How do you set up the shot? You stop, take the picture at high speed while walking, from your car window? Fahim makes contact with the folk in some way. How do you do this?
I am always on the move. In these countries, Anne and I tavel like and with the locals - - - so it is always walking or on the buses. What I take is what is in front on me. I don't set up shots
However while I am going from place to place, my eyes are constantly aware of what is going on around me - - - and if I see interesting developments, I anticipate that a result might happen that I can capture - and may move to get into a better position to shoot. Sometimes what I anticipate does happen and sometimes it doesn't.
There are certain scenarios where I make contact and ask in Spanish if I can take their picture. Although in those few cases, I hardly ever use the shot where I asked them - it would be the ones before I asked or after I asked and they go about their business. I really depends on the feedback that I get from the person if they have noticed me.
But for all of these particular street shots - I have made no contact and took my pictures whether they have noticed me or not.
BTW - I am determined to take many street shots a day. Over the course of my stay I then have literally hundreds and hundreds from which to pick ones that really catch my eye.
How close and what lens, without me looking up the EXIF. I'm interested in your philosophy and social managers, so focal length and intimidation size of the camera and lens, does become important.
Basically I have 2 ways of shooting. When I head out (generally several times a day), I always have a purpose and so take gear specifically for what I want to shoot. I shoot with either my Olympus Dslr with 70-300 (140mm to 600mm) or my E-PL1 with 14-42 (28mm to 84mm) kit lens.
You should be able to recognize the 2 styles in the images above. . .
. . . Ones with the shallower depth of field and more compressed look, are taken from a distance away where I am seldom noticed (although people in these countries seem to always notice any camera held by a white guy). Sometimes I am able to stop for a moment and take time for things to fall into place.
. . . The ones where I am walking along the street will generally be taken with my small E-PL1 - quite often held at waist level, although sometimes I pull it up and look at the screen. I find that with this camera, people don't take me serious and so it doesn't draw as much attention. The image quality however, is no different than my DSLR. With shots where I am moving and people are passing by me or I am passing by them - the lens is mostly at the widest focal length - meaning that they are literally within a few feet of me. I may also use the longest setting and look in on the people from 10 to 15 feet away - although that's still relatively close to them.
One disadvantage that I have over scenarios where I would have more control - has to do with lighting. Pretty well all of my shots have to be in the middle of the day. So light is never ideal - especially when shooting the streets. You soon learn that in Central American countries - every street has a shadow side and a side directly in the sun. The shadow may only be a few feet wide - but it is always there under the overhang the buildings that line the streets.
So I try to shoot there if I can. This is tricky for metering and relying on the cameras meter, will underexpose your subject always. Of course brightening to get good exposure on the shadow side, will mean blown out backgrounds and buildings. So there is a knack to watching the backgrounds and walking in a way that will provide a decent shot in those cases.
As for camera settings - I do use Auto settings and adjust for the lighting with exposure compensation. My preference last year was to use Shutter Speed Priority with a faster shutter speed set. Previously when I used Program or Aperture modes, I had some really good shots that either camera or subject movement made less than ideal. By setting Shutter Priority and Auto ISO - I had few of those issues.
Hope that is of some use. Probably better than reading the Exif data (which is discarded anyway when I save for web).
