Street Photography Workshop

Last weekend I went on a two day street photography workshop that was run by Maciej Dakowicz and David Solomons.  The first day started with some theory work in the classroom.  We learnt about different street photographers and some of the techniques they used.  Next came three important lessons about what makes a great street photograph and the session was finished off with lessons on lightning and shooting at night.  All the images in this post were taken by me during the workshop, they may not be great images but will serve me as good reminders for the different techniques that were being taught.

More of my images from the workshop can be found HERE

Street photography is a type of photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches and shops.  Street photography uses many techniques that are similar to documentary photography and there is a great deal of overlap between the two.  Documentary photography is more of a social investigation and often has motives to improve society - there is often a higher level of emotional intensity in documentary photography.  There are some great photographers, such as Dario Mitidieri, who can flit between both worlds.

On photo sites like Flickr it is very easy to find street photography groups with whom you can share your images.  One of the better groups is HSCP (Hardcore Street Photography) and many of the images we were shown during the workshop came from members of this group.  Once you start getting very good then there are more professional groups such as iN-PUBLiC who can provide access to publishers etc.

If you want to start out in street photography the basic guidelines are really very simple:

• You should shoot with one camera and one lens - preferably a fixed/prime lens between 28 and 50mm.  I brought along four different lenses to the workshop and had to lug them around all evening as they were left unused in my camera bag.  
• Use digital, especially if you are starting out, as you need fast feedback to see if you are getting the basics like exposure and shutter speed right.
• Don't use a telephoto lens, they are for nature, sport and perving and are therefore not suitable for street work!  When using my Canon 5D Mk2 all of my shots were taken using either the Canon 35mm f2 or Canon 50mm f1.8 lens.  I had a Lumix GX1 with a 20mm f1.7 lens as a small back up but I rarely needed this camera.
• Always carry spare batteries and memory cards (if it's cold keep the spare batteries in an inside pocket to keep them warm and stop them draining too quickly).
• Wear comfortable shots and anticipate changes in weather.

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when shooting in public is fear.  Unfortunately to be a good street photographer you need to overcome this fear and not be afraid to point cameras at people.  One way to practise is take your camera somewhere where they are expected ie tourist attractions and use this to be able to blend in with the tourists.

One important tip we learnt was not to look sneaky.  You may be able to get a secret snap of your subject if you shoot from behind an obstacle but someone else is bound to notice you and may challenge you.  Confidence is massively important - I found that looking like I knew what I was doing really helped, especially when asking people if I could take their portraits.

A few points to note about street photography and the law:

• It is legal to photograph people in a public space in the UK.
• If a building is on private property they may be photographed from public land i.e. the street.
• You can be asked to leave private property ie a pub by the owner if you haven't asked for permission to shoot pictures there.
• A police officer or security guard cannot make you delete a photograph, even if taken on private land.
• You do not need permission to exhibit your pictures, publish them in magazines or on the internet but a model release may be required if the image is being used for commercial purposes.

David Solomons, one of the workshop tutors, breaking the rule about looking sneaky :)

First stop for our practical street workshop was to the pub.  It seems that a mild case of alcoholism is great for building the confidence.  Whilst this was useful at getting rid of some inhibitions about taking photos I found that it made me forget all the important details like checking the full frame and making sure all of the settings were spot on.  Definitely a case of finding the ideal balance of alcohol in the blood stream :).  Whilst we were trying to capture candid shots we also had the task of trying to get posed portraits of complete strangers.  This was a good task for confidence building and, as it was Halloween, there were plenty of people out in fancy dress and thus were easy targets for getting pictures.

All the shots below were taken near Piccadilly Circus with a bit of a drift into Chinatown, Soho and along the theatre district.  I asked for permission and posed the subjects in almost every shot - the zombies and woman in front of the advertising board were taken as candid images.  Everyone I spoke to was more than happy to have their picture taken and I was never threatened or turned down.  Almost all of the pictures were taken using the 35mm lens and so I was only two or three feet away from the subjects.

The second day of the workshop started with a review of the previous day's images and tips for picking images for final selection.  I had taken about 300 shots during the previous day/night and in all there was only 2 or 3 that the tutors thought were any good - although several more that I was happy with!  The final session of the afternoon was a trip to Brick Lane for more portraits and candid shots.  Anyone wanting to practice this sort of photography should head on down there - it is full of characters and photographers and so you won't even raise an eyebrow as you work.  The following four portraits were all asked for; the difficult bit was waiting for the subject to stop hamming up for the camera and then relax for a more informal shot.  I even managed to find someone relatively famous to take a picture of :)

I was still looking for interesting street scenes and the following four are my favourite from the afternoon.  The first three are candid images, they aren't perfect but I'm really pleased with the way they came out.  The final image was posed for me by the subject, a lovely lady who put up with me leaning directly over her shoulder for a good few minutes until I got the shot I was after.

I had an amazing time during the workshop and I feel that my whole view of photography has improved as a result of the lessons and practical elements that it covered.  I have become far more critical of my own images and have been forced not just to blindly accept mediocre images any more.

The ten things I learnt from the workshop:

1. Don't be afraid of rejection if asking for a portrait or of an aggressive encounter when taking candids.  Not everyone is an ex-cage fighter psycho killer and most people are friendly if you explain honestly what you are doing.
2. When shooting at night make sure you find a good source of light (as you wont be using a flash)
3. Don't silhouette your subject unless it's a deliberate choice, if they've agreed to a portrait then move then to face the light.
4. Shoot in manual mode during the day, a setting of f11, 1/500 and ISO 400 is a good starting point.  If you need to change for a specific shot then do it using shutter/aperture priority mode and then go back to full manual.
5. If shooting at night with a modern camera then don't fear ISO 1600 or 3200  - there may be some noise when you zoom in on the image on screen later but you can still print with amazing quality.  The important aspect is shutter speed as you need to be able to work at 1/200 or faster to capture candids.
6. Busy streets are great for action but really hard to get a clean shot of the subject.  Use a shallow depth of field or better still change your position to isolate your subjects.
7. Walking through a street may get results but it is easier to find a good spot and wait for the action to come to you.  Especially true if you find somewhere with good lighting or an interesting background.
8. Don't rely on taking one picture of the 'moment'.  If you spot a scene developing then take several different pictures to work the scene - it was the thing we got told off for the most as even the great photographers may take 10+ shots to get the perfect one.
9. Before you hit the shutter release you must try to look at the whole of the frame, there's nothing worse than capturing a great moment only to realise you've clipped out a hand or foot or that something really distracting is in the corner of the shot.
10. Don't take pictures of people on their phones (we all did!), it's been done to death and you should only consider it if your subject has an interesting face, is doing something unusual or is in fabulous light.

Klein and Moriyama at the Tate Modern

The approach to the Tate Modern on Bankside, London

A few posts back I mentioned my outrage at the Phaidon 55 book on Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama.  Since then every photo magazine I look at has been going on about how amazing his work is and how important the images are for the field of street photography.

I must admit that the constant deluge of images has had a positive effect on me and I can see some artistic beauty in them (in some of them anyway).  In order to broaden my horizons further I thought I better go along to the Tate Modern and view their special exhibition on William Klein and Daido Moriyama.

Just in case you didn't know the exhibition was on!

Due to other commitments I only had an hour at the gallery.  Having been to several exhibitions this year I thought that it would be enough time but I was wrong.  This is one of the largest photography exhibitions I have seen and the space devoted to the two artists is extensive.

A very small portion of two of the Klein rooms

The photo above shows part of the Klein space.  I hadn't realised that he was also a videographer and there were two of his films on show on a constant loop - I didn't have time to watch both but they will be something I include on my next visit.  The picture doesn't really show the scale of the images on display.  The 'small' white panels on the left of the shot have been used to divide the room and they are over two metres high.

Some of Klein's work has been displayed in a contact sheet style as seen in William ABC  these panels were very large in size and totally dominated some of the rooms.

Entry to Moriyama's rooms

As I moved through the Klein galleries I recognised several of the images from his work.  I am not very familiar with much of it but have ordered some of his books to brush up on this important street photographer.  Aware of the time I pressed on into Moriyama's gallery space and was greeted by an image I knew only too well from my previous post: a prostitute smoking a cigarette.

The fish net tights are almost hidden away

Walking through the gallery and studying the pictures I found that several images jumped out at me, all ones that I had seen in photo magazines over the past few months.  It took me a while to find the famous fish net tights shots (as seen on a recent cover of the BJP magazine).  Individually there were several images that I thought were weak, just snap shots that had been converted to black and white with the contrast cranked up to full.  As a series they were far stronger and served to show the Shinjuku region of Tokyo in a dark but interesting light.

The dog!

One whole wall was devoted to the various version of the stray dog image that I so lambasted in my previous post.  The original image is the small shot in the bottom left of the frame and was detailed and only slightly over exposed.  It was interesting to see the process that Moriyama had gone through to create his perfect vision of this image.  I think there is a lot of character in this simple capture and have grown to like this image.  I'm sorry that my photo is clipped but these were massive images and I only had a 50mm lens on my camera.

As you leave the final room you are taken through into the exhibition shop.  There is a really wide selection of books from the two artists complimented by some general works on street photography.  I was lucky that I managed to escape the building spending less than £100 and could so easily have spent a fortune.  I was quite excited by the prospect of getting my hands on some issues of the 'Record' magazine but at £33 each (gulp) I had to put them back on the shelf.  One thing that was missing from the store was an exhibition book that covered the works on display - perhaps there were licensing issues?

After I got back home I went through the street images I had taken whilst at the Tate.  So, in homage to Klein and Moriyama, I present my photo 'Mirrored' taken right outside the front door of the gallery.  Perhaps I need to add more contrast and grain? :)

Mirrored

Favourite Olympic Pictures

My Favourite Olympic Pictures

The most amazing sports show on earth has temporarily come to a close, ready to start all over again with the Paralympics in only a few weeks time.  In the brief respite I thought I would share my favourite images from the London 2012 Olympics.  I have tried to steer away from the obvious shots and have chosen ones that may have slipped past your radar.

I'n not normally a fan of the tilt-shift effect as it is poorly used and normally just a blur applied to a normal shot.  When done properly though the 'toy town' look can be remarkable as in the show jumping image by Alex Livesey above.

The long look - the compressing effect of a telephoto lens is put to great effect here by crunching 110 metres into a few inches.  The runner is in a good position but it is a pity that the head isn't cleanly framed.

I love the detail in this shot and the large exposure range.  I tried something similar at a moto-cross rally and ended up with either blurry but well lit riders or dark, sharp riders.  Shooting towards the sky is tricky and I can only assume the photographer used off camera flash to get this image.

There will be more on fish eye lenses later but I felt that this shot was an ideal place to use one.  I would love to see the contact sheet for this series, I bet that dozens were taken but only one ended up perfectly framed with a splash on the lens.  The curve caused by the extremely wide angle lens adds to the sense of nausea.  At first I hated the bubble in the top left of the frame but it serves as a visual counterbalance for the boat in the bottom right.

 I think that it is the extreme angle of the basketball player that makes this image leap out at me from the pack.  The use of negative space really serves to isolate the player and the brightness of his uniform and diagonal lines bring life to the image.

Colour contrast and positioning make this image work for me.  The leading lines of the court, racquet and even the player's body draws the eye into the frame.  You can't see the player's face but the stance and clenched fists clearly show that this was a victory.  Shots like this take prior preparation, I can't imagine you are allowed to hover above the playing field whilst a match is in progress.

A very strange image and one that I haven't seen replicated elsewhere whilst I researched this article.  This is midway through a hurdles races.  There are plenty of images where the runners are pin sharp and the background blurred.  This image struck me as odd because the background lines were so straight.  When you look at the strange pink shapes in the bottom left of the shot you can see distorted hurdles.  I'm guessing this was taken with a fish eye lens and then the shot was straightened in Photoshop afterwards.  Strange but effective. (Image copyright Sports Illustrated/Getty).

For me this shot perfectly captures what it means to be a successful athlete at the Games.  Mo Farah won two gold medals and was the centre of attention amongst the British contingent during the closing ceremony.  It looks like Mo is getting his picture taken close up by a camera phone with a bright fill light.  The pro photographer further away from the scene has been able to use this light to frame Mo and put him squarely in the centre of attention.  The only bit I find distracting is the young man to the left of frame by Mo, perhaps a decrease in exposure would have enhanced the effect.  (Image copyright Sports Illustrated/Getty)

I promised more fish eye action and here it is.  I was watching the steeple chase as it unfolded on TV.  The majority of the photographers positioned their cameras by the large water jump in the hope of getting a shot of someone falling over.  I don't think anyone fell but this image was definitely worth the wait.  The image is full of drama and life and I can almost hear the water splashing as I look at it.

The speed of cycling is captured perfectly in this image.  Everything is 'wrong' about this picture - the horizon is crooked, the image blurry and the cyclist is in the wrong side of the frame (he has no where to 'cycle' to).  But none of that matters for me as the loneliness and speed of the pursuit races is caught here.

And finally my favourite image from the games (and I bet it's not what you expected) ....

I think it is the growing love I have for candid documentary photography that draws me to this picture.  Technically I think this is a brilliant capture; the depth of field is spot on, colours vivid and exposure perfect.  It is the lighting on the heart being made by the boxer that really pulls this shot from good to great.  The stereotype of burly boxer and the associated macho image is blown away by the simple heart shape he makes to the crowd. His face is lit just enough to show his joy and I find this shot really moving.