free

FREE EBOOK: Street Portrait Manual

Dear streettogs, I am excited to announce my new free book: “The Street Portrait Manual.” If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to build your confidence approaching strangers, how to direct your subjects, and not make photos that look “posed” — I think you will enjoy this one!

Download:

You can download this book for free below in the following formats:

PDF:

This version has all the pictures and examples:

PDF (direct download, 24MB)
PDF (small size, 7.5MB)

Text:

This version has only text, no images. Use these files if you want to read the book on a Kindle, e-reader, or if you want to edit, change, translate, or modify the text (as this book is “open source“).

Google Doc (just text, please suggest edits here)
ePub (just text)
Microsoft .docx (just text)
Apple .pages (just text)
.rtf (just text)

Read more if you want to read the full text online (or save it to a service like Pocket or Instapaper):

Free E-Book: How to Overcome Photographer’s Block

I am excited to announce that I just finished writing a new book titled: “How to Overcome Photographer’s Block.” If you have ever felt lack of motivation, inspiration, or direction– this is the book for you!

If you’re in a creative rut, learn how to break out of your “photographer’s block” with this comprehensive and practical manual. In this book, I share practical tips, guidance, and assignments to break out of any creative barrier you have with your photography, no matter how severe.

You will learn how to overcome perfectionism, “paralysis by analysis”, giving yourself the permission to make “imperfect photos”, learn how to integrate your life with photography, how to focus on the process (not the outcome), how to add more novelty and randomness to your life, and more.

The book is “open source,” meaning you can share it, remix it, and do anything you want with it for free. Feel free to share it with a friend, print it out, or even translate it into a different language!

You can download the book for free in these formats:

PDF (Also check out the French Translation)
Google Doc (please suggest edits)
.epub (for all e-readers)
.mobi (for Kindle)
.docx (Microsoft word)
.rtf (rich text file accessible in any format)

Enjoy :)

Other free ebooks:

You can also read the full book for free below, and you can save it to Pocket or Instapaper:

Free E-Book: “Street Photography 101: An Introduction to Street Photography”

Update: I re-edited this book with new images and design / April, 2016

Hey streettogs, I am excited to announce that I’ve finally published my free e-book: “Street Photography 101“. If you’re new to street photography, want to learn the fundamentals, or refresh your existing knowledge– check it out. As always, this book is “open source” — meaning you can freely edit, remix, and distribute this information as you would like.

Below is an overview of some of the chapters I will cover:

Chapter 1: What is street photography?
Chapter 2: Why street photography?
Chapter 3: What to look for when you’re shooting street photography
Chapter 4: How to overcome your fear of shooting street photography
Chapter 5: Lessons I’ve learned from the masters of street photography
Chapter 6: Street photography equipment, technical settings, technique
Chapter 7: Street photography exercises
Chapter 8: Conclusion

Free Download

PDF (Normal/91MB)

PDF (Small/15.9MB)

iBooks Author (353.MB)

If you want to edit, translate, or remix the book, below is the original “iBooks Author” file (free to download for anyone with a Mac):

Also check out the Portuguese translation.

You can also “read more” to see the full text of the book below.

Free E-Book: The Street Photography Project Manual

Dear streettogs, I am really excited to share that I have (another) free e-book for you guys (because I love you) titled: “The Street Photography Project Manual”

The concept behind the e-book was this: I wanted to put together all the information I knew regarding coming up with ideas with street photography projects, how to shoot it, how to edit and sequence it, and how to publish it. Here is a quick overview of the chapters in this e-book:

Chapter 1: Why pursue a street photography project?
Chapter 2: What makes a great photography project?
Chapter 3: How to come up with a street photography project idea?
Chapter 4: How to stay motivated when pursuing your photography project
Chapter 5: How to edit/sequence your photography project
Chapter 6: How to publish your photography project
Chapter 7: Conclusion

Free download:

This book is “open source” meaning you are free to distribute, edit, change, remix, or share this with your friends (freely and openly). Enjoy:

If you want to read the full e-book on this blog, “read more”:

Here are some other free e-books I published:

Free Open-Source Online Street Photography Course: “All the World’s a Stage: Introduction to Street Photography”

In the spirit of the “Open Source Photography” approach, I present to you the free online street photography course: “All the World’s a Stage: Introduction to Street Photography.” The majority of this course material was made in 2012, and many of my thoughts and beliefs on street photography have changed since then. However if you are starting off in street photography and want a primer to start, this might be a helpful resource for you.

Also because this is an “Open Source” course, feel free to edit, remix, and distribute this course however you would like!

You can download the syllabus for the course here (.docx file).

Update: I have also setup an informal Facebook group for this course. Unfortunately I cannot moderate it at the moment, but you can collaborate with other students here: All the World a Stage: Introduction to Street Photography Facebook Group

Eric Kim Lightroom Presets

Tokyo, 2016 (with "Eric Kim 1600" preset) — Tokyo, 2016 (with “Eric Kim Monochrome 1600” preset)

I’ve been working on these presets for a long time. They’re mostly optimized for the Ricoh GR and when shooting with flash— but I figure they will look good with any camera (as long as you shoot in RAW).

There are two Lightroom presets included:

Eric Kim Color 1600 (gritty, high-contrast color preset)
Eric Kim Monochrome 1600 (gritty, high-contrast black and white preset)

Download:

How to Install:

Open up Lightroom
Go in the “Develop” module (hotkey “D”)
Under the “Presets” drop-down menu (bottom-left) right-click (or on Mac, control+click) and click “Import…” and then select your presets from your “Downloads” folder
Apply to your image

Older Presets

Downtown LA, 2015. With "Neopan 1600" preset. — Downtown LA, 2015. “Eric Kim Neopan 1600” preset.

Below are my Lightroom film simulation presets from 2015:

Download:

Direct Download
Dropbox

Included presets:

Eric Kim Portra 160
Eric Kim Portra 400
Eric Kim Portra 800
Eric Kim Tri-X 1600
Eric Kim Neopan 1600

Download Thomas Leuthard’s (85mm) NEW Street Photography Book: “Collecting Souls: What Street Photography Means to Me” For FREE!

I am excited to announce that Thomas Leuthard (85mm) has just released his second book on street photography titled: “Collecting Souls: What Street Photography Means to Me“. This book is much more advanced than his previous book, and contains more of his personal thoughts and ideas when it comes to street photography. It includes more than 30 short chapters about street photography, and should help with your own story-telling and style.

As with Thomas’ other street photography book, it is totally FREE and available for download here.

If you haven’t checked out Thomas’ first book “Going Candid“, you can also download that here as well.

Show Thomas some love by leaving a comment below and telling him what you think about his book/generosity!

Free Color and B/W Lightroom 3 Presets!

So these are some presets that I made in Adobe Lightroom 3 and frequently use when converting my images into color or black and white. Granted that I will still do some fine-tweaking to each image after applying these presets, they are a great starting point for the starting Lightroom 3 user. Also make sure that your images in RAW when applying these presets, or they will come out really funky! Enjoy!

Before (Raw)