10 Street photography techniques to try

in #photography5 years ago (edited)

In the last 2 years since I started practicing street photography I tried many different techniques and approaches in the process of creating my own unique style. Some of these I like more than the others, often I'll mix few together to add more complexity and depth to the image.

If you'd like to give street photography a try, here's some suggestions where you can start.


1. Strong contrast

Bright sunny days are always a good opportunity to play with strong shadows and hard light. Let most of the elements fall into shadows or dissolve in the light and you might get some interesting results.

2. Reflections

Reflections are a powerful tool to use in street photography. There's something about the distortion or texture that the reflective surface like glass or water brings, that adds another dimension to the photograph.

3. Juxtaposition or matching elements

Placing together elements that look like a polar opposites or matching several elements by color, shape etc is another fun way to enrich your street photography portfolio.

4. Show movement

Motion blur in street photographs can look like a mistake on photographer's part of not exposing properly. But if done correctly, it can be used as a tool to create more dynamic and "imperfect" images. It has to be done consciously by setting the low shutter speed and choosing what elements are going to be in focus. You can even bring tripod with you for a more "steady" motion shots.

5. Get close

This one is the toughest as it requires a lot of courage to go up to someone and point a camera in their face. "Shooting from the hip" is a one way to go - it's when you hold a camera relaxed at the chest level and take photographs without looking at the back screen. Obviously, results are much more random as you don't have full control over composition, but it can be an option if you are just starting out. Another technique is to act like a tourist filming a video. :)

6. Sub-framing

Using different elements to surround your main subject is another way to bring viewers attention to what's important and hide distractions. Anything can be used a frame - walls, fence or even blurred out people. The result is that you get a picture within a picture. A technique quite popular in modern street photography.

7. Change perspective

Spice things up by changing your point of view. Instead of taking each shot from eye level kneel down to the ground or climb on a platform or roof of the building (stay safe though! :D) and see if you can get interesting shot from a new angle.

8. Humor

Photographing humor on the streets can be a very hard task to do as it often happens in a split second and isn't easy to notice. But by practicing your eyes and being more mindful, you'll start to notice or even anticipate these subtle moments that can be amusing to viewers.

9. Eye contact

Waiting for eye contact or shooting in spite of subject watching you ties with "getting close" as one of the most nerve wracking techniques in street photography. It can produce some outstanding results however, because there's a connection between subject and photographer. Their reaction while they try to figure out what's going on can often turn a regular photo into a decent one.

10. Rain, umbrellas and blurry windows

And at the end, here's a reason why you should leave the house when the weather conditions are not great. Raindrops, mist, condensation are all a fun medium to shoot through and add layers to the image. It's by far my favorite time to go out for a photo walk.


Let me know if you try some of these techniques. As you can see, I combine bunch of them in almost every shot, that's why each can fit into multiple categories. Which approach do you like best?

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Have tried them all and keep doing it ;) Very informative and very well composed article. A treasure chest for a newbie or amateur in photography. Well, PROs also have not to forget about some basics too

I'm glad you enjoyed the structure and content! Looking forward to sharing more tutorials and bits of inspiration like this.

Ow @alcibiades! What a lovely post! It's nice of your to share these kind of lesson/tips. I have toyed before with changing perspective, and I was pleased with the results. Now, I am intrigued about reflections. I always tend to avoid it altogether. But the concept of adding dimension to the photo is an appealing one! Also, you have motivated me to get humorous with my amateur photos! I like that tip very much :D

Have a nice rest of the day Alcibiades :*
It's always nice seeing your posts on my feed!

I'm glad you enjoyed this little inspiration post, Abigail! Most of the tips should be helpful for other types of photography as well. Let me know if you try some of these (I miss your photography posts :D ).

Enjoy your evening, Abigail. ;)

Rain and reflections will always be my favorite. Number 5 is stunning by the way.

Thanks for sharing these and the techniques, always happy to see you pop up in my feed.

Hey I'm glad you liked the tips and the photos! #5 is incorporating most of the things I look for when photographing. The lady that organized the exhibition reflected in the background, saw it and liked it a lot. :D Thanks for the comment!

Quite helpful techniques. As an amateur photographer, these will take my photography skills to a whole new level. You have spent great in researching and composing this article. I am resreeming it for more exposure.

I'm happy to help, @rocksg! Hope you'll have fun playing around with these techniques.

Thanks for posting this there are some great ideas that I'm going to try out. I'd have to say my favorite pic out of all of those would be the last one. The crystal clear reflection and the couple of ripples give it an awesome effects. Nice job and thanks again.

Thanks, @wildo! Have fun playing around with these techniques. :)

Изванредна фотографска лекција, @alcibiades. Жао ми је што за овакве ствари не могу да ти доделим 300% гласа. Реци ми још само – радиш ли овако феноменалне фотографије из уобичајене шетње, или остајеш у „заседи“, кад нађеш добру локацију?

Hvala puno, @lighteye! Kad nađem dobru lokaciju umem da čekam i po 45 minuta da se svi uslovi poklope, da naiđe pravi subjekt, mada je to obično do 15-20 minuta... Zabeležim kad je svetlost dobra u određenim delovima grada pa pripremim lokacije unapred. Naravno jedan deo slika uvek napravim spontano iz šetnje. :D


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Thanks, guys!

Thanks for the infos.

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WAW
Nice shots



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