How to Become an Invisible Street Photographer

by Eric Kim on May 16, 2011

"Contemplation" - show with my Ricoh GRIII

A while back on my Facebook page and Twitter I asked you guys “if you had any street photography superpower, what would it be?” The vast majority of you answered: invisibility.

As a street photographer, being invisible and blending in with your environment is key in getting an amazing street photograph. However, easier said than done right? In this post I will try to outline my thoughts on how to best be invisible when shooting on the streets, and what has helped me stay low-key when I am out shooting.

1. Look behind your subjects when taking their photo

"The Thinker". I spotted this subject from behind, circled around, and slowly approached him from the front and looked behind him when taking this photo.

Although looking straight into the eyes of your subjects is a great way to build your courage, it is not the best way to be invisible. If you want to stay truly low-key, I suggest to never make eye contact with your subjects and look behind your subjects when shooting their photo.

What do I mean when I say this? Well let me illustrate an example: If I see an interesting person sitting down that I want to take a photograph of, I walk closer to them pretending that I see something fascinating behind (or above) them. I then casually walk over, crouch, and keep my eyes fixated on that imaginary thing behind them. However when I bring my eye to the viewfinder, my wide-angle lens allows me to capture that person in the frame. After hitting the shutter and removing my eye from the viewfinder, I continue to look at that imaginary thing and walk away.

When shooting like this, I have never had anybody inquire what I am taking a photo of or confronting me in a negative manner.

Now how does this technique help you not be “seen?” Well first of all, the person will obviously see you—however they will not tense up or feel threatened by your presence. They assume that you are taking a photograph of something else, which still allows you to get that candid look that you want. After all—it is impossible for us to truly become invisible ;) .

2. Use a point-and-shoot

Ricoh GRIII, the best point and shoot for street photography

If you really don’t want to get noticed on the street when shooting street photography, I believe that the smaller camera you have, the better. In-fact, the amount that you stick-out as a street photographer is proportional to your camera size.

Chris Gampt over at The Phoblographer recently hooked it up with a Ricoh GRIII, a fixed-lens point and shoot I have been really fascinated about with some time. Everyone I know who shoots with it swears by it—especially the “snap-focus” feature which allows for you to shoot with a pre-focused distance without a shutter delay. This allows you to get incredibly close to your subjects without them noticing you.

After shooting for about two weeks with this camera, hardly anybody notices me anymore. I carry the Ricoh GRIII by my side in a wrist-strap and when I take photos people simply assume that I am a tourist and aren’t alarmed at all by my camera. Not only that, but the shutter is nearly silent. Compare this with using a massive DSLR when on the streets. People instantly tense up, and think that you are a threat or a “creep” of some kind.

Although the Ricoh GRIII does have some shortfalls (no built-in viewfinder and limited file-buffer), you can’t beat it (or any point and shoot) when trying to stay low-key on the streets. Stay tuned for my in-depth review of the Ricoh GRIII on The Phoblographer in the next few weeks.

3. Shoot from the hip

"Pushing Along" - shot from the hip.

Shooting from the hip is an amazing way to shoot without being seen. Essentially to shoot from the hip, you walk around in public and take photos from around your waist. The beauty of this technique is that you never need to bring your viewfinder to your eye, which means that people don’t know that you’re take a photograph of them.

Although shooting from the hip may sound easy, it is difficult to master. First of all if you are untrained, 95% of your images are going to look like crap. Either they are going to be out-of-focus, poorly framed, or blurry. However with enough practice and diligence, you can be like New York street photographer Joe Wigfall who never has to bring his camera to his face to shoot.

If you want to shoot from the hip, use these guidelines:

a) Use a wide-angle prime lens

Using a wide- angle prime lens allows you to capture most of your subject and scene when shooting from the hip. If your lens isn’t wide enough, you will have difficulty correctly framing your images and capture everything in the scene. If you are shooting with a full-frame, I highly recommend the Canon 24mm f/2.8 (if you are shooting with a Canon DSLR) and the Nikon 28mm f/2.8 (if you are shooting with a Nikon DSLR). If you are shooting with a 1.6x Crop sensor, I recommend the Canon 20mm f/2.8 and the Nikon 20mm f/2.8.

b) Use the smallest aperture possible

When I am shooting in sunny los angeles, I always shoot with f/16 when I am outside. Why? Because it allows me to easily use the Sunny 16 rule, while giving me a deep depth-of-field which allows me to make sure my subjects are going to be in-focus when I take a photo of them from my hip. When you are shooting and it gets darker I suggest you to increase your ISO instead of stepping down your aperture (the more depth-of-field you can get, the better).

c) Have at least 1/250th of a second shutter speed

In my experience, having anything slower than a 1/250th of a shutter speed, your subjects will be blurry. Therefore when shooting, make sure to always pay attention to your shutter speed and make sure that it doesn’t get any slower (especially if you’re walking into the shade or your lighting constantly fluctuates).

d) Pre-focus

Autofocus is quite lousy when shooting from the hip. To alleviate this problem, use the focusing ring on your lens to pre-focus to a selected distance and never change it when shooting. I suggest you to use around 5ft as a focusing distance. This means that whenever a subjects is around 5 feet from you and you shoot their photo from the hip, they will be in-focus.

e) Shoot fully-manual

When you are shooting fully-manual, you will ensure that your shutter speed and aperture stay constant and never change. Although changing your settings on-the-fly with constantly changing lighting situations can be a pain-in-the-ass, it ensures that your images aren’t blurry or out-of-focused (things that you can’t fix in post-processing).

If you aren’t familiar with shooting fully-manual, feel free to experiment. It took me a while to get comfortable shooting fully-manual , but it was a truly rewarding experience. All you need to know is to set your ISO at 400, and follow the Sunny 16 Rule.

Therefore in conclusion although we don’t have the power to literally become invisible, there are certain techniques which do give us the greatest benefit: being unnoticed when shooting on the streets.

So how do you stay invisible when shooting on the streets? Make sure to share your tips by leaving a comment below!

Tagged as: candid, invisiblity, stealth, street photography, street photography tip

  • http://www.arovingvision.com Kit Taylor

    Good points here, Eric. Thank you. Looking beyond your subject works particularly well when shooting with an ultrawide — this one was shot at 11mm (on a crop-sensor Nikon): http://www.arovingvision.com/Street/content/_KST1186_large.html

    With digital, it is easy to practice shooting from the hip — pick a target, shoot, check the monitor to see how far off you are. Repeat and repeat until until your sense of where the camera is pointing improves. Then expect to crop some, at least enough to get the angles right. I had to adjust this one by about 6 percent: http://www.arovingvision.com/Street/content/_KST0503_large.html

  • http://www.facesoflondon.co.uk Marco

    Great points Eric. I find the first one why no-one ever stops me. Occasionally when we do match eyes, they’ll see me looking past them really avidly, they’ll turn, wonder what’s there then just walk away. That leaves me to smile to myself checking the shot.

    You’d think at 6.4ft, wearing bright colours, I’d stand out…

  • Don

    i live in turkey at the moment and its hard to blend in here when i’m from a different country. i always stand out. what should i do?

    • http://www.photo.net/photos/StephaneThemeze Stephane

      Just act as someone who does belong here with a relax attitude and not a preying one as sometimes we do because we are so eager to get a shot that we tend to look tense and people can feel that. Or try to look like a full-time tourist and find yourself in touristic places where I am sure you will find some shots up your alley that don’t look like standard touristic shots when you apply your eyes to it.
      Being open, relaxed, casual can do the trick.
      Happy shooting Don.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/exi87 Jaap Barnhoorn

    Great article.
    A other tip for getting close without attracting attention is the so called circle and shoot.
    When you spot an interesting person, don’t walk straight to him/her, go at an angle or walk towards something interesting that’s near your subject. Maybe even first photograph something else near your subject and casually get in their zone that way.
    This might work well together with your 1. tip.

    About photographing in Manual mode: When you’re on a digital camera (especially on a DSLR) you often have the option of “Auto ISO” This is a great tool when you’re shooting in M mode. You can choose your preferred aperture and shutterspeed and the ISO will set itself to the right value to get a perfectly exposed image.
    I use it very often on my Nikon D5000. It sets the ISO not only to the usual 1/3 stop ISO numbers, but it even finetunes it to weird ISO’s like 1100, 900 etc. :)

    The sunny 16 rule is indeed a very good method for determining good manual settings and very useful (not only on the true manual camera’s).
    There is a lot of good information on this webpage The Ultimate Exposure Computer: http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

  • http://www.photopatzer.com Dan – PhotoPatzer

    Glad to see the Ricoh getting some love! It’s the single best photography purchase I’ve ever made! As always… Great post, E!

  • http://www.photo.net/photos/StephaneThemeze Stephane

    Adding to these good advices that work for approaching a single subject i might add that anticipating a scene, a situation and pacing your attitude towards it can give you the dynamics you need to record it (position and frame). In some places you can even use someone or something as a screen and just pop out to get your shot.
    Shooting with a zoom lens can give you an edge knowing that when the focusing is made by zooming in at the last second you can get your shot framed as you intended it to be.
    The action in a scene can grant you invisibility because actors are too busy to take notice of you. Equally, distance can make you invisible. When I got back into SP I couldn’t do it but from a car, and I will pack my DSLR with a 70-200 and a 28-70, and someone walking does not look at someone in a car most of the time.
    And I also think that your invisibility can simply be granted by shouting a scene “from behind” which can lead to a story-telling shot if proper elements are gathered in the frame.
    And Eric, Man I have to say that after looking at one vid posted by Joe Wigfall on his process on the streets and the results shown as satisfying harvest, I was not too hot, but maybe I didn’t see the ones from a good day’s work also. I’ll keep looking into my viewfinder that is looking like a big black rock I’m about to hurl in people faces with a smile on my face.
    Thanks for posting. Cheers and Happy shooting.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/minneapolispics/ Tom

    These are opinions only, and could be completely wrong, maybe even crazy.

    The subconscious mind is always scanning the environment and when it sees something strange it will alert the conscious mind. It’s similar to how a person can slip into a hypnotic trance while safely driving a car.

    Although the subconscious mind notices everything is doesn’t seem to see things that it can’t make sense of. Finding out what these things are is the key to being very invisible.

    For instance: My camera is slightly modified which allows me to take pictures by gently squeezing the camera body with my knuckles, rather than using my fingertips. It might seem strange, but this works extremely well. I would of never thought that people were noticing the placement of my fingertips before.

  • http://photographyforsoul.com Can Berkol

    I agree with most of the points but with eye contact. If you are facing your subject and if you are escaping your eyes contantly, then you will look suspicious. So rather stay in an indirect anle to you subject’s eyes.

    Also being relaxed and positive helps. If you stress yourself you’ll be noticed easily, your energy will flow to your subject and they fear you like an enemy.

    One other tip I can provide is: be the first one in the scene. Do not start taking photos as soon as you enter a scene. Wait a while, become the watcher, blend in, and try to shoot the passers because they usually have other details to worry about until they see you.

  • http://www.mikecrippen.co.uk Mike

    Great post Eric, and some great points. I think a lot is still down to how you feel…When I started I felt like I was doing something wrong, and this effected my behaviour and body language. And whilst I still have a lot to learn, I’m now acutely aware that appearing relaxed and ‘normal’ makes me almost invisible.

    It’s all about not triggering people’s built-in ability to sense awkwardness, in my opinion :-)

  • http://isoterica.tumblr.com/tagged/street Isoterica

    Great tips! As a new street photographer I have found that if you put yourself in touristy situations to begin with, you know those places where everyone else is shooting too, you become more relaxed and you become quite invisible because they are doing the same thing. Chicago’s Cloud Gate was a great place to do this because of the monkey in the mirror reaction to ‘the bean’. I know I am probably in several photos others took as well. Of course everyone here probably has more experience than me and already knows this but since no one mentioned it I thought I would for any new people. It’s a good ice breaking exercise. So are other public events, car shows, flea markets, etc. Places where other shutterbugs are present so that you don’t stand out as the only one.

    So now I am vacillating between getting a wide angle for my DSLR or going for a nice point and shoot which will cost roughly the same. Does anyone have suggestions, one over the other? I expect a split down the middle or people using both but if there are any insightful tips that haven’t been mentioned before please do share. Thanks

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/exi87 Jaap Barnhoorn

      Indeed a great thing to mention Isoterica.

      About the wide angle lens: If you feel comfortable shooting a DSLR and want the best image quality possible I’d say go for the lens.
      If you feel awkward with a DSLR or want to blend in more and want to go closer, which might be important with a wide-angle lens, you might have more luck with a point & shoot(, M4/3, rangefinder). An advantage to buying an other camera might be that you can take two camera’s with you and change them around as you see fit. A P&S is also more easy to carry due to it’s size and weight.
      I think it all depends on your own shooting style and expectations.

      I recently bought an old(ish) film rangefinder camera and I feel more comfortable shooting with it on the streets than my DSLR.
      Maybe it’s a good idea to borrow a P&S from a friend and shoot with it to see if it will fit you.

  • http://www.erickimphotography.com Kindle

    There is not such a thing as an invisible street photographer or ways of becoming invisible… Blending yes, but invisibility and tips on it are just a waste of time and an afront to people’s intelligence.
    The best tip you can give to a beginner/intermediate/advanced is: Go out and shoot!

    BTW You should lay off the homeless photos as examples. Real “raw” street photographers don’t prey on them.

  • http://isoterica.tumblr.com/tagged/street Isoterica

    Thank you Jaap for responding. Actually I have several film cameras which are listed on my site under ‘gear’ though some are newer acquisitions and I have yet to test them for quality. I really love shooting medium format with my Yashica Mats though.. and people don’t seem as intimidated probably because some of the younger ones have no idea what I have hanging around my neck. The older people wax nostalgic over my relics and have struck up conversations before with me. When I go out unless I am traveling extremely lite [and I hear this is a no-no] I carry 2-3 cameras. I have what is on my cell phone of course [which a P&P would nicely replace with better quality], my DSLR and a film camera. If I can only pocket something I have been using my LCA. I think you are right though I will need to experiment more because for all I know I have the wide angle I need already in one of my existing cameras plus they won’t seem as modern and intimidating. I really do like mechanical cameras, I’m just very impatient about film. I will borrow my daughters P&S, it’s not high quality but it will tell me if need to go in that direction. Thank you again!

  • Rio Li

    Hi Eric,
    I interested on how to apply the Sunny 16 Rule at night.
    Could you please share your technique and settings when you’re shooting at night?

    Regards,

    Rio Li

  • http://www.blork.org/streetscene/ Ed Hawco

    I’m sure the Ricoh GRIII is great, but you can’t talk about street photography and point-and-shoots and not give a shout out to the Lumix LX5. I use an LX5 (and an LX3 and LX2 before that) for shooting street photography “from the hip” and it works really well. Manual focusing is super easy (I set it at a distance of about 6 or 7 feet) and there’s a scale that gives you a good idea of what your depth of field is. The lens is very wide (24mm equivalent), and although it’s a zoom I always leave it fully wide. Manual exposure is easy to set, etc. A street shooter’s dream! :-)

  • Reacher

    I’ve been shooting street with the Ricoh GRD3 since January and agree that it’s a very good choice. Everything in this set was shot with the GRD3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reachisles/sets/72157625922022430/

    I often set my focal distance to infinity (either snap or regular) when doing walk-by hip shooting. That way anything in the frame will be in focus.

  • Reacher

    One other thing I’ll mention on the topic of invisibility is that I think perhaps tall/big shooters are at a slight disadvantage because they tend to stick out and attract more attention. And it doesn’t matter what camera they are carrying. On the flip side, perhaps they are less likely to get hassled! :)

  • http://stevefoonphotography.blogspot.com SteveSFO

    Excellent tips Eric !!

    I recently received perhaps the best compliment from a fellow shooter…. “…you’re like a field mouse. So quiet and almost invisible”

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/fgomes27 Fernando Gomes

    I find that what Cartier-Bresson once said, “aim well, shoot fast, and scram”, works best for me. Though pretending to be a tourist can also work!

  • http://www.nictures.com Nico Chiapperini

    In my opinion you do not need to be always so invisible. I know it could sound strange, but sometime if your subject see you, it is even better: you never know what kind of reaction comes out and you can get a wonderful picture.

    It is a manner of style and how much you are shy: many photographers are very “aggressive” and even bump quickly the flash in the eyes of the subject/s, and I must say, some of their pictures are amazing. Personally I prefer to be a bit more gentle and not use the flash at all.

    If my subject notice me I am not worried so much (unless he is an alien or a 2 meters x 2 meters man…!), since most of the times after a while he gets bored to control me while I act like a crazy monkey who takes pictures of everything around him: he simply forgets I am there.

    And when you got the nice photo, it is a pleasure to show him the picture, since usually he will love it.

  • http://www.tristanography.com tristanography

    i am going to try it this week, never ever shot from the hip, is it worth having a remote ? will that make me even more invisible do you think ?

  • http://adbigmilk.tumblr.com/ adbigmilk

    Nice tips. I like the first one.

    TLR camera (like Rolleiflex and Yashica, for exemple) are pretty good to be invisible too. You staring at your feet while you’re shooting. People didn’t get what you are doing.

  • http://mysite.verizon.net/pmmerlin Patricia

    To avoid eye contact, I wear sunglasses.

  • http://www.facebook.com/andy.herbon Andy Herbon

    Here’s a tip for you that came in handy for me today!
    Shoot in RAW + B/W JPGs.

    The reason I do this, is because if I’m gruffly asked “Why did you just take my picture???” I can offer to show them the photo on my cameras LCD, and it will be in B/W.

    B/W looks a more artistic and not threatening to most people, so they’ll have a better understanding that you’re not doing anything creepy, but are creating artistic images.

    • http://erickimphotography.com/blog Eric Kim

      Fantastic idea Andy! :D

  • Rocio Franco35

    I use my iPhone 4. There are many good applications out there. I especially like the B&W filter of Camtastic

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  • German Peter

    Can you where you live, guys, just publish photos you have taken without peoples consent? At least in Germany you can’t….officially. I find it is a good experience to approach a person and talk to her and actually ask for permission. I found it easy if you use an extraordinary Camera like an old Leica or such, so that people see that you are not just “hunting” wildly.

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