This Is How To Do Street Photography With People

I show my own images (and those of Marion West) just for fun (this is of mine from Carribana 2024 in Toronto) while I post on a variety of photography-related subjects on this site. And with a photo walk I’m leading coming up this weekend in Oakville, Ontario I thought we might look at how to approach strangers on the street.

So to show everyone how to interact with people on the street I offer this very excellent video by Lashmar (aka The Street Thief) who is a master of getting strangers to pose for him.

Notice how he so often starts “the ask” for a photo with a compliment. He engages his potential subjects in a friendly conversation. Notice how often these strangers get into the act and start posing for him.

Notice too how he’s using a very small mirrorless camera. That’s not to say you can’t use a bigger camera (there’s a guy shooting street portraits in New York City with an 4″X5″ camera which comes out around $20 US per shot!) but the smaller camera with a wide angle lens allows Lashmar to get in close while not intimidating his subjects. It’s more intimate and personal and as Lashmar says there’s more “magic”.

Based solely on my own experience I bet Lashmar has his camera setup like a point and shoot. That means, using a light meter, (likely the one in the camera) he has set his shutter speed to 1/250th of a second (maybe 1/500) and his aperture at f/11 (maybe f/16). What this means is he no longer has to focus as at f/11 or f/16 everything is within his depth of field from a few feet to infinity and his camera will stop any movement of his subjects and stop any camera shake originating from his own hands. And thus it’s a point and shoot!

We will go over this setup on Saturday.

Something he does which I recommend is he tells all of his subjects that they can freely download the image he’s shot. For this you need an online gallery on Flickr. This was my commercial site and there are scores of hidden galleries that I made for clients.) or SmugMug (which I am currently using).

A simple way to direct people to your site is to have inexpensive business cards made up with the web address for your gallery printed on it. You can add other information like your name and email address if you wish or if you’re thinking of shooting some professional work.

Another photographer uses his cellphone to show people his online gallery and someone else had a photo page that they carry and show potential subjects a collage of their recent street photos.

All of these methods help to encourage strangers to say “yes” when asked for a portrait.

Now on our walk this Saturday (rain or shine) you don’t have to shoot people. You can and I will encourage you to do so but you don’t have to. You can take candids of people where your subject never even knows you’ve take a photo or like Lashmar you can ask for permission and then setup your image.

People don’t have to be in your street shots at all. There are street photographers who only shoot inanimate objects like buildings and windows and street stuff.

As I’ve said elsewhere, street photography is one of the most difficult forms of photography because it is not about what or who is in your image. It’s about you – the photographic artist – and your relationship to world around you. That is what you’re expressing in your images.

This is why it’s impossible to provide a meaningful critique of anyone’s street photography. Why? Because the subject isn’t in the photo, it’s all about the photographer and their vision. It’s about their artistic impression of the world around them on that day and in that place at that moment.

Certainly you can have your opinion about whether or not you like the image but because it is the art of an artist, in this case a photographic artist, then it is unique and singular and lives on its own terms.

That is what makes street photography so very exciting – whether or not you have people in the frame.

Hope to see you on Saturday.