Preparing Myself for Street Photography

Well, street photography is a genre that quite easy to begin. Unlike portrait, landscape, or any photography genre, you just have to bring your camera, go outside and capture, even it just the street in front of your house. Yeah, as simple as that.

But, if you’re curious and want to do some street photography like I do, or maybe others street photographer do, here’s some tips for you to begin:

Choose your gear

I must say that you can do street photography with any kind of gear, like analog camera, SLR, mirrorless, or even smartphone. But I prefer to use camera rather than smartphone because I have more control with the images. Also I prefer to use small and lightweight gear, because I will carry it all day when doing street photography. It will become pain in the ass if you carry around such a heavy gear all day right? Hahahah.

For the lens, I prefer using wide to normal focal length, like 23mm, 35mm, or 50mm. Not really interested to use telephoto lens like 150mm or 200mm. Well, you capturing people, not a lion in Africa. Hahaha (Just my preference, no hard feeling guys). Using such a big lens will make people feel intimidated by you. If you have a pancake lens with wide focal length, use it. It will make your picture have more closer feel and raw emotion by capturing street photos by blending with crowd, rather than shooting like sniper from far away.

Handstrap is better than neckstrap

Well, it just my preference. The goal is to always hold your camera in your hand and always ready when the moment comes to you. By using handstrap, it push you to always put your camera in your hand and ready to capture for every situation. But you can still use your neckstrap by wrapping it on your arms.

Pay attention to your clothes

It is important. You don’t have to be super nice looking guy, just use your best shirt, jeans, and shoes. Hahaha. Why? For me as a street photographer, I want to capture the moment and emotion on the street by blending with the society without getting too much attention. Using clothes that not really stand out (like blue jeans, white shirt, jacket and converse shoes), will make it easier to blend with society. Not recommend to use super fancy clothes like pink shirt and yellow pants plus tosca shoes or all black with hood covering your head. If you look like a weird guy, holding the camera, capturing people on the street, it will make people uncomfortable and maybe bad things will happen to you.

Don’t forget to smile and enjoy the process

Take a deep breath, raise your head, and always care with every people around you. Street photography is about a journey. So, enjoy every step that you take on your journey. By enjoy it, it will make you happy. If you happy, it will easier for you to smile to people around you. With this kind of atmosphere, people will not feel disturbed by you, even you take a photos of them.

That’s it. All the explanation is based on what I do before street hunt.

Hope it will help you by starting your street photography.

Just get out, shoot, and have fun !! Yeayy !!

Thanks !!

Ajie