Beginner Street Photography Projects (That actually BUILD skill)
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Why is street photography one of the hardest genres of photography to learn?
It's mainly because there's no real one way to do it.
Well folks, what if I told you that there is a way that you can get really good at street
photography simply by just partaking in a few projects.
Today we're going to be talking about some street photography projects you can do as a beginner
that are going to help you improve your street photography.
In fact, I created four simple projects that are going to
help you build your necessary skills and fundamentals as a street photographer.
And as long as you have a camera and you have a way to
get to one of your favorite places to photograph, you have everything you need to get started.
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Now by the end of this video,
you are going to learn four of the projects that help me develop my skills for street photography.
You'll be able to identify what to look for out on the street,
as well as some of the technical aspects and basic compositions.
Now the first project we're going to be talking about is called fishing for scenes.
And fishing for scenes is going to refer to the practice of fishing for a subject.
Street photography is one of those genres where you don't really have a set subject.
And one of the main things you need to learn about street photography is timing.
So that is the objective for this first exercise.
We are going to essentially be talking about timing.
The first thing that I want you to do is walk around and find a nice wall with a background.
This could be with a really nice striking shadow moving down,
or it could even be some type of art on the wall.
The next step is to grab your camera and pull it up to your face.
Now while you're looking at the wall, I want you to frame your composition.
You want to look inside of the viewfinder and get it to a point where you feel like
whatever is there is nicely in your frame.
From then on, you are going to fish.
And all this means is you're going to set your composition with your camera already,
and you're just going to wait for someone to walk through that frame.
But the idea here, folks, is to really get a sense of timing.
You want to be able to see where this person needs to be in the frame
so that they interact with that background.
Now once you do that, you want to wait until they're at the perfect point in your composition
and make the photograph.
And I want you to do this maybe two to three times.
Photograph someone walking through the frame this way.
Photograph someone walking through the frame that way.
And really get a rhythm for where people need to be in your frame before you make the image.
It's extremely simple.
And a lot of times you can find really interesting things out on the street,
especially in like midday light where the shadows are huge.
And they're casting this beautiful light.
Practice your timing by fishing for a scene.
Next up, light and shadow play.
Now the objective for this project is simple.
You want to make a photograph using highlights and shadows together in one frame.
And this is a really popular thing amongst photographers who shoot black and white
because you can create some really cool compositions just simply using shadows and highlights.
A lot of times these shadows cast really beautiful geometric patterns.
And you can really utilize that pattern between your highlight and shadow
to create some amazing compositions.
But there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind.
Number one, you want to expose for your highlights.
And the reason for this is because while your highlights are going to be nicely exposed,
your shadows are going to get crushed.
AKA it's just going to be completely blacked out.
Now this is going to create a very contrasty look.
And as a result, it's going to give you that nice stark contrast that a lot of street photographers love.
Now the next thing we're going to be talking about, folks, is called photographing scenes.
And photographing scenes essentially just means if you see something out on the street
that you find interesting, whether that's a group of people or maybe a really nice car,
or let's just say there's a busy intersection
and you notice there's a lot of activity that you want to document.
You want to be able to craft a scene.
Now where the focal length of your lens comes into play
is going to be the distance in which you photograph a scene.
So if you're shooting with something like a 28 millimeter or even like a 35 millimeter lens,
you want to be able to photograph scenes from about 10 feet away.
And if you're using a manual focus lens, all I want you to do is set your focus to 10 feet.
And the best part about street photography is no one can tell you what to photograph.
You essentially just photograph what you like as well as kind of like what you see.
And if you see something that is interesting and you want to make a photograph of it,
that is your decision.
Now let's say you have a lens that is like a 50 millimeter or maybe even like a 40 millimeter,
something that's a little bit tighter.
You want to shoot your scenes at around 15 feet away.
And folks, the objective of this project is simple.
You want to get used to photographing people.
About 95% of street photography is of other people.
And in my opinion, that's what makes street photography beautiful.
You know, you're capturing scenes that oftentimes are candid.
They're not planned.
And you know, you really have to be lucky to capture something really interesting.
So by giving yourself distance where you're not too far, but you're also not too close,
you kind of get that motion in.
You can confidently pull the camera to your face and make a picture.
As you get more comfortable photographing scenes from about 10 feet,
move a little bit closer.
Maybe go to 8 feet.
Once you're a little bit more familiarized with that, maybe you could go to 5 feet.
You're going to build that confidence.
And confidence is key in street photography.
And as for the last prompt slash project, I'm going to be giving you guys three basic compositions.
And your goal is to find one of each of these compositions and utilize them within the photograph.
The first composition is going to be a leading line.
And leading lines are absolutely everywhere.
And if you don't know what a leading line is,
think of it as a line that's going to drag your eye from one end of the frame
to the other end of the frame.
And while your eyes follow that line, it's going to be able to tell a story.
Now, the way I like to utilize my leading line is to always make sure that there is a payoff.
And the payoff is essentially going to just be your subject,
which should be somewhere along that leading line or at the very end.
It's called that because your eyes are going to get paid off from following that line.
The next composition that you're going to look for is something called a subframe.
And a subframe is essentially just a frame within a frame.
Now, if you make a photograph and there's something that has four corners,
you can easily isolate a subject or a story.
By doing this, you're naturally going to be drawing your viewer's attention
to whatever is within that box or rectangle.
And really quick, just for clarification,
it doesn't have to just be a square or rectangle.
It could literally be any shape.
Subframes are absolutely everywhere.
They're on garbage cans.
They're in the street.
They're on buildings.
And it's your job as a photographer to learn how to identify these things,
learn how to identify a leading line,
and learn how to identify what a subframe is.
And if you didn't know already, that is the main objective for this stuff.
You want to learn these compositional elements
because they're not the main focus of your pictures.
But think of them as tools.
Think of them as helpful aids to help you tell your story.
You're essentially showing your subject where to look.
And last but not least, folks, we have reflections.
Now, there's a few different ways to utilize reflections.
The first way is through symmetry.
Our human eyes are naturally drawn to symmetry.
And so if you find something that can kind of mirror a subject,
you're going to create a scene that is extremely beautiful.
But on the flip side, reflections can also be used to reveal a subject.
So for example, a puddle on the ground kind of showing a building
or maybe something like a mirror showing someone's face in it
even though their back is turned to you.
And just like the other two, reflections are everywhere.
In fact, the next time you walk down the street,
look around at the storefronts.
You know, look at different mirrors.
Look at cars.
In fact, identify three reflections around you right now.
I'm pretty sure there are three
that are somewhere in the space that you're in currently.
And once you kind of learn how to piece all of these different projects together,
these are essentially all the skills that you need
to get started with street photography.
And from then on, it's just like building blocks.
You learn this right now, then you move on to the next thing,
then you move on to the next.
And ultimately, the biggest piece of advice that I got
when I first started shooting street photography
is to continuously shoot every single day.
It doesn't mean you have to dedicate five or six hours.
It could be maybe like a 30-minute walk at the end of your workday.
You know, take your camera out.
It could be just around the block even.
But you want to practice this like a muscle.
These are, in my opinion, the absolute fundamentals
when it comes to street photography.
Now, I am going to be running a little fun challenge.
If you want to share your results with me,
post your results on Instagram and use the hashtag Fishing for Scenes.
And if there are a lot of people that actually partake in this,
I will be sharing some results as well in an upcoming video.
But that's going to wrap it up for this video.
I hope it was informative.
All I ask is that you drop a like down below
and also subscribe if you're brand new.
I'll see you guys in the next episode.
As always, minolta gang.