/k5kCIW9YAFk/w-d-xo.html
Great information.
What are the safety tips in the street. I’m thinking people who object to being photographed or someone interested in your shiny expensive camera.
This is a good question that maybe deserves a follow up video in itself 💡 Throughout my career, I have had very very few people who have objected being photographed. A lot of it comes down to your demeanour. Be friendly and non-confrontational. If someone doesn't want their photo taken, then just move on. There will always be other opportunities. Of course, you need to be very mindful what areas you go to when photographing and assess if they are safe before you take out your "shiny" camera.
How do you respect people's privacy, while using them as subjects? Do you ask for permission before or after or at all?
7:44 and the 6th tips from a amateur's photographer, always straighten the photos especially when it comes to photos of the sea, seeing the water rather to one side does not make the photo look balanced. Many useful tips you have from this and other video I have seen 😎💯👌🎬📸
Tip 7... It's okay to break the "rules" sometimes 🙂 Thanks for watching and commenting!
Awesome video! How do you get those rich colors without changing the skin tones too much?
Not sure which specific images you're referring too, Joel, but the images in this video were taken on different cameras with different lenses over the years. Some of the photos were even taken on slide film (Fuji Velvia, from my early years) so had a very rich saturated feel. You can probably spot them!
Gracias
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I love that
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Very interesting and useful, thank you. I've been trying to do this for about 15 years, with film cameras. My biggest problems are: trying to remember and achieve composition techniques while reacting to unexpected and short-lived events, and ... the fact that a single middle-aged man with a camera in London is an insult/accusation magnet! I even got accused of being a paedophile for lining up a shot on a child's slide (which I didn't actually take) when there were no other people than me and the woman behind me making the accusation. It was an empty street. And that's by no means an isolated example. It's routine, and intrusive when they follow you bellowing accusations, as one guy did all around the local park. (His daughter had been at right angles to the lens, about thirty yards to my right.) My favourite was taking pictures of people coming out of a street photography exhibition - they really didn't like it! I must move to China ... Thanks again for your practical, stimulating advice.
Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. It's true that in many parts of the world, candid street photography has become more and more difficult. Perhaps better to shift to a more community focused approach where you can get closer to the community, get to know people first and then shoot more freely, perhaps. Your street photography exhibition anecdote is amusing though.
New subscriber here @ 5.79k 🤗📸
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On the subject of "The camera doesn't matter". I've taken some rather interesting pictures with a Sony Mavica with 0.9 megapixels. It gave the shot a very old time feel.
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Thanks for the video. Some questions: what about the permission to take pictures of people and what was their reaction when they noticed you were shooting pictures of them? I assume you didn ´t ask them before.
I found people being suspicious when they realised I took pictures.
Hi Andrew. I've had very few bad reactions when doing street photography. In the past 20 years, I can probably count them on one hand. Some of this comes down to the 'fly on the wall' approach I discuss in the video. A lot of the time I have embedded myself in a community. If anyone spots me, I try to use a friendly demeanour to ease their concern about me taking pictures (again, this is very rare), or I talk to people and explain what I'm doing, or in the worst case scenario if they're still not happy, I apologise for inconveniencing them, smile and move on.
I do a lot of photography lessons with people and agree with everything you say I think one thing Sean is change the angles get high get low get sideways shoot some funky 45°. Don't stand there with a camera around your neck shoot at IHH for every single photo you take, in fact, you should only shoot at EH if the people you are photographing are roughly the same height as you if they are taller or shorter, then equate for that I just think we need to be creative and I've been telling my students first thing I do is take off their next strap and put a wrist strap on, and immediately this frees up th, if you put a strap around your neck, you will take the 90% of your photos at IHH because the camera is around your neck. If you take the next strap off and put a wrist strap on it changes the way you take photos, you will get low you will get high you'll shoot round corners. You'll do a whole bunch of things because you can and that's the critical part. Yes using light and all of those things are skills that people will pick up with time but I think getting rid of the next trap. It's the dumbest thing they put in camera boxes now I've been saying to Fujifilm get rid of the camera strap you shouldn't use them anyway for another reason it is that they damage your neck you think about a 1 kg camera hanging around your neck for four hours that's like 400 k around your neck for one minute that's not a good idea
Thanks for the in-depth comment! You make some good points. When I am walking around doing street photography, I normally wrap the strap around my right wrist and carry my camera in my right hand. I'll sometimes carry it on the shoulder if I'm not shooting, but never have it around my neck. For me, it's more about not advertising I am a photographer and staying inconspicuous as much as possible. I don't even like using a camera bag. I just use an ordinary backpack, again to try to blend in. This might be a topic for another street photography video!
What focal length(s) do you use for street? The photos I see in major publications where there are groups of people in demonstrations and political meetings for instance appear to have been taken with wide angle lenses presumably to get as much as possible in the frame.
Hi Peter. I really like to shoot with a 35mm lens, but if I have an assignment I will often shoot with a 24-70 for extra flexibility. Many photojournalists like to shoot with wider lenses.
Thanks for this exceptional good contribution. - Besides, there are two more things, that at 7:53 is a toy, isn’t it? And the free e-book isn’t as free as promised 🤔
Hi Roland. Thanks for the comment. In the image at 7:53 the man is flying a kite. The free version of the eBook had been available on my website since Aug 2023, but there is a new extended version that was released in the last couple of weeks that is a paid version. So, you have the option of either.
I noticed you have filter on your lens, is it there to protect the lens or something else? What’s the make and type?
Hi Joel. It's just a simple Hoya UV filter for protecting my lens.
im losing my eye sight in the right eye other than turning the camera upside down any ideas how to shoot out the left eye rather than the right. thanks in advance..
Sorry to hear that. Not sure how to advise. Perhaps a trip to a local second hand camera market to experiment with lots of different cameras to find one that suits you and your situation perhaps?
"Dutch angle,: haven't heard that term in years!
If you Google "dutch angle", the search results page appears at an angle 😆
I've noticed that some photos are moving or blurry. I usually delete them, even if it was an interesting photo.
Why did you keep them and even present them?
Hi Gabriela. Thanks for the comment. Not all photos have to be static, or even pin-point sharp. Sometimes movement and blur can be used to create dynamism and a deeper feeling in an image.
On WhatsApp I see your contact, not a group. Maybe a Discord channel is also a good option for you.
Yes, just add me as a contact and I'll add you to the group 🤝
@@SeanGallagherPhotographer done!
This TH-cam is very good in defining the basic principles of street photographic or photojournalism. We have here the essence and foundation. Quick question which is not an easy one: how you navigate in taking pictures of individuals and especially children in regard of the notion of Right of Privacy or also called the Right of the Image which is different from a Cartier-Bresson’s area. Each country has its own way to interpret it and legislate it. Do you seek formal consent? What is public and what is private? 👍
Yes, attitudes to photography have certainly changed since the days of Cartier-Bresson. Best practice is to follow the general norms, culture and laws of the country you are photographing in. It's up to the photographer to inform themselves and follow these. In general, it's best to avoid photographing minors, unless you have tacit approval or permission from guardians.
“Can’t be repeated by any other photographer”.
Do only this for EVERY shot and this mindset will force you to become not only better but unique.
That's the goal 👍
How do you deal with people that don't want their photos taken?
Good question. If you are following these tips, most of the time, you should have no problems. But if you do, always respect people's wishes and just smile, be friendly and move on. There will always be other situations to make pictures.
Don't forget the laws of the country you are in. In Germany, for example, there are quite strict data protection laws. And what about the people in the picture? Do they want to be photographed? Do you ask them afterwards?
Yes of course, you should follow the laws of the country you are in and respect and local customs or attitudes towards photography.
I think that if this question of yours came to your mind from the whole video, there is nothing from your photographing the street. If you want to be a street photographer, you have to be braver and more relaxed.
You surprised me by putting the camera to your eye to take the shot. That will telegraph to people that you are taking their photo which is not a good idea. I have learned to shoot from my chest using the lcd screen.
I don't like shooting from the hip. I've done it before, but it feels 'sneaky'. If people notice me, that's fine. I'm not afraid to talk with people. Thanks for the comment, Jose.
@@SeanGallagherPhotographer I also shot higher up using the camera's LCD screen. I shoot in inner city communities like my East Harlem. Never a good idea to shot by bringing the camera to one's eye. Then you have to deal with people's responses which sometimes can be negative. I have also used my Nikon P950 which I can shot people from a whole city block away and their heads take up the whole frame. Good luck to you. Be careful.
Isn’t street photography just photography? I don’t get the term, other than to sell. You’re just outside taking photos.
Thanks for the comment, Carlos. The fundamental principles of making an image are the same, but the approach you take for "street photography" is a little different to that you might for wildlife photography, or macro photography for example.
Non studio.
There’s a lot of different types of street photography
Its ganga not ganji
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Does every photographer named Sean sound like this? Is this how you speak when you talk to actual people?
Exactly how many photographers named Sean do you follow?! Other photographers are available 😉