Tag: focal length

The 5 Most Common Questions about Street Photography (and the answers)

"3 Men"- note how the man's face is visible, yet not identifiable. Thus I do not need a model release for this if I wanted to sell this print.

Hey guys,

I thought about writing this blog post after receiving many questions regarding street photography. I saw it as a great opportunity to help clear up some misconceptions about street photography, as well as answer questions from many aspiring street photographers from around the world! If you have any other general questions, feel free to leave a comment below and have either me or some other street photographer from the community answer your question!

1. Do I need a model release form when shooting people in the streets?

"3 Men"- note that although the man's face is visible, he is not identifiable. Thus I do not need a model release for this if I wanted to sell this print. Also I have no restrictions in posting this online.

No. As long as a person is in a public area and not on private property, you are free to take their photo without having a model release form. However the tricky part is when it comes to selling images of people shot in public areas. If the photo you are selling clearly defines a person’s face, then you need a model release form.

Edit: In the US, you are allowed to sell a recognizable photo of someone on the street as a work of art. What you are not allowed to do is to sell it for commercial photography — that is to say, photos being used to sell a product. This would prevent the sale of photos of a recognizable person to (let’s say) a stock photo service, but not as a work of art, or photojournalistic purposes.

Relevant reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nussenzweig_v._DiCorcia

-Thanks Brandon!

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How to Shoot from the Hip

Via http://www.fortysixtyphoto.com/shop/

In street photography, one of the popular techniques that photographers employ is “shooting from the hip.” To sum it up, “shooting from the hip” it is holding your camera at wait-level, and shooting upwards without looking through the viewfinder. One of the reasons why this technique is widely popular is because it allows you to take much more candid images of people, as they do not see you shooting them with your eye through your viewfinder, and assume you aren’t taking images. Another thing is that when shooting from the hip, you often get a much more interesting perspective as you shoot from a much lower perspective.

Although there are some individuals who are opposed to shooting from the hip and consider it as the “easy way out,” simply disregard their words. As you will soon find out, framing while shooting from the hip is very difficult when starting off. For every 100 shots you take shooting from the hip, you will probably only get 5-10 or so “decently” framed images.

Although I do not use shooting from the hip as my primary type of street photography, I will try my best to walk you through how you can effectively shoot from the hip and get amazing candid images of people.

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