“In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated”
August Sander

“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer”
Ansel Adams

“The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each to himself. And that is the most complicated thing on earth”
Edward Steichen

“Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure”
Tony Benn

“A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera”
Dorthea Lange

“Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself”
Berenice Abbott

“Always seeing something, never seeing nothing, being photographer”
Walter Mulder

“Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art”.
Ambrose Bierce

“Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be”
Duane Michals

“It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt

By: Valerie Jardin

Many photographers are timid about “shooting strangers” on the street which keeps them from even trying.  Street photography is all about telling a story in a single frame and that’s a beautiful thing.

It’s normal to be reluctant or shy, but these 12 steps will gently ease you into the wonderful world of street photography that exists in your hometown or anywhere else your travels take you. There are lots of stories out there waiting to be told.  Get your camera and let’s go!

1- Do I need permission?
In most countries, as long as you are in a public place, it is perfectly legal to photograph people for either editorial or fine art purposes. However, if you intend to use any of those images for stock photography, meaning using that photograph in advertising, then you need the proper model release form signed. Each country has its own laws and regulations about this, so please do your research before you photograph strangers in the streets.

2- Hit the streets with a friend.
It’s generally better to shoot street photography on your own.  Why?  You are more invisible that way. But if going on your own is a bit intimidating at first, take a friend along. It will help emboldened you, but also surprise you at how differently two people see the world.

3- Start in a crowd.
In my workshops I encourage new street photographers to start with a busy public place such as a street market or an outdoor event as a comfortable start.  You are more invisible in a crowd and can more easily overcome your fear of photographing strangers. Street performers are excellent street photography subjects to start shooting. After all, they are there to be seen and are used to being photographed plus they are part of the culture of the place you are visiting. Buskers perform to make a few bucks, so shoot away, and be generous with what you toss in their hat!

4- Find a stage.
As much as I enjoy walking for hours searching for that special moment, I often do a lot of standing and waiting if I find a really compelling background to use as a stage.  Once you find your stage, be patient and eventually the right people will walk through your frame.  When I am traveling I like to add a sense of place by carefully selecting the architecture in the background or finding signage in the local language.

5- Don’t forget silhouettes
Silhouettes are interesting subjects only if they are easily recognized. There should be no doubt as to what the image is. People with umbrellas, bicyclists or lovers holding hands are terrific silhouette images.

6- Street portraitures
I love the thrill of engaging a subject in a conversation!  For some of you this may be more intimidating than shooting candidly. For others, you can get over the apprehension by asking permission to make a portrait, so they are more at ease with the process. If you ask permission and it is granted, take your time. Then show them the picture on the back of your camera. Tell them why they caught your attention. Everyone enjoys a compliment!

7- Photographing children.
Basically, if they are in a public place, you have just as much right to photograph children as anybody else. Even so, it’s a good idea to get the okay from a parent first. My way is to simply nod towards them, show my camera and wait for their nod back. For the times when no one is around to give you the okay, use your best judgement.

8- Should you give a copy of the photograph to your subject?
When I do candid shots, I occasionally interact with my subject after I make the photograph. But mostly I’m invisible and they never know I took a picture. When I make a street portrait I engage them in a conversation and show them the picture on the back of the camera. If they ask for a copy I give them my card so they can email me for a digital file of their portrait. That’s the least you can do to thank them for their time.

9- Be confident and respectful. 
You are not doing anything wrong, but if someone objects to having their picture taken, don’t shoot! It’s not worth an argument. You may be well within your legal rights, but the most important thing is to be respectful of others. I would also urge you to avoid photographing people in vulnerable or embarrassing situations. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you feel comfortable being photographed that way? If the answer is no, then use your common sense and move on.

10- Follow your gut instinct. 
That’s an important step towards making street photography an enjoyable experience and one I always teach my students right away. If the situation feels wrong or dangerous, then it probably is. Trust your gut.

11- Color or B&W? 
This is totally a personal choice. There is no right or wrong answer. I prefer to process my images in black and white for its timeless quality, but some images are better in color and sometimes the subject is color. Let your artistic eye guide this decision. But I will say that another advantage of monochrome is its ability to remove any distracting colorful elements from the frame, allowing the viewer to the be more drawn to the subject.

12- It’s your vision. 
Don’t let anyone tell you what does or doesn’t qualify as street photography, or what camera you should use. There are no official rules here. Street photography is all about telling a story, communicating an emotion. Your camera is an extension of your own artistic vision. Be patient. Trust your gut.

Go out there and have fun!

By John Schell
Stage One: Ah, remember the good old days! Everyone and everything is photogenic and worthy of being photographed. With little to no skill and/or understanding of how a camera works, our young photographer friend spends their time taking photos of everything – and I mean everything – friends, dogs, people, trees, snails, blades of grass, cars, the sunrise and the sunset, and of course, themselves. Then, with a wide-eyed enthusiasm usually reserved for the young and for the insane, our young photographer posts those photos across the Internet – Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, DeviantArt, MySpace.
Stage Two: Wait a second, something is happening here… Every once in a while, our young photo friend sees something in one of their photos that doesn’t exist in another one of their photos – there is an aesthetic to it, there is a stickiness to it. People are commenting on it, people are liking it, it’s been shared a few times. People actually like it… Maybe, our young photo friend thinks, that this photography game is much more than that. Maybe it’s something that could work out – something beyond just capturing memories of friends, flowers, and blade of grass for fun, maybe there can be a business aspect to it as well. Of course there can! Thusly, a business name is thought up, a website and/or a page is created and the stream of photos populating their social media suddenly turns into a unkempt river.
Stage Three: Work! Well, free work anyway… Almost overnight it seems, first friends and then strangers start contacting our young photographer friend asking for photoshoots. If he/she has any business savvy, he/she begins by asking to be paid right off that bat, but unfortunately for most of us (myself included) the idea that someone contacts you to take their photo supersedes any need for money, food, etc and so, we agree to shoot for free.

Stage Four: Legitimacy! Suddenly – sometimes overnight, it seems – if our younger photographer friend works hard, continues to focus their time on learning and growing their art, and has a few lucky connections and/or streaks, their work begins to catch on – people start to take notice. Instead of shooting friends and family, our friend is working with agencies and booking jobs with legitimate clients.

Stage Five: Admittedly, this stage is the most difficult to write about and/or foresee because they’re are too many variables and I think there should be at least two subheadings under this last stage. Now, on one hand, if our young photographer continues to progress, is surrounded by a genuine crew of talented people, they have the opportunity to continue on into the world of a working photographer booking ads, magazines, billboards, etc and doing so all with a smile on his or her face. If, however, our young photographer is surrounded by the “wrong” crowd (this is subjective, yes), then there is a chance that we may see our young wide-eyed friend become the jaded, cynical, full of themselves type of person that seems to be a part of just about every industry.

P.S. Although written in good humor, I hope that when looking at the stages, it’s easy enough to see ourselves and for a moment, perhaps, remember back to the day we tore open the box, lifted our camera up and held it in the air against a blinding sun while somewhere off in the distance a monumental version of Circle of Life is being played and we thought of all the possibilities that lay in front of us.
At the photographers enthusiasts – amateurs, who do not earn a living through their photographic skills, these phases should be a little different. Although, but not rare, behavior models of amateur photographers are not under attitude or in their approaches do not differ from the professionals.

So free and creative roles of photographic art sometimes grow into its opposite.
Try to find yourself in this diagram..

Perhaps this also helps:

Good luck and Good Light!

© By Jeff Meyer

1. Smaller and lighter
Digital SLRs use a mirror to bounce light up into a pentaprism (or penta-mirror) viewfinder, but compact system cameras don’t have a mirror or a pentaprism, so this enables them to be made smaller and lighter.

The benefits of this a pretty obvious, your camera takes up less space in your bag and it’s lighter and easier to carry. This is in turn means that you are more likely to take your CSC with you wherever you go, so you’ll get more shots.

Further good news about CSCs is that their small size doesn’t have to mean a compromise in image quality because many have the same size sensor as you find inside an SLR.

There are now full-frame, APS-C and Four Thirds format CSCs.

2. Quiet and discrete
Because there’s no mirror that needs to move out of the way when you’re taking a shot, compact system cameras are usually quieter and more discrete than an SLR.
This makes them ideal for shooting street and documentary photographs when you want to go unnoticed.

They are also useful for shooting portraits of camera-shy subjects.
Many people also assume that smaller cameras are ‘less serious’ so they pay less attention to you while you are using one and it’s easier to get the shots that you want.

3. Responsive Live View
In Live View mode SLRs show the image from the sensor on their main screen, but screen refresh rates and autofocus times are usually quite poor so it’s hard to compose images of moving subjects.

Compact system cameras only show a live view image but their manufacturers have invested heavily in making sure that the screen and autofocus performance is good.
Micro Four Thirds cameras from Olympus and Panasonic are especially good in this respect and you can shoot moving subjects while composing on the main screen.

4. What you see is what you get
Because CSCs always use a live view feed from the sensor, the screen or electronic viewfinder (EVF) shows the impact or camera setting selections.

Switch to black and white mode, for instance, and you’re able to preview the monochrome image in the EVF or on the screen. And if you reduce the exposure you also see the preview get darker.

As well as making life easier because you don’t need to guess how the image will appear like you do with an SLR and composing in the optical viewfinder, this ability to preview an image can make you more creative.

For example, if you look through the viewfinder of an SLR you will see the scene more or less as it appears to your eye and you have to imagine how the image will appear with the selected settings applied.

Your only guide to exposure is your experience and the scale in the viewfinder.
With a compact system camera, however, you may look in the viewfinder and see that the image looks good when it’s very bright, using settings that the camera’s scale considers will over-expose the scene.

You may also decide that you like the slight warmth (or whatever) that the scene has and enhance it by changing white balance or applying a filter effect.

5. More features
The constant live view design of compact system cameras has enabled their manufacturers to include novel features that can be very helpful for photography.

Olympus’s Live Bulb mode, for example, allows you to see a long exposure image build up on the screen on the back of the camera during the exposure.

This means that rather than having to calculate or guess the length of the exposure you can assess it visually and close the shutter when the image looks right.
Panasonic also has a system that enables the impact of shutter speed to be seen so you can decide how blurred or sharp you want any movement to be in the final image.

Compact system camera manufacturers have also been quick to embrace technology such as WiFi and NFC (Near Field Communication) connectivity, as well as allowing images to be shared on Facebook and Twitter etc., quickly.

A WiFi connection also enables a camera to be controlled remotely via a smartphone.
This is very useful for avoiding camera-shake and when shooting timid subjects.

6. No mirror-slap
That lack of a mirror has another advantage; you don’t need to worry about engaging mirror lock-up mode when shooting long exposure shots to reduce vibration.

It’s still a good idea to use a remote release, but because more compact system cameras have WiFi connectivity built-in you often don’t need to buy a dedicated unit, a smartphone can be used instead.