Improve Your Street Photography With These 10 Tips

When done well, street photography provides compelling images that tell a story of a time and place. This video provides some great tips to help improve your street photography skills.

In his latest video, Kaiman Wong enlists the help of two street photographers, Craig Whitehead and Joshua K. Jackson, to explain the challenges and process of street photography. Once they run through the basics, a camera and comfortable shoes, they dive into the heart of the topic. The main challenge for those starting out in this genre is fear or discomfort of walking up to strangers and photographing them. Jackson says that this initial nervousness can manifest itself into either standing too far back from the subject or trying to conceal the camera, neither of which will produce a good result. Wong suggests using a wide to medium prime lens, 35mm or 50mm, to start. This will force you to get comfortable in a variety of situations, using your feet as opposed to your zoom to get the shot. Other tips include upgrading your skills not your gear and focus on the moment not on technical perfection.

What are your top tips for street photography? Share in the comments below.

Aneesh Kothari's picture

Aneesh Kothari is a Houston-based travel, landscape, and cityscape photographer. He enjoys reading Fstoppers.com, traveling with his family, and making lists of things he enjoys. He yearns to be a Civil War buff but has yet to finish the Ken Burns series.

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1 Comment

Thanks for the share, I hadn't watched a Kai's video from a long time, and this one is particularly interesting. It's aimed at street beginners, but it's still nice to see that I'm doing it the right way !