Before I delve into the three main categories that I see under the umbrella of street photography (‘life’, ‘portraits’ and ‘environment’, see previous blog), I want to talk a little about the importance of light. Now, whole books have been written on this subject and, while I may do that at some stage, not here and not now.
So…will keep this high level and focus on one specific style of image that appeals to me – those shots with high contrast – strong shadows and specific areas of light highlighting a point of interest, usually a human element.
Photography, clearly, is all about the capture of light. When thinking about how to create a compelling image, awareness and use of light can make a significant difference to your final image. For this style of photography, I would highly recommend a YouTube video by Sean Tucker, a London based photographer who does a lot of street work. His video, “Protect Your Highlights” is well worth a watch.
As always, I write this blog from my own perspective, based on my experiences and my personal tastes. - I am in no way portraying myself as the Final Word on this subject. However, I do hope some of this will resonate and give food for thought in your own photography.
My favourite time of day for street photography is early morning, just after sunrise. The quality of light at this time of day is well documented – the Golden Hour – but I often shoot in black and white, rendering this aspect largely irrelevant to me. Instead, I like the effect the low-lying sun has on shadows. I have added examples below, with brief commentary. Choosing the right location is important as you want a “dramatic shadow” effect. There’s no point going out at the right time of day and subsequently discovering that your ideal location is either fully lit or entirely in shadow – that awareness is important.
There is an app that is very helpful in this regard – “The Photographer’s Ephemeris”. This wonderful app gives times of sunrise and sunset along with a great wee map showing the direction and path of the sun over the course of the day. For me, this is a “must have” app and I have posted a sample screenshot below. A good weather app is also useful – no point going to a great location if any anticipated light effects are ruined by cloud cover.
In addition to the light quality and the effect on shadows, I take great enjoyment from experiencing a town or city as it wakes up in the morning. When I travel, I try to walk the streets around sunrise. Being part of a city coming to life and capturing that on camera can be a rewarding experience. In many parts of Asia, especially, with local markets setting up and that feeling of early morning hustle and bustle – that experience is an absolute highlight of any travel in my mind. Another benefit of early mornings is that you tend to avoid crowds and other tourists, giving you more time to make the most of your photography.
OK, so you’ve got a location, the weather works, you get some interesting shots – what next? Post Processing, or pp, that’s what. This is just the editing process. Ideally you want to get images as close to “right” as you can in camera, but all images can benefit from some editing work – don’t fear it, don’t be put off by photography elitists who scorn pp work. Even the greats did it, back in the day is of film. Embrace it, use it. For the high contrast images my workflow is fairly simple in Lightroom – I tend to bring the shadows down (make them darker) and adjust the highlight slider to a level where I’m happy – and a crop if needed. That’s about it, most of the time. Colour photos may require some more tweaking than b/w.
The essence of this blog is to encourage readers to think about light and how to use that to produce interesting images in the style of the ones shown below. The main takeaways are:
Be aware of sunrise/sunset times (And the weather! Cloud cover can ruin light…)
Scout for a good location in advance.
Look for “local” activity, such as a market.
Expose for your highlights. Shooting in “aperture priority” is my suggestion, balancing ISO and shutter speed accordingly.
Get right what you can in camera, but don’t be afraid of post processing. Even Ansel Adams* did it.
To help understand exposure, I’d recommend this book, Understanding Exposure, Fourth Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera
* For those of you not familiar with Ansel Adams, Ansel Adams' Yosemite: The Special Edition Prints will give you some insight into the man and his images.
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A screenshot from The Photographer’s Ephemeris - especially useful when shooting a sunrise or sunset, but can also help with street photography
An example of a “deep shadow” image with strong lines and the human element to add context and interest
For this image, I knew the location in advance and waited for the moment - for someone to walk into the light. Shadows were darkened in Lightroom.
“Tokyo Nights”. Artificial lighting can also be used. Here, the subject has walked under a street light. Again, pp work was used to darken the shadows and remove some distractions.