{"id":34471,"date":"2016-12-01T02:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T10:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=34471"},"modified":"2016-12-05T23:59:37","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T07:59:37","slug":"dont-think-about-composition-when-youre-shooting-street-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/01\/dont-think-about-composition-when-youre-shooting-street-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Think About Composition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"seoul-2009-umbrella-eric-kim-street-photograpy-black-and-white-monochrome-1\"<\/p>\n

Dear friend,\u00c2\u00a0I want to give you a practical piece of advice when it comes to shooting street photography \u00e2\u20ac\u201d don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think about composition.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rather, use composition as a tool after<\/em> you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve taken a bunch of photos, in order to know which photo to keep (and which to ditch).<\/p>\n

Some things you can think about when shooting street photography<\/h2>\n

\"sf-bart-candid-eric-kim-street-photograpy-black-and-white-monochrome-23\"<\/p>\n

There are some basic things you can think about composition when it comes to shooting street photography.<\/p>\n

You can look for certain geometric shapes (triangles, diagonals, circles, leading lines), and wait for the right people to enter the scene.<\/p>\n

You can also tilt your camera, if you want to make more dynamic diagonal-compositions in your street photography.<\/p>\n

You can also seek to subtract clutter from the frame as a compositional technique, or trying to simplify the background.<\/p>\n

You can increase contrast and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153figure to ground\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in your photography by using a flash.<\/p>\n

There are all things you can do compositionally when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re shooting street photography quickly, on the fly.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t limit your creativity<\/h2>\n

\"eric-kim-street-photography-color-chroma-1\"<\/p>\n

However, having said all of that\u00e2\u20ac\u201d if you find yourself wanting to be more fluid, flexible, and creative when shooting street photography, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think about composition when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re shooting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re focusing too much on composition in street photography, you close your mind to other serendipitous moments. You want to have an open mind in street photography when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the streets. Too much focusing on composition makes you miss out on other opportunities.<\/p>\n

Follow your gut<\/h2>\n

\"nyc-2016-portrait-eye-centered-braids-eric-kim-street-photograpy-black-and-white-monochrome-21\"<\/p>\n

Rather, when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re shooting on the streets, follow your gut, instinct, and intuition.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve personally found that my compositions in street photography have improved when I study a lot of composition before<\/em> I shoot in the streets, and when I analyze<\/em> my street photos after<\/em> I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve shot them.<\/p>\n

Remember, capturing the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153decisive moment\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in street photography, and capturing an emotion, or mood is the most important. Of course you want a good composition as well \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but I would rather choose an emotional photo with soul (with a poor composition), rather than a soul-less photo (with a great composition).<\/p>\n

Cheers,
\nEric<\/p>\n

Learn more: Street photography composition ><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear friend,\u00c2\u00a0I want to give you a practical piece of advice when it comes to shooting street photography \u00e2\u20ac\u201d don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think about composition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/seoul-2009-umbrella-eric-kim-street-photograpy-black-and-white-Monochrome-1.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}