Mexico City pick hand face

How to Make Great Street Photos

In pursuit of making great street photographs:

Hand gestures and emotion

Movement in different directions and planes

Get close, personal, and shoot from a low-angle

Minimalism

Find your subject against a simple background, get a hand-gesture, and look for the ‘cherry on top‘ (small detail which elevates a good photo into great). For example the man below with the Virgin Mary hat):

Going into the shadows

Another idea:

Photograph your subjects as they enter shadows.

Look for nice details, like this girl in Mexico City on her roller blades:

Turn-around

To make more dynamic photos, shoot the photos as the person or child is turning around:

In the above photo, I also like the detail of the father putting on the hat on the kid’s head.

Another good reason to make photos of kids:

Parents often hold the hands of their children. Photos you make of humans holding the hands of other humans are effective.

Tilt your camera (dutch angle), and get eye contact.

One person not making eye contact, and one person making eye contact makes a more dynamic street photograph:

Have your subject notice that you are making their photo

Don’t feel like you need to be a stealth street photography ninja. Often when your subject notices you making a photo of them, they will sometimes pose for you (on their own accord), which makes for a more fun and dynamic photo:

This then becomes fun, because you can get interesting hand-gestures from your subject or interesting expressions/emotions!

Hands covering the face of the subject

Mexico City pick hand face

When you make a photo in which the face of the subject is obscured, the photo feels more surreal and interesting to look at!


Study the greats

In order to become a great street photographer and make great street photographs, study the greats and masters of photography.

For example, William Klein. Look at how close he gets and shoots into the crowd:

When you study his work, note the repetition (and piano-key-like rhythm in his photo compositions):

Another fun Klein photo — look at all the faces in the crowd, and how they all are opposing one another, or seem as if they will collide with one another:

Red-Orange Photos

Make photos that have strong red-orange vibes:

This color mimics the feeling of death, passion, emotion, and more.

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