Street photography demands quick reflexes. Often, you’ll need to capture fleeting moments with no time to adjust your camera. Having your camera preset and ready ensures you won’t miss shots when the unexpected happens.
Coming to you from Peter Lee of Street Photography China, this informative video breaks down the ideal camera settings for capturing spontaneous moments. Lee primarily uses a Leica Q2 with a fixed 28mm lens, a setup that provides a wide field of view perfect for capturing entire scenes, not just tight portraits. Lee’s preference for wide angles also helps when shooting discreetly, allowing him to snap shots from the hip without needing to raise the camera to eye level. He emphasizes the importance of setting a small aperture, such as f/8 or f/11, to ensure enough depth of field to keep subjects sharp, whether they’re nearby or several meters away.
Lee suggests setting a fast shutter speed—around 1/250th of a second—to avoid motion blur from sudden movements or camera shake. Even in situations where you can only manage 1/125th, this should still be enough to capture most scenes without noticeable blur. These small adjustments help make sure your shots are crisp, even if you're shooting on the move. He also focuses on maintaining a preset focus distance, typically 1.5 meters. This allows him to capture a variety of subjects at different distances while still ensuring acceptable sharpness, all without needing to adjust focus between shots.
One of the key insights Lee shares is the importance of using automatic ISO. With ISO set to auto, the camera handles exposure adjustments, freeing you to concentrate on composition. Lee prefers keeping the ISO capped at 6400 to limit noise, though he notes that modern software like Lightroom can effectively reduce noise if needed. His priority is avoiding motion blur, as a noisy image is easier to fix than one that’s blurry. This balance allows him to prioritize shutter speed and aperture while letting the camera adjust ISO on the fly.
Lee offers practical tips for those using cameras without precise manual focus distance settings. You can use autofocus to lock onto an object at your desired distance—like a tree—and switch back to manual focus to keep it set at that range. This method mirrors zone focusing techniques and allows you to shoot without hesitation, treating the camera almost like a point-and-shoot. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Lee.
