Street Photography Part2; Taking Pictures of People in the Street

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Taking Pictures of People in the Street

There are two different styles that you can use in street photography. You can ask for permission to take the pictures of people which lets you get close and focus on one person to focus on emotions etc. or you can take a general view of the scene including more than one person in the frame and don’t ask for permission. Second one is more easy for the starters but if you want to on a subject and get more emotional and expressive getting close to the subject is better. Actually asking people to take their pictures is not that hard after a couple of tries. Of course it also depends what country you are taking pictures in. For example here in Turkey if you ask 10 men, at least 7 of them will give permission to you to take pictures. But when i was in USA i saw that people are more sceptical especially in New York City so it was harder to persuade people there. Because of that most street photographers in USA is taking the pictures without permission in the street which is not ethical in my opinion. Also you may be sued for image thievery, and charged with high fines.

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Most of the street photographers thought and claim that if you go and ask somebody for permission to take his/her picture, the person won’t be natural anymore. But i don’t believe this is true and i have some good examples to prove it. But of course there are somethings that you should do to have natural results. Before taking pictures spend some time with them (if they have enough time) and ask questions about his job or whatever he is doing in that moment. Introduce yourself, tell them why you are taking these pictures. After that the subject will relax and keep doing his/her job and he/she will not pay attention to you that much. Then you start taking pictures. You’ll get good results if you can have a nice connection between you and the subject.Here there are some examples; they are all strangers that i met during a walk in the street, and i asked for permission each of them.

Or you can stand at one point and look through the view finder of your camera and wait for the subject to appear. Also you can point your camera to the people when they don’t know they are being photographed. Most photographers it is the best way to have most natural results. They are two different styles of taking street pictures without permission. When you stand at a certain spot and wait for the subject, you should set a good composition with a not confusing background. In this case you should really wait long to get an impressive result or you’ll only have a picture with a walking man/woman in it. If you use this style your subject can be anyone since he/she is not in the scene until you see him/her in your view finder. Also you can take pictures of the people that you choose. Observing them and waiting for the right moment or action is essential in this style. But as i said earlier, it is not ethical, and you may face some legal consequences.But if you want to use this style and get totally natural results, you can go and ask for permission after taking the shot. If this person doesn’t want to be photographed, you can just delete his/her pictures and showing him/her you deleted them. It will be more ethical plus you won’t be sued. Some pictures that i took without people knowing they are being photographed; (I asked for permission later to publish them.)

Also you can take a general view of street or any other public place including all the people in it. This is better for showing crowdedness of a street, living conditions of people in this street or an event with lots of people included such as a strike, walking and cheering supporters of a sports team etc.In this case you cannot ask for permission to everybody in the scene. Just be sure the faces of people are not recognisable clearly. “Frozen in Time” that i uploaded again in the previous post is a good example for that, there are lots of people in the scene and none of the faces are recognisable.

Of course being sued for the picture that you take is not common, and most people don’t care about it so much. But i mentioned it because being respectful to the rights of people is important to me.

Tomorrow; Street Photography Part 3; Overcoming Shyness