If you’re new to street photography, you’re soon going to learn it’s much more than taking snapshots in public places. To create quality, compelling photographs you need to have both skill and knowledge. It isn’t easy, but with practice — and patience — you’ll be able to improve your abilities and start making great street photographs. Don’t worry; we’re not going to push you out into the world with no tools to survive. We’re much kinder than that. From the best gear to how to shoot like a ninja, here are 10 street photography tips and tricks to help you step out of your comfort zone and start making great images.

1. Photography
10 street photography tips
and tricks to help you capture
the decisive moment
By Dan Ginn August 22, 2019 9:00AM PST
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2. Andy Boxall/DigitalTrends
If you’re new to street photography, you’re
soon going to learn it’s much more than
taking snapshots in public places. To create
quality, compelling photographs you need to
have both skill and knowledge. It isn’t easy,
but with practice — and patience — you’ll be

3. able to improve your abilities and start
making great street photographs. Don’t
worry; we’re not going to push you out into
the world with no tools to survive. We’re
much kinder than that. From the best gear to
how to shoot like a ninja, here are 10 street
photography tips and tricks to help you step
out of your comfort zone and start making
great images.
1. Use a small camera

4. Daven Mathies/Digital Trends
A small camera should be your preferred
option for street photography for two
reasons. Firstly, you’re going to be doing a lot
of walking, so a bulky camera is going to
weigh you down. More importantly, a smaller
camera draws less attention to you from the

5. passing public. The moment someone spots
you, the candidness that is synonymous with
street photography is gone. As a result,
you’re going to get forced photographs —
you don’t want that.
The best cameras for street photography
combine good image quality, useful features,
and compact designs. Depending on your
style, you may want a mirrorless camera with
interchangeable lenses, or maybe a
pocketable camera with a fixed-lens that’s
easier to carry with you.
The Ricoh GR III is popular amongst street
photographers because it’s very compact,
but has image quality up there with larger
mirrorless and DSLR cameras. Its 24-
megapixel APS-C sensor is the same size and
resolution as the mirrorless (and much

6. larger) Sony A6400, while it’s fixed 28mm
lens keeps a low profile and offers a good
angle of view for street shots. Alternatively,
popular brands like Fujifilm, Nikon, and
Olympus all make compact mirrorless
cameras that are ideal for street photography
if you want interchangeable lenses.
2. Use a prime lens

7. For street photography, we recommend using
a prime lens. Because prime lenses are a
fixed focal length, they tend to be smaller in
both size and weight compared to zooms.
This makes them less taxing on the arms and
more comfortable to transport.
From a creative standpoint, a prime lens
pushes you to think more about your

8. photographs. Without the luxury of a zoom,
you’re challenged to consider how close
(physically) you should get to your subject.
The closer you get (while still respecting
personal space) the more emotion you can
draw out of your scene. Emotion helps you
create compelling photographs that your
audience can connect to.
Focal lengths between 24mm and 50mm are
your best bet, both in quality and cost. Wide-
angle lenses are perfect for producing
photographs that have multiple narratives
going on within the frame. Whereas a good
“nifty 50” will allow you to create more
intimate pictures and separate your subjects
from their surroundings.
3. Shoot in aperture priority mode

9. Hillary Grigonis/Digital Trends
Good scenes come and go in a matter of
seconds. To ensure you don’t miss them, you
must be able to set your camera at the right
exposure as quickly as possible. By shooting
in aperture priority, you only have to think
about one thing (rather than three) when
Downloads More

10. setting your exposure. Based on your
aperture, your camera can calculate where to
set the ISO and shutter speed – giving you
more time to set up your composition and
depth of field.
For consistently sharper images, we advise
shooting at an aperture between f/8 and f/16
to ensure plenty of depth of field.
4. Learn to stand still

11. Dan Ginn/Digital Trends
This is wear patience comes in, and you may
need a lot of it. Many street photographers
are constantly on the move, hunting for the
perfect moment. And although this is part of
the craft, one of the most important tips we

12. can give you is to slow down and learn to
stand still.
Taking time to simply stand in your
environment allows you to be more
observant, and you’ll be able to spot exciting
scenes more easily. Especially on a busy
street, why waste your energy racing after
the shot when a good subject is just as likely
to come to you?
5. Look beyond your subject
You may experience confrontation when
shooting on the street. “Why did you take my
photo!?” is something you’re likely to hear
from time to time. There are ways to avoid it,
however. After the shot, don’t make eye
contact with your subject. Look beyond them

13. and focus on what’s happening in the
background.
This can help take the focus off of your
subject and put it on the background or the
environment overall; if anything, you’ll look
more like a tourist on vacation. If the person
still decides to confront you, simply be polite
and explain what you’re doing. That takes us
to our next tip.
6. Don’t be afraid to talk to people

14. While photographing people in public spaces
is generally fully within the law (unless you’re
doing it for commercial purposes), that
doesn’t mean people have to be happy about
it. If you see someone who looks interesting
and you’d like to take a close-up portrait of
them, approach them with your camera down
first. It just takes a second to introduce
yourself, let them know that you’re shooting
street portraits, and ask to take their picture.
Many people will say no, and as hard as
rejection is, that’s OK — just move on and try
not to feel too discouraged by it. You may be
surprised by how many people are happy to
pose for you.
How to ASK STRANGERS for PHOTOSHow to ASK STRANGERS for PHOTOS

15. 7. Stop chimping
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16. Chimping describes the act of reviewing each
photograph you make on the LCD screen of
your digital camera. While it makes sense to
do it in slower-paced genres of photography,
from our experience it has no place in street
photography. Each time you review an image,
you’re missing other exciting scenes going on
around you. In street photography, there is no
take two. Almost as soon as a great moment
arrives, it’s gone. The more time you keep
your eyes up, the more chances you’ll have of
capturing it.
You can turn off automatic image review in
your camera’s settings. We recommend
doing this to avoid the temptation to chimp,
allowing you to be more focused on what’s
happening around you.

17. 8. Use a camera remote for new angles
Daven Mathies/Digital Trends
Using a camera remote opens the door to
more creativity. Let’s say you want to create a
photograph from a low angle, you don’t want

18. to lay down in the middle of a busy street.
Instead, by connecting your camera to a
wireless remote you’re able to put your gear
on the ground and take a step back from it.
This technique also allows you to use slow
shutter speeds than if you were handholding
the camera. This is great for when you want
to keep the buildings sharp but add some
motion blur to the people in the frame as
they walk through it.
Today, many DSLR and mirrorless cameras
come with built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. This
gives you the option of controlling your
camera settings and even previewing the
image through an app on your smartphone.
To the passing public, you look like any other
person on their phone. Little do they know
you’re controlling your camera and creating

19. street photographs of their candid
movements.
If your camera does not come with built-in
remote control functionality, check out this
list of external camera remotes and triggers.
9. The rule of 36

20. Dan Ginn/Digital Trends
Before the digital world, photographers had
to be more selective with the images they
took. The DSLR blew this away, and
photographers no longer had to be

21. concerned with wasting a frame. The
consequence of this is that photographers
would “spray and pray,” rather than be more
analytical of the space around them.
If you use a digital camera, challenge yourself
to go out and only make 36 frames (the
standard number of exposures a roll of 35mm
film would give you). You’ll find you think
twice about hitting the shutter button and
become more focused on whether or not it’s
worth taking a shot of the scene you see in
front of you.
10. Always carry a camera

22. Our final tip is perhaps the most obvious:
Always have your camera with you
(something that’s easier today than it ever
has been before thanks to the prevalence of
great cameraphones).
The deeper you get into street photography,
the more you will notice your eyes
continually searching for a frame — even

23. when you’re not actively shooting. Street
photographer Alex Webb once famously said,
“This kind of photography is 99.9% about
failure.” So to hit that 0.1% of success, your
camera should never be left at home
collecting dust!
And here’s a final bonus tip: Get out there
and enjoy it! It’s natural to feel skittish about
taking pictures in public, but street
photography is one of the most rewarding
genres you can practice, not just from a
creative standpoint, but in gaining vital life
skills, too. It builds confidence, social skills,
and the ability to understand and appreciate
human behavior to a new degree. When
traveling, it forces you to slow down and be
more mindful of your surroundings. Street
photography also provides a future historical
record of everyday life, telling different

24. stories than the major events that grab
headlines or make it into TV news.
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