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When you ask people for permission to take their pictures they’ll know you will take their picture and act or behave unnaturally. To make them forget about the picture and you, after talking to them a while, look through your viewfinder often even you don’t take the shots and keep talking to them. As the subject see you photographing him/her and environment at first he/she may be nervous but after a while they’ll get used to the the camera and you then they’ll start to act natural again.

After this point you are almost invisible to them, and you can start taking pictures.

Some photographers use a piece of cloth to cover their cameras in order to be “invisible” in the public, i actually don’t know how it works. I didn’t see anybody doing that around me. And i’m pretty sure i get suspicious if i see somebody pointing something covered with a piece of cloth to the people in the street. But the main point is some photographers want public to be totally unaware of them when they are doing their job. If you are one of these photographers, and you say “i’m not going to walk in streets with a cloth covered camera, than i advice you to take the shots from first or second store of a building, hiding behind curtains etc. Of course you’ll need a tele lens to be able to shoot from distance. Some other photographers use wide lenses and most people don’t notice they are included in the frame. Also there are some special lenses that bend and shoot to the side, not in front of the camera directly. Again people won’t understand, they are being subject to a picture if you use these kind of lenses.

As always i want to remind you that taking pictures of people without their permission is not ethical or legal.

It is hard to go out and point your camera to the people in the street. Shyness is the problem for every photographer who is trying to take pictures of people in the street for the first time. Although i’m not taking street photographs often, i tried this category of photography several times. Going out and asking strangers that “May i take a picture of you?” was really hard for me.

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To overcome shyness best way is trying once… After you trying it once, you’ll be more relaxed and probably won’t afraid to talk to people after a couple of tries. Smile and be kind when you are asking people for permission to take their pictures. Most of them won’t say no, but remember to talk with them in order to relax them (also see my last post about taking pictures of people in the street). Talking with people will help you increase your communication skills . When you approach people friendly you’ll get friendly responses.
Also remember there’s nothing to afraid of, in worst case scenerio they’ll say no, say “ok, thanks for your attention” and that’s it. No one will shoot you just becouse you asked for permisson to take his/her pictures.

If you are too shy, i mean really shy and there’s no way you’ll talk to the people than i suggest you to have a tele lens and take the shots from distance. If you cannot either point your camera to somebody even from a distance. Stand at a point in the street and wait for subject to walk in the frame. But again ask yourself how ethical it is to take pictures of people without their permission and what will you feel if you see somebody pointing his/her huge tele lens to you when you are walking in the street. I’m telling once more in my opinion best way to have street pictures (if you want to include people and if they are certainly recognisable) asking them for permission. (Unless there’s something that you cannot wait or shouldn’t miss).

Tomorrow; Street Photography Part 4; Being Invisible

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

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Street photography holds up a mirror to the public and people. The subjects of street photography are the normal people that you see everyday around you. Considering this it is more sincere than glamour or fashion photography that takes the most beautiful women and most handsome men as the subjects. Street photography also tends to capture the details and unexpected events of the life. Focuses on conditions and feelings of the people in the street. My picture “Frozen in Time” can be an example for street photography.

That is all for today. Part 2 will be published tomorrow.

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When shooting environmental portraits, spend time with the person that is the subject of your picture. Talk them about their lives, hobbies, and whatever you want to include about his/her life in the picture. Talking helps people to relax and feel more comfortable when you are around. Try to be friendly and warm. Do not start taking pictures immediately, after a while he/she will forget that you are there, and focus on her/his job again. It is easier to capture nice photographs when people are totally natural. So wait until he/she forgets you are there and focuses on the thing that he/she is doing then start taking pictures. Try to not to distract him/her. And capture the best moments of the person in his/her environment, while he/she is laughing with friends, angry, happy, bored etc.

An examine the good examples. National Geographic photographers are really successful and in this kind of photography. I advice you to take a look at the National Geographic – People and Culture Galleries for the best examples for environmental portraits.

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In landscapes and cityscapes including people in you photograph helps viewers to understand how big the other objects are and giving them a sense of scale. Also people add depth to plain and empty grounds and repeated geometrical shapes in a city or building. I think the-master-photographer Gilad Benari’s work will explain what i mean better than my words, as you know “a picture is worth a thousand words.” (I cannot publish his pictures here in my website, because i didn’t ask for permission to him but i’ll give links to his works at DA instead)

Out of Reach , Voyage Trough the Void , Pulling Out the Sun , Times Square , Thinking Outside the Box , Corridor of Faith

Also people can be the part of the scene, as a climber climbing to a mountain, including the climber in your picture when you are shooting the mountain only makes the photograph more interesting and beautiful.

But don’t forget;

• Don’t take pictures of people without their permission unless their face is not recognizable.
• Respect the privacy of people
• Remember people can sue you because of “image thievery”