Street Photography Composition Lesson #4: Leading Lines
All photos in this article are copyrighted by their respective photographers. For today’s street photography composition lesson– I would like to discuss leading lines. Leading lines are one of the most basic photography compositional techniques– I am sure you have all heard of it before. Whenever I look at a photograph, the first question I ask myself is: who is the subject? If I cannot easily identify who the main subject is– it causes me to get stressed out and disoriented. Therefore you can utilize leading lines to point out your main subject to the viewer. I will bring up some examples to further illustrate the importance of leading lines: Josef Koudelka : CZECHOSLOVAKIA. 1963. © Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos : CZECHOSLOVAKIA. 1963. In this compelling photo by Koudelka for his “Gypsies” book — you see a man dead in the center of the frame, hands in handcuffs– and onlookers in the background. The feeling of the photograph is tense. Henri Cartier-Bresson FRANCE. 1932. I doubt it. 1. 2.
Photographic Psychology: The Decisive Moment
I dedicate this article to the memory of Richard Zakia, whose support and insights made it possible. This research was funded by a grant from Rider University. In 1952 Henri Cartier-Bresson, a founder of modern photojournalism, proposed one of the most fascinating and highly debated concepts in the history of photography: “the decisive moment.” Now that I’ve proposed this deceptively simple definition of the DM, I’d like to explore the concept in more depth. Before beginning an in depth exploration of the DM, let me first briefly summarize my conclusions about what it entails. 1. Cartier-Bresson’s Viewpoint In 1952 Cartier-Bresson published Images à la Sauvette, which roughly translates as “images on the run” or “stolen images.” “I kept walking the streets, high-strung, and eager to snap scenes of convincing reality, but mainly I wanted to capture the quintessence of the phenomenon in a single image. Manufactured or staged photography does not concern me. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1. 2. 3.
juxtaposition nandan nagwekar
The F-Stops Here - Street photography: crop or crap?
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10 Things Not To Do As a Street Photographer
(Above image “Untitled” by Christos Kapatos) I just finished reading “The Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, where he discusses many misconceptions and fallacies that we face as humans. He talks from a scientific-philosophical viewpoint, and has many fascinating insights. One of them was about knowledge—and that it isn’t necessarily additive—rather something subtractive. For example, a good stock-broker won’t tell you what to do, but rather what not to do. Therefore for this blog post I will share some of my insights and experiences in street photography in terms of what not to do. 1.Dont shoot standing up One of the things I always advise people against when shooting street photography is shooting standing up. Of course this depends on the situation. 2.Dont shoot street performers or the homeless Shooting street performers or the homeless are easy targets. Street performers have their photo taken all the time, and aren’t challenging to take photos of. 5.Don’t waste time focusing
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Amateur street photography: a beginner's guide | Art and design
Picture the scene: you're out on the sidewalk – maybe shopping, chatting or just daydreaming. Suddenly, you notice a shifty-looking bloke pointing a camera at you. What's your reaction? Discomfort, embarrassment – anger? Before you lose your temper, spare a thought for the person behind the camera. So why do we do it? We talk about "taking" a photograph, but the process is nowhere near as one-sided as the word implies. City streets are a great place to take photographs. For those who yearn to make the leap from admiring other people's photographs to photographing other people, street photography is the obvious starting point. Ironically, street photographers expose themselves to even more scrutiny than their subjects. Hostility A negative reaction is what every nervous neophyte most expects and fears. Resentment This is often just an expression of self-consciousness. Act naturally. If you do get caught taking someone's photo, you might as well make sure you've taken it. Disapproval Posing
Street Photography Composition Lesson #5: Depth
All of the photos in this article are copyrighted by their respective photographers. For today’s composition lesson I want to focus on a compositional technique that is more utilized by intermediate/advanced photographers. It is the idea of depth. What exactly is “depth” anyways? Well, the Merrian-Webster dictionary provides this definition (which we generally think of when it comes to spatial relationships): a: the perpendicular measurement downward from a surfaceb: the direct linear measurement from front to back For the purposes of photography and composition, we will use b (the direct linear measurement from front to back). But the problem is with photographs are that they are 2-dimensional. I have mentioned this in previous articles, but composition for composition’s sake is pointless to me. Therefore let us never forget the more important definition of depth (when it comes to photography) as Google provides: Depth: Complexity and profundity of thought. © William Klein Takeaway point: 1.
Theater of the Streets, Shot On Google Glass
Richard Koci Hernandez—@koci_glass Taken in San Fransisco, an image posted to the photographer's @koci_glass Instagram account on June 24, 2013. More than a century ago, in New York City, Paul Strand began creating some of the earliest candid street photography. Today, “I finally feel like my eye is a camera,” says Richard Koci Hernandez, an Emmy award-winning multimedia producer, photojournalist and professor of New Media. Hernandez spoke to LightBox about his work, the newest tool in his arsenal and what it all means for the future of street photography. You’ve been doing street photography for 25 years. Street photography for me is not so much about going out to hunt for pictures, but allowing them to come to me in my daily life. Take me through the progression of cameras you’ve used. My first camera was a Minolta range finder, then a Nikon FM2, then I went through the iterations of professional cameras. When digital cameras came along, I wasn’t a big fan.
Street Photography Composition Lesson #6: Framing
All photos included in this article are copyrighted by their respective photographers. For today’s street photography lesson, I want to talk about framing. Framing itself is a pretty basic compositional technique, something I am sure we all learned when we first started. Defining Framing To start off, what is “framing“? According to Google, a frame is: A rigid structure that surrounds or encloses something such as a door or window. In photography, every image we capture is a frame. For example, whenever taking a photograph of a subject, we have several choices to tell different stories or narratives. Let me start off with an example of this photograph I took of an old man who looks quite lonely in a train by himself for my “Suits” project: Frame #1: It looks like the man is by himself So if you look at the photograph, the viewer might assume the man is by himself with no-one around him– as that is how he is framed. Contact sheet of all the photos I took of this man. Framing in composition 1. 2.
