1. Engage your subjects. Talk to people, most of them really really like it. This is in fact one of the joys of street photography, getting to interact with tons of different people, learning about their lives and connecting. Your photos will become richer too, if you know a little something about the person you are photographing.
2. Anticipate or Follow. Anticipate a photograph by noticing your subject before they end up in front of your camera. Watch them coming down the street, let them get close to you or enter the scene you've had your eye on, point your camera only when you are ready to shoot.
If you see someone you really want to photograph, but they happen to be across the street or walking away from you, just follow them. Walk ahead of them if you don't want a picture of just their back. Or even better still, catch up to them and ask them if you can photograph them. Don't let the perfect subject slip away!
3. Shoot from the hip. Remember when shooting from the hip point your camera up towards the direction of people faces (though sometimes people shoes can be just as interesting). Shooting from the hip means you don't get a chance to compose your picture as you can't really see the screen, but the chance element often creates new and interesting composition that might surprise you. Remember you can shoot from the raised arm length pointing your camera down, or any other variations of sticking the camera into a scene and letting luck do work its magic.
4. Vantage, vantage, vantage! Vantage point is everything. Practice bending down and shooting from one bended knee, or even lower down to the ground, finding ledges, steps, or tall buildings to look down from or take in the view from a different perspective. The smallest variation of your body will effect the way your picture projects information.
5. Foreground relationships. Remember filling your foreground with an objects really helps to place the viewer into the scene and creates a dynamic images. Always be on the look out for objects that can fill your foreground and add a dimension to the scene you are photographing.
6. Reflections are a world of their own. Reflective surfaces double the amount of information in the photograph. Watching reflections in a photograph is also a bit surreal since it is almost always difficult to tell apart reality and reflection. Use reflective surfaces to your benefit.
Some things to try this week:
1. Shoot in the dark. Try to shoot with a high ISO setting indoor lighting and towards the night hours. See what kind of colors you can come up with and the effect it has on your images.
2. Use your flash. Use it at night, at twilight, and as a fill during the day. Experiment with the effect it has on your colors and ability to capture motion in dim lighting situations. Make soft box out of tissue or white paper. Here is a link to a pretty solid soft box, if you have time to make one, I recommend it. http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Soft-Box-for-Your-On-Camera-Flash
3. Think About COLOR. Shooting black and white allowed us to leave color behind and focus only on composition - creating structure where there was none. A difficult task in and of itself. Adding color into the mix opens up possibilities but also add a layer of difficulty. Try to photograph this week with color in mind. Are the colors within your frame complementing each other or creating discord? Start simple, using mostly similar colors with in the frame with a dash of brilliant color. Find complementary colors, find large swatches of color, find saturated colors, focus on the skin tone color.
4. Practice the lessons we learned on Saturday!
Good luck!! Can't wait to see more pictures on the blog this week.
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