Street Photography Tips pt. 5
Use windows
Shooting into windows and through windows is one of my other favorite things to do while I’m out in the streets with my camera. You can use windows in two main ways; shoot at them to directly reflect your subject, or shoot through them to layer your photo with background reflections. When you point your camera toward a window, keep in mind that you probably won’t be able to get a razor sharp image unless you’re shooting a single pane of glass. Most storefronts have multiple layers of glass, which will soften an image, but as long as you have an interesting subject and can tell a story, you can walk away with some stellar photos.
Shoot at night
If you haven’t gone out to shoot street photography at night, you’re really missing out on something special. Shooting at night has a few main benefits, like artificial colorful lighting, less people, and more dramatic scenery. The dynamic of your photography can drastically shift once the sun goes down, and you can unlock a completely new way of viewing your surroundings and how you search for photos. Shooting at night isn’t always easy, but if you can hone your skills after sunset, you’ll get much better and well-rounded quickly.
Raise your ISO
Okay, so this tip is mainly for shooting at night, but it’s still important. If you find your photos at night are just too dark, don’t be afraid to crank up that ISO. I still struggle with this sometimes myself, but I’ve recently been going up to 3200, 6400 ISO and getting solid photos. Cameras these days have really great abilities to get clean images at night, and with denoise software capabilities, it’s not something you need to worry about. You may end up with some noise in your images, but it’s better to get a slightly noisy shot than to not get the shot at all.
