Archives for October 2011

How to React to (and Defuse) Confrontations in Street Photography

(In the video above, I share a story of a recent confrontation I had in Toronto (that got physical) and how I defused the situation.)

Edit: In the video I previously mentioned an issue regarding street photography in Vancouver. I actually meant to say Quebec. Read all about the canadian street photography laws here.

Confrontations rarely occur in street photography. As long as you smile and say “thank you” after taking photos of people, 95% of people smile and say “thank you” back or just ignore you.

However 5% of the time, people typically will react in a negative manner. It is usually one of these below (I will add rough estimates in my experience):

Ask what you are doing: 90%
Ask you to delete the photo 9.95%
Lunge at you: .05% (This has happened only once to me by an old man in Paris. This rarely (if ever) happens).

When people confront you and ask you what you are doing, be prepared to make the right answer and react calmly and speak truthfully about what you are doing. Here are some steps I suggest:

Explain what you are doing (don’t hide anything)
Offer to show them the LCD of the photo
Speak calmly and relaxed
Offer to email the person the photo
Decide whether you want to delete the photo or not
If you don’t wish to delete the photo, offer to wait for the cops to come

The worst that will honestly happen to you in terms of confrontations is people either yelling at you or cursing at you. Physical confrontation rarely if ever happens. I have never heard of a story of someone getting punched for taking a photo. If this were to happen, you can always sue that person (and probably could get a ton of money).

Keep in mind that I rarely get confronted when shooting (5%) and I shoot really close and use a flash. If you don’t shoot as close as I do and don’t use a flash (majority of people) negative reactions will happen even far less. Watch the video above to get a more detailed guide on how to react to people who get confrontational in street photography.

The photo (I mentioned in the video) that I took:

Do you have any stories of people confronting you when you are out shooting? If so, share your stories below and tell us how you diffused the situation.

One-Minute Masterclass Advice from Steve McCurry: Be in the Moment

In today’s 1-minute masterclass with Steve McCurry, he talks about getting “in the zone” when he is out shooting. He prefers to shoot alone and to quietly explore the streets without speaking much, to get a feel of the environment he is shooting in.

Although I am a big fan of shooting together in groups (it helps you be more comfortable) shooting alone is when you can be in almost a meditative state– enjoying life around yourself alone.

More Photographs by Steve McCurry

When you are out shooting, do you prefer to go alone or in a group and why? Share your experiences in the comments below!

One-Minute Masterclass Advice from Steve McCurry: Shoot from a High Vantage Point

The folks from Phaidon are continuing their “One-Minute Masterclass” series with Steve McCurry. This new episode features his secret in getting interesting photos from unique vantage points (like a high vantage point). He describes how surprised he was in terms of how accommodating people can be in letting you enter their house or patio to shoot cityscapes. This reflects my own personal experiences, such as when I was shooting in the streets of Beirut, Lebanon– random strangers would start talking to me and even invite me into their house to enjoy some coffee.

The next time you are traveling, make some friends and ask for permission to enter people’s homes and take the time to know them and chat with them. As they like to say on the internet, “ask and you shall receive.”

Interview with Alex JD Smith for YOU ARE HERE Street Photography Exhibition

The YOU ARE HERE street photography exhibition is an experiment in which 30+ street photographers from LA were given 10 days to shoot in one square block in the Downtown LA Fashion District. The opening night featured 3 of the best shots of each street photographer, and Jordan Dunn won the best-of-show award and a Leica VLUX-30 camera, which was sponsored by Leica Camera.

The closing event for the YOU ARE HERE street photography exhibition will be this Saturday Oct. 29th at 7 pm at the ThinkTank Gallery (939 Maple Ave). Alex JD Smith, one of the featured photographers for the event, was interviewed by Jacob Patterson from the ThinkTank Gallery, about the street photography exhibition.

Help Fundraise for “Everybody Street” a Street Photography Documentary by Cheryl Dunn

Cheryl Dunn, a filmmaker and photographer in New York City, recently put together a 16-minute short film on street photography. She is now thinking about expanding that documentary into a feature-length film. The film will include street photographers:

Bruce Davidson
Joel Meyerowitz
Mary Ellen Mark
Max Kozloff
Ricky Powell
Martha Cooper
Jamal Shabazz
Bruce Gilden
Clayton Patterson
Jeff Mermelstein
Rebecca Lepkoff
Boogie
Luc Sante
Jill Freedman
Josh Wildman

Only a donation of $50 will help you get a directors-cut preview of the film before it comes out. If you really love street photography and want to make this project possible, please consider donating. $50 is about the price of a UV filter or lens hood. I know times are tough for everybody, but let’s make this happen as a community! I just donated, you should too!

You can check out more details about the project or donate here.

Interview with Ludmilla Morais for YOU ARE HERE Street Photography Exhibition

The closing event for the YOU ARE HERE street photography exhibition will be this Saturday Oct. 29th at 7 pm at the ThinkTank Gallery (939 Maple Ave). Ludmilla Morais, one of the featured photographers for the event, was interviewed by Jacob Patterson from the ThinkTank Gallery, about the street photography exhibition.
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One-Minute Masterclass Advice from Steve McCurry: “Don’t Forget To Say Hello”

One of my favorite quotes by Alfred Eisenstaedt is “It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter”. When we are out shooting street photography, it is often difficult to find time to talk to the subjects we capture, as life often moves at a very fast pace.

Steve McCurry, one of the most pivotal photographers of the 21st century, shares the same notion. McCurry has traveled the world and captured subjects in very intimate settings- and one of his pieces of advice is to approach and talk to people (even for a minute) before taking photos of them. I feel that this is a very important piece of advice to take, especially when visiting foreign countries. The video shown above is a feature put together by Phaidon, which can be viewed here.

Although I still feel that street photography should be done without permission and candidly, I see no problem interacting with your subjects before, during, or even after you shoot them.

Portraits by Steve McCurry

Thanks to Ian Pettigrew for the tip, and let us know how much you like to interact with your subjects when shooting by leaving a comment below!

Film Street Photography from Winnipeg by Trevor Marczylo

First off, Hi. I’m Trevor Marczylo I am full-time photographer, a street photographer eating, living, and surviving in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

My work tends to focus on documentary style street Photography or the simple daily patterns of how people go with their daily routines.

I’ve been shooting film for the past 15 years or so, also hand develop and print my own work but I’m not going to lie, I do a lot of digital these days too. I’ll leave that to you to decided which is film and which isn’t.

I am constantly shooting and sometimes a roll of film might take me a week or two to finish where as other days I may go though a few rolls of film in a day. I never give it much thought on what I do, I just have a strong passion for capturing emotion and documenting a moment to tell a story. I don’t start my day out to try and produce art I just leave my house with my camera in my hand and simply document as I see.

In all honesty, I really dont know what to say. Its just easier for me to explain myself with my photos. with that being said I’ll leave that to the people reading this and viewing the images.

I’d also like to thank Eric Kim for sharing my images:

More Street Photography by Trevor Marczylo

Make sure to check out more of Trevor’s images on his blog! And yes, those borders are real ;)

Recap of my Toronto Street Photography Workshop

Poutin, Tim Hortons, butter tarts, toonies, loonies, monopoly money, cops on horses, and friendly people– I will miss you Toronto! It was such a huge pleasure everyone in Toronto at my workshop, especially Brian, Tasos, Minsoo, Les, Domenic, Andre, James, Chris, Rockie, Robert, Siri, Neil, Ronnie. Also huge shout-outs to Jenn, Tom, and Andre from 500px!

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect out of Toronto at first, but was so pleasantly surprised of how much fun I had here. Canada, I hope to meet up with you again soon! Read more to see the pictures from the workshop.

10 Reasons Why You Should Never Chimp While Shooting Street Photography

(Photo above by Andrew Eccles. Disregard how classy the chimp looks)

Chimping– it is a disease and an unhealthy addiction that runs rampart within the digital photography community. What is chimping you ask? It is the act of looking at your LCD screen the second after you take a shot. Why do they call it chimping? Well imagine if you think you got a great shot, you show other people, and point to your LCD screen while saying “ooh ooh ooh” like a chimpanzee. Why is this bad when it comes to street photography? Keep reading to find out.

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How to Shoot with a Flash for Street Photography with a Film Leica

My friend Charlie was generous enough to provide this article to discuss how he shoots street photography with a flash with his film Leica MP. Also if you haven’t yet, check out his documentary on Uchujin’s blog!

I thought I should write a short piece about using a ﬂash for street photography. I don’t profess to be an expert on the technical side, so this is simply a few paragraphs about how I shoot and what I have learnt. I am writing from the perspective of a Leica MP user, although a large part of this will apply to anyone that wants to shoot ﬂash manually.

Shutter Speed

The Leica MP has a ﬂash sync speed of 1/50th of a second. What this means is that the shutter speed must be set to 1/50 or slower – otherwise, for complicated and boring reasons, black bands appear on (I think) the left hand side of the photo. Practically this is a limitation. The background will likely blur unless the photographer has a steady hand. I tend to try to shoot at 1/50th as much as possible to avoid this. Shooting at less will increase the blur. While some people might want this, I ﬁnd it distracting – especially in a city like Tokyo where what happens is that you will get a lot of light trails. But I’d encourage everyone to experiment.

ISO

As with non ﬂash photography, I select the ISO according to the time of day and weather. The thing to remember with ISO (and aperture) is that these settings affect the distance that the ﬂash can ﬁre. The lower the ISO the weaker the ﬂash will be. Therefore to shoot in the day a very strong ﬂash (ie one with a high guide number) is required. I use the Nikon SB900. The other problem with shooting in the day is that the photographer is constrained by the slow sync speed. Therefore, it’s usually necessary to close down the lens to f/22 to accommodate for the slow shutter speed.

Aperture

I tend to want to have as much depth as ﬁeld as possible to account for focusing errors. The fastest I will shoot at is f/8, and I’ll only do this to let in more ambient light. The more closed down the lens the weaker the ﬂash power.

Approach

The general point to remember is to take a meter reading ﬁrst, setting the shutter speed to 1/50th. For example, on a sunny day:

Shutter speed – 1/50th (constrained by x-sync).
ISO 50
Aperture – f/11 – f/22

After this, I’ll underexpose the ambient by a stop or two for a more dramatic look. So, if the meter reads f/11, I would set to f/16.

Then I’ll enter the ISO and the aperture into the ﬂash and see what distance it gives me. For my ﬂash this will be about 1-2 meters. This means that my subjects need to be at the distance from the camera that is showing on the back of the ﬂash. If I want to take a picture of a subject that is further away, I can zoom the ﬂash, which sometimes might get me an extra meter or two.

I take the same approach at night, although I care less about the ambient light as often the background is just black sky. The other difference at night is that the ISO will be 1600.

This means that the ﬂash reading will probably be around 5 or 6 meters. So I reduce the ﬂash power to give me a 1 meter or so reading.

A couple of ﬁnal points

I’m no technical expert, but one thing I have noticed is that the ﬂash tends to freeze subjects when they are closer to the camera. This is important as a 1/50th shutter speed will not freeze them. But when subjects are close it is very important to get the ﬂash power correct, otherwise subjects will be under or overexposed. Underexposure is very common due to the inverse square law (light falls off more quickly the closer the ﬂash is to the subject).

The other point to note about the inverse square law is that it is very hard to light multiple subjects at different distances from the camera with one ﬂash, especially where the nearest subject is close to the camera. The only way around this is to bounce the ﬂash off the ceiling, use more than one ﬂash, spread the ﬂash beam (if you have that setting) or shoot when the nearest subject is a bit further away.

So that’s about it. Please let Eric know if you have any questions.

10 Ways Street Photography Changed My Life (and made me a better person)

Inspired by Thomas Leuthard’s post on how street photography has changed his life, I want to take this opportunity to talk a little about my street photography journey, and how it has changed my life for the better, beyond my wildest dreams.

Reflections and Light: Dramatic Street Photography from Chicago by Anthony Spatara

(Above image by Anthony Spatara)

Hello. My name is Anthony Spatara, I am 35 years old and live in the great city of Chicago. I am not a photographer by profession nor do I wish to be. I run two successful Italian restaurants in the downtown area which keep me plenty busy. Photography for me is a way out from what I normally do on a day to day basis. I love walking the streets of any city and Interacting with people, exploring and just capturing images that seem interesting to me. I couldn’t tell you what inspires me to get up at the crack ass of dawn to walk the cold streets of Chicago to photograph. I am just addicted to it.

Street Reverb x Xperia Studio “Reality Remade” Street Photography Competition

The cool folks over at Street Reverb Magazine are teaming up with Xperia Studio in a joint “Reality Remade” street photography competition. There are lots of great prizes including a £2200 grand prize, including free Xperia phones.

In order to enter, you will need to put together a project proposal interpreting the theme “Reality Remade” and submit a short biography about yourself, accompanying your portfolio. The 5 best proposals will move onto the next round of the competition, where they will be given an project budget of £300 and a Sony Ericsson Xperia Phone to capture 5 images for the theme.

This competition is free and a great opportunity for you to get your name out there– so make sure to enter!

>> Enter the Reality Remade Street Photography Competition

15+ Inspirational Street Photography Videos You Must Watch

Whenever I am feeling in a street photography slump, looking for inspiration or knowledge, I have found these online street photography videos to be incredibly helpful and useful. These are just a few of my favorites. If you have the time, later tonight– kick back, relax, and watch some of these videos!

In-Public: In-Sight Street Photography Documentary

Read more to see the rest of the great street photography videos in this collection.

Downtown Los Angeles Introduction to Street Photography Workshop Day 2 Recap

After a fun-packed two days in Downtown LA, I am pretty pooped. However I had such a wonderful time teaching the workshop and helping my fellow street photographers build more courage when shooting in the streets and also helping them capture more compelling images. On the second day, we focused on editing and post-processing our images, with an emphasis on using Lightroom 3 for post-processing and Silver Efex Pro 2 for black and white conversions.

I spent especially a good portion of time discussing editing– the act of choosing your best images. Editing is something really overlooked when it comes to photography, but is almost as important as shooting. As a piece of advice to all the streettogs out there– don’t upload your images immediately. Wait before you decide to upload them. As Garry Winogrand once said, “Photographers mistake the emotion they feel while taking the picture as judgment that the photograph is good.” Therefore apply this same mentality when it comes to selecting your best work. Don’t simply upload images as a knee-jerk reaction. Let your images marinate for long periods of time before deciding to upload them.

Anyways just wanted to give a shout-out to all the LA street photographers at my workshop. It was a guge pleasure having you Michael, Bill, Chris, Greg, Brian, Jennifer, Dennis, Cameron, Eunice, Jim, Jason, Julie, Adam, at the workshop– your enthusiasm and energy was boundless. Huge thanks especially to Rinzi, Norman, Genesis, Jacob, and the Think Tank Gallery. I love you guys with my heart and soul, and I hope to see you guys all soon!

Heading out tomorrow to Michigan tomorrow and meeting up with my beautiful girlfriend/manager Cindy, and then heading over to Toronto for my upcoming street photography workshop. Wish me safe trip, and will keep you all updated! Keep reading more to check out the rest of the photos from the workshop.

Downtown Los Angeles Introduction to Street Photography Workshop Day 1 Recap

(Some of the LA street photography workshop participants catching some dinner in Downtown LA after the Day 1 of the Workshop!)

Today I had a blast teaching the first day of my Downtown Los Angeles Introduction to Street Photography Workshop at the Think Tank Gallery. Considering that the photographs from the YOU ARE HERE street photography exhibition are still up, it definitely made for a great backdrop. Photographers from all over LA, and even Bill Nash from Arizona, came and were super pumped about the workshop, and ready to learn more about street photography– and build their courage shooting in the streets.

On the first day of the workshop, we started the day by introducing ourselves to one another and discussed why we loved street photography and what we wanted to get out of it. We then focused a great deal of time on overcoming the fear of shooting street photography, and discussing in-depth techniques to build courage. Not only that, but we reviewed many famous street photographs and learned what made a great photo.

Shooting the streets of Downtown LA was a huge blast, and I was amazed to see how much courage all the street photographers were able to build up. Not only did everyone feel a lot more comfortable shooting in the streets with one another, it was great to have the sense of community and fellowship when out with one another. Of course after a long day of shooting, we went out and enjoyed some nice food together as well.

Really excited for Day 2. Wish me luck, and if you are interested in any of my upcoming workshops in Toronto, India, Tokyo, or Malaysia– check out my workshops page for more info! You can also keep reading to check out the rest of the photos from the workshop!

How 6 Minutes Changed Everything by Liam McHenry

Liam McHenry, a street photographer from Australia (and one of my private online street photography students), put together this insightful video about an encounter he had with a teenage boy shooting in a suburb. To sum up the video, Liam shot a boy who got really upset about Liam taking the shot. The boy started cursing at Liam, and wouldn’t calm down. After chatting with the boy, the boy realized how special he was in being the subject of Liam’s viewfinder.

Words can’t explain how inspirational this video is– watch it now!

What are your experiences shooting kids in public? Share your thoughts below and any thoughts about this video by Liam as well!

YOU ARE HERE Street Photography Exhibition Opening TONIGHT in Downtown LA at 7:00PM

I am pleased to announce the opening of the YOU ARE HERE Street Photography Exhibition tonight at the Think Tank Gallery in Downtown LA sponsored by Leica. The concept was that 30 photographers weregiven 10 days to shoot one square block in the Fashion district in Downtown LA. Despite the restriction, all the photographers were able to capture the soul and essence of the place in a beautiful way.

The exhibition is FREE will feature over a hundred photographs, and complimentary drinks and food will be provided. Free parking is located all around the gallery at 939 Maple Ave, and the exhibition will run from 7:00PM-1AM. If you are in the LA area, stop by!

Please RSVP via the Facebook invitation and I hope to see you all there!

Photojournalism Behind the Scenes: Staged Conflict Photography

Italian photographer Ruben Salvadori recently put together a documentary recording the behind-the-scenes of conflict photography. Although not all conflict journalism is like this, it is still a very eye-opening documentary about the pressures that many conflict photographers face, and the influence they have on the people they photograph.

Your thoughts? Share them below and please keep the conversation civil.

Interview Featured at the 500px Blog

Hey streettogs, just got interviewed by the folks over at 500px. They asked me some questions about my approach in street photography, how my work has evolved, as well as my thoughts on some controversial topics. If you got a minute, make sure to check out my feature here!

Thanks to Jen Tse for the interview, and Neil Ta for hooking us up!

Hands-on with the Olympus EPM-1 (and other thoughts about cameras)

Recently I have had the huge pleasure of being invited to the PEN Ready Project, in which Olympus gave away 1000 Olympus EPM-1 cameras for people to shoot and review. I have always been a big fan of the Micro 4/3rds cameras, as they are small, compact, and take great photos. I tested an Olympus EP-2 a while back, and was quite impressed by the performance. I recently shot with the Olympus EP-3 and was quite pleased with the (even faster) autofocus performance as well as the image quality. If you have a micro 4/3rds camera and pick up a Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens (~35mm equivalent), the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 Lens (40mm equivalent), or the new Olympus 12mm f/2 lens (24mm equivalent) it makes a great combination.

Interview with Adam Marelli about His Journey to the Remote Island of Tanna

(Photo above copyrighted by Adam Marelli)

Adam Marelli is an artist, photographer, and builder based in New York City who travels the world with his trusty Leicas and captures breathtaking images of people and places that he visits. His travels include India, Central American, Europe, and Egypt and recently to the remote island of Tanna, where he documented the life of the locals. Read more to ﬁnd out about his adventurous journey to Tanna and the insights and people that he learned about.
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Studying the Masters: A Recap of my Intermediate Street Photography Workshop in San Diego

(With the gang at the San Diego Street Photography Workshop)

The past Intermediate Street Photography Workshop in Downtown San Diego was a blast. We studied the work of the master street photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Garry Winogrand, Helen Levitt, Vivian Maier, Bruce Gilden, Elliott Erwitt and many others. Not only that, but the atmosphere of the Gas Lamp District was fantastic, especially during the nights when it started lighting up. Shooting was a blast, as protestors for the Occupy Wall Street showed up on Saturday and a ton of people from the Little Italy festival on Sunday.

Huge thanks to all the participants for getting out of their comfort zones and really getting close and intimate with your subjects. It was a wonderful pleasure having you Doug, Michael, Victor, Animesh, Joel, and Derriel. Huge thanks to Todd for helping with all the logistics and getting the hotel room! You are an incredible group of street photographers, and seeing your progress and images truly impressed me.

If you are interested in any of my upcoming workshops in Toronto, Mumbai, Tokyo, or Malaysia, please check out my workshops page!

How Body Language Affects Story-Telling in Street Photography

(Above image by Norman Estrologo)

Eric’s Note: This article is written by Norman Estrologo, a Los Angeles based street photographer who has recently attended my introductory and intermediate street photography workshops. In a relatively short time, he has found his passion in street photography and has been experimenting with his style and shooting constantly.

There are many different approaches to street photography and I believe that body language plays a role in most of these. My approach to street photography started out with photos of multiple characters but then as I progressed, I moved a little closer, held up a flash and focused on one distinct subject (a style highly influenced by Bruce Gilden, Charlie Kirk and Eric Kim to name a few). I just found this approach a bit more challenging and rewarding at the same time. Not to mention, a very niche following. Personally, it’s because of the fact that not many venture into it that I decided to indulge myself in doing street photography with a flash.

When talking about composition, there are many things to consider but I am particularly interested in capturing body language (facial expression, posture, hand gesture and etc). The fact that I usually have only one main subject means that I have to make up for story telling through the actions of an individual.

Here are some of the common forms of body language that I tend to look for in my subjects:

10 Street Photography Assignments by Blake Andrews

(Above image by Blake Andrews)

Blake Andrews, a member of the In-Public street photography collective and prolific blogger over at “B” has a list of 10 great street photography assignments. Check them out at the link below and try them out!

>> Ten Street Photography Assignments by Blake Andrews

Which of these assignments do you find particularly fascinating? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

What Does it Take to Make a Good Street Photograph?

(“What’s on a doorman’s mind?” by Simon Garnier)

Eric’s note: The following guest article is by Simon Garnier, part scientist and part street photographer who lives and works in New Jersey. Read his previous article about getting close in street photography and this new article where he discusses what it takes to take a great street photograph.

What does it take to make a good street photograph? Many, many, many things. Some weeks ago on this blog, for instance, I discussed the importance of taking a picture at the right scale, that is, at the scale of the event you are photographing. As you can imagine, however, the scaling problem is not the only challenge one faces when doing street photography. I might be at the right scale, but not at the right position or angle; the natural light might create shadows masking important elements; the composition of the picture (that is, the organization of the different components of the image relative to each other and to the dimensions of the picture) might diminish the meaning and clarity of the photograph; the colors (if you shoot in color like me) might simply not get along very well (try flashy green on purple for instance :-) ); the contrasts might be too low to easily distinguish the foreground from the background; etc, etc. Street photography is an easy genre to start with (the easiest maybe?), but for sure it is one of the hardest to master as all these problems must be tackled under strong time constraints.

The 8 Best “Smile” Street Photographs From My Weekly Assignment

(Above image by Valery Titievsky)

The street photography assignment for this week was “Smile”. Thanks for everyone who submitted their best images! I chose the 8 images I liked the most. Stay tuned for the next week’s assignment, and make sure to stay updated via my Facebook fan page!

The 65+ Best Street Photographs from my Intro to Street Photography Workshop in Chicago with Jason Martini

(Image above by Jayme Sudeth)

Chicago is definitely one of my new favorite places to shoot street photography. Not only is downtown Chicago ripe for street photography, but Chicago has some of the friendliest and down-to-earth people out there. I had the time of my life teaching my street photography workshop with Jason Martini, and you can see a recap of my workshop here.

Below are the best images from the Introduction to Street Photography Workshop. If you are interested, I also have upcoming workshops in Toronto, India, Tokyo, and Malaysia on my workshops page!

Read more to see all of their images below.

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An Introduction to Zone Focusing for your Leica, Rangefinder, or DSLR

When I first started shooting street photography, I was always frustrated that my autofocus would always be too slow to capture the decisive moment. After trudging around the internet, I was first introduced to the idea of “zone focusing” by Markus Hartel on his blog.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with zone focusing you essentially use a high f-stop number with a deep depth of field (f/16 or f/11) and have your camera pre-focused to a certain distance to get your photos in-focus. This is beneficial because although modern autofocusing systems are quite good, they are not 100% reliable. Using zone focusing when shooting street photography allows you to get far more keepers.

hyperfocal zone focusing — Aperture at f/16 and focused to around .9 meters. You can see everything from .7 meters to 1.5 meters will be in-focus

Regarding the settings, I typically use the following when shooting:

Aperture: f/16
ISO: 800-3200
Shutter speed: Above 320ths/second
Prefocus: 1 meter
AV-mode

Why do I use the above settings? Shooting at f/16 allows me to get the deepest depth-of-field with my lens. I keep my ISO high so my shutter speed will be above 320ths/second (this allows you to capture people walking and not blurry). I don’t mind having extra grain or noise in my images. I actually find it to make my images more gritty and raw. Also I keep my lens pre-focused to around 1 meter– because that is how close I generally am to my subjects when shooting.