A sunny afternoon, good for ISO100, shot at 1/640 f 4.5. Here I show you a few images both in B&W and color so you can decide in which street photography looks best. There are some scenes where I always want a dramatic depth of field so sometimes I carry a 1.4 or 1.8 85mm lens, this would have been the case but left the bag at home. I don’t believe much in post work for this kind of photography except for dodging/burning, some saturation and such.

So simply I had a talk with him about his work, asked him if I could shoot him and went to it. Just 6 shots and went on my way. Possibly if I was alone I would have sat down talk some more and shoot as minutes or hours pass by.

In the little time I spent with him he explained that he has been doing this for 7 years only, that he did one for fun and people got interested. Once a guy stopped and asked him if he could buy the guitar, he needed the money so he said yes but had no idea what to ask for, the guy took $300 and gave it to him along with his card. Unfortunately Justin lost the card as this guy was a gallery owner and it seemed to have some interest in his work. If you want to have a cheap but somewhat cool looking piece of street art from NYC definitely stop by Union Square and look him up. And please give him a dollar or two for me, I had no money in my pockets when I saw him. Don’t worry what he is going to buy with it, either a new cheap guitar, some markers or something that will make him happy! This is NYC and we have to it for what it is.

Many years ago I was invited to give a workshop on street photography, I assigned the students to photograph a fire hydrant. Some shot it from the side, some from the top, and one really found her art angle. Hydrants give water, so why not use that angle. She took images with the hydrant being a sprinkler, a close up of a drop that reflected the top of the hydrant (no photoshop) and the one she chose to show me first, was one of a dog watering the hydrant. The image was so surreal not only in its context but also in the way it was taken. And no, the doggies privates were not in the shot. I spent the better part of that week out on the streets with her, watching her work, shooting her work, we both learned a tremendous amount from each other. After going through 20-30 contact sheets of dogs peeing on hydrants we found 2 angles we liked. She shot one and I did the other. I shot mine with a 4×5 Deardorff camera, and wow that image was probably one of the most beautiful images I have ever taken. That was probably the only time in my life that I took the time to look for the “angle”. I have to try shooting it again as the film one day went missing! This time will be my Canon, so I hope it will be as stunning. So when I say the angle, is not just about geometry but also about concept.

Walk around, keep your eyes wide open, think about what you want from your subject, and if in doubt ask a friend; another point of view is always another angle.

Natural light + reflector

You remember that expression said by your photography teacher “all you need is 1 picture from the roll”, its pretty true here. With film I could have shot 20 rolls from which many were great, but all I needed was 1 shot. Today with digital photography, who cares how many you shoot as long as you have time to delete! I know a mom that once told me that every shot she had of her kid was with her eyes closed. Older digital cameras don’t shoot exactly when you press the trigger. So shoot 3-4 shots on the moment you want, at least 1 will have the eyes open. Yes it is also true that I don’t really do that today, after 20 years shooting, you kind of get the hang of it. Learn the mannerism of the kid your are shooting. Does he turn more often left than right? does she put her hands in her face often? what triggers that, surprise or laughter? I rather not ask a kid to put their hand by their face, I rather it comes from within so the expression is and looks real. OK yes, you may need to do this 10 times to get the shot, so either get an arsenal of phrases you can use or have someone with you who is good at it, I usually use the latter (my wife).

If you are starting to shoot kids professionally, you are not going to like this part. Have another person with another camera from another angle shooting at the same time. As long as you are directing the shoot, that shot belongs to you, now you are also a Director. I was taught this by an old photographer friend, and it changed everything. I still do it if I have an available human to hold a camera.

Baby pictures are the easiest and sweetest. All babies look cute sleeping, so use that time. Search the web for baby photographers, you will find incredible ideas and poses to put your baby into. Of course be gentle at all times.

Clothing and background are key for portraits! if you are just capturing the moment, then just try to see what would be best to be in the background, just move around if you are able to. Energy is another thing you will need to follow and capture that shot, if need be.

ISO 6400 light from the lamp post

The only technical aspect of shooting that I will give you here is this: make sure your camera is shooting above 1/160 of a second, otherwise your shot will have motion, which sometimes looks really cool. If you have a point-and-shoot camera and don’t know about this, ask a friend who may know. Also look for the little symbol of a person running! If you have a camera that allows you to shoot manual then just make sure to get that setting right. Don’t be afraid that your ISO needs to go to the thousands, is best to have a grainy shot than none at all. And limit shots with flash, camera flashes usually take away from the beauty of the moment. Again, unless you are shooting an extreme closeup, do not be afraid of using ISO 6400 if available. Keep it as low as you can, just don’t be afraid to go there.

Please feel free to write questions below, I will try to answer them as I have time!

Thanks,

Carlos

The first image here is the way I saw that moment. Sun was blasting on the snow, the contrast was intense, my eye was able to see all the detail outside and inside the covered bridge. The original image further below has all the information there, but not the contrast and detailing that I saw. So from the RAW file I created 2 versions of the image, one lighter and one darker. Then some Photoshop magic and voila! For the lay person this is not as easy and while most just care about preserving the moment some do care about the quality of the image. Most cameras today have a setting that allows you to take the same image 2 or 3 times at different ISO or aperture, find this feature and turn it on, when you trigger the camera it will shoot 2-3 times depending on your setting. If you are not using Photoshop or a similar program to bring your shots to life, you will at least have 2-3 variations and be able to choose the one you like best. This is not as easy when shooting people, specially kids as there is a lag of time between each shot, this could be a few milliseconds to a second in older cameras. The newest cameras will give you the option to shot HDR (high dynamic range) images, Google the term for more information. What it does is similar to the above idea but either it will merge the images on the camera or will bring software for you to do it. Even the iPhone has this feature, and plenty of apps out there that will do it too.

I have been shooting digital images since the mid 90′s when Ken Hansen Photographics started demonstrating and selling them.They were incredibly expensive and Ken and Scott were very kind in allowing us to borrow the equipment to test and play with. And while it was not nearly as good as it is today, I fell in love with the technology. I do have to say, I miss shooting with a 4×5 and the eventual use of an 8×10. Few digital cameras reach the quality and feel that those cameras combined with great film and an amazing lab would give.

Thanks for reading,

Carlos Chiossone