Street Portraits & Photos | The Challenge of the Street Photographer

The Challenge of Street Portraits & Street Photography

Street portraiture and street photography is often quite deceptively simple looking. One might easily think it’s just a matter of ‘right time, right place.’ And maybe there is some truth to that. More precisely, that is true but it’s just a tiny element that makes up a larger network of thinking and skill. The old saying goes “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” comes to mind.

It’s all well and good being there in the moment when something catches your eye but being experienced in doing that mental checklist is vital.

  • Am I framing correctly, and what do I want to convey?
  • Is my shutter speed slow enough to capture movement?
  • What aperture do I have?
  • Do I want to the background in focus or not?
  • Is my subject sharp?
  • Can I get the subject candidly?

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These are all questions that shoot through a photographer’s mind in a split second. In that “decisive moment” as Henri Cartier-Bresson so eloquently put it. It takes a lot of practice to have all these questions in the moment covered. It takes speed, courage and wit. Often times the photographer battles external factors. People dashing by, traffic, noise, street workers, commercial vehicles.

Now, think back to the quote… “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” The next time you see a photo, caught in the moment, think that the photographer is asking all those questions, battling with the light, the environment, the technology and the speed to get the right settings.

What he means is that knowing when to say “no” is almost a discipline and virtue in and of itself…

The wise and acclaimed street photographer, John Free says and I’m paraphrasing, “that it’s about not taking the photo as much as it is taking the photo.” What he means is that knowing when to say “no” is almost a discipline and virtue in and of itself. He has a technique a sort of code or standard he goes by when trying he decides to fire his shutter.

On his blog which I will link below, he calls this technique or exercises the “Challenge of Three that I designed for photographers to keep in shape….These three things must be either visible in the photograph or must be something that the photographer was thinking when the photo was made. The background, the foreground and their relation to the center of interest, must be established visually.”

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It is these challenges that have served well for John Free’s body of work. And you can see how challenging it is. If you read this article I challenge you to try Free’s challenge out. It’s fun and but very tricky.

Street portraiture is my favourite portraiture because it combines the element of street photography with elements of a constructed photoshoot. It’s outdoors, you have an interesting background and changing the light. It’s very challenging but in a good way.

Check out John Free’s blog here. 

© Photos by Kapture Lab

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