Street Photography Ideas

Ideas for your street photography:

Indoor street photography

You can shoot street photography even on college campuses:

Integrate architecture

Photograph a silhouette of your subject, with the architecture surrounding and framing them:

Leading lines, architecture street photography.

Eye contact

If you see something interesting, get close and keep clicking. When you make yourself obvious, you will often get eye contact, which often makes for a more interesting image.

Why? With eye contact, it feels like the subject is looking directly at you (the viewer). This makes for a more intimate image.

Photograph hands

Hand henna tattoo. I asked this woman if I could just photograph her hand.

Often people don’t like being photographed, but they don’t mind if you photograph their hands.

Crossed hands of woman in Paris — Hands of a 92 year old woman in Hanoi.

Juxtapose people against backgrounds

Photograph people against murals, posters, or graphics. Inside Starbucks.

If you see a human being and some interesting background, make a photo of this juxtaposition (contrast).

Mannequins

Juxtapositions between humans and mannequins are always interesting.

Surrealism

Surrealism. Woman with big plant going through door.

Fun street photography tip:

Make surreal images.

Surreal — photos that we know are real, but don’t seem real.

For example, photos in which the head of the subject is replaced with an object.

Solo people

People dining alone.

Photograph people alone, deep in thought, reading, or doing something. You can get a sense of their concentration and focus.

Flash at slow shutter speed

For example, this photo I shot on a film Leica M6, 35mm, with a flash at around 1/15th of shutter speed:

Flash, blur.

Never stop curating

In praise of a dynamic portfolio: never stop curating your portfolio of images.