Street Photography Update

Jerk Pork / John Gough / Canon EOS 6D

What is happening in the world of street photography?

I found a film on Amazon Prime called Everybody Street, which has street photographers from New York, including Bruce Davidson, Mary Ellen Mark, Elliott Erwitt, Ricky Powell and Joel Mayerowitz, talking about how and why they take pictures.

Everybody Street

I have since sourced the film on YouTube:

As I watched the film I jotted down some insights from these iconic photographers:

Why do some photographers go to the street and others go to the studio?

Learning to read your culture is a great fascination for photographers

Capture what might be of interest in the future. When its gone, you realise that you missed taking a picture of it

There are too many bad photographs, but the good ones illuminate and entertain and get some sort of emotion, laugh or cry or something in between

Invisibility, a little camera makes you look like a sneak

Definition of public and private is smashed, so objecting to having a camera in your face is obsolete

You make the picture in the moment, turn left you have a picture, turn right and you don’t get one

Rendering the human condition, sharing the world as it is, recording life my way

More and more I want to take pictures, because I have less and less time left

Photography is about description, that is what a camera does. However as human beings we learn to understand minute little exchanges. It is down to us believing that this slice of a moment will present its self. There are a lot of people that don’t believe that the world is going to present itself in that way, so they don’t see it because they don’t look for it.

If you have a spare hour and a half and you love street photography you will love this film.

I recently saw Damien Demolder talk about street photography

Damien Demolder

Damien is an interesting speaker. He was editor of Amateur Photographer for around fifteen years. He is now a journalist, photographer, reviewer of kit and a judge on some big photography competitions. I recently saw him speak about his photography. Street photography he defines as people and architecture. His work is here

This was just some of the learning I took away.

Photography and especially street photography is showing ordinary things in an extraordinary way.

Light is important. Our subject is light. Wait for light.

Photographers are more observant than other people. Look for that decisive moment.

Shoot with a standard lens. Need to be involved with the subject not standing far away

Holding a viewfinder to your head cuts you off from the world. 98% of pictures are taken from head height. If you have a flip up the screen then shoot from the hip. It is a different view and you can see the picture coming next.

Hold your camera in front of you. Use the screen. You look like an idiot but not like a photographer.

Here is Damien talking about street portraiture:

Silver Efex Moody Monochrome

by John Gough

Coffee at The Mitre / John Gough / Sony a6300

I was out and about in Cambridge yesterday with my camera, and I was accosted by an elderly lady. She thought that because I was carrying a camera, I must be a snoop from the council. That is just one of the hazards of street photography. Had I been carrying a big DSLR, she would have assumed I was a proper photographer. However, a small camera like the Sony a6300 can unfortunately make you seem like a furtive fellow.

The picture above was taken there. The couple look delighted to have been caught on camera. I was having a good day!

The Google Nik Collection including Silver Efex Pro2

I created the moody monochrome image using Silver Efex Pro2, from the Google Nik Collection.

The Google Nik Collection is the best free resource for photographers available on the web. In 2016 when Google decided not to support the software further, it went on to provide the software free to photographers. This was both good and bad news. The software was free, but it was never going to to be updated. However, a month or so ago it was agreed that DxO acquire the Nik Collection, and fortunately they plan to continue to develop it. A revised version will be available mid 2018.

It is still possible to download the existing software, including Silver Efex for monochrome post processing here.

Silver Efex Pro2

This is a note to myself about how the image was processed.

Lightroom

In Lightroom, there are the usual workflow: exposure, sharpness and white balance adjustments to process from RAW. The image was then desaturated to -31, the vibrance taken down to -29 and the clarity pushed up to +71. Reducing the colour to provide a dark and moody presence. I also added a shallow tone curve and imperceptible vignette.

Photoshop

Removed the reflection of myself and used the burn tool to tone down the interior of the pub, reducing lights and reflections.

Silver Efex

Processed to mono using preset 23 Wet Rocks and film type Agfa APX Pro 100.

Conclusion

To achieve that look, without Silver Efex would be impossible for an amateur retoucher like myself. Furthermore, in the distant analogue days it would have taken hours of work in the darkroom to achieve the same results.

Learn more:

Documentary Photographer of the Year

by John Gough

Lunch Break. John Gough Canon EOS6D

The Exhibition

I went along to the 2017 Documentary Photographer of the Year exhibition at Printspace in London this week. The exhibition is organised by the RPS Documentary Group. It was a bit thin to be honest, probably twenty five images, thirty at most. However, it was interesting to see how photographers had tackled a documentary subject in just five pictures.

Particularly impressive was the winner David Fletcher who’s photographs follows Ann, a New Forest commoner, and her purchase of eight calves in December. After a few weeks the calves began to fall ill and despite her efforts, and expense of the vet, only two calves survived the winter. The photographs were very moving, in just five images you sympathised with her plight and felt in there with her. See here.

The Street Walk

The Documentary Photographer of the Year exhibition was at Printspace in Hoxton London. So it was an opportunity to walk through the east end of London, down through the City to Blackfriars to catch the train home. The image above is just one of two keepers, from the 200+ shots taken on the trip with my Canon 6D. Still that 1% rule. If I take 100 pictures I am lucky to get one that is worth sharing.

Last night I listened to a talk by Tom Way a truly amazing wildlife photographer. His pictures were fabulous, because in my opinion he was not a naturalist taking pictures, but a photographer taking pictures of nature. He advocated putting your photographs away for two months and coming back to them to critique them. He put critiquing your own work as the number one photography skill. He looks for just twelve images a year! If I did that however I would probably be down to just 0.01%.

( Tom Way sells his work as fine art prints. This is just a note to myself about the paper and frame he uses)

Street Photography Portraits

by John Gough

The Reader John Gough Canon EOS6D

Ever wondered how to take photography portraits of strangers in the street? You could be furtive and point a long lens in their direction, or you could be cheeky and like Dougie Wallace point a camera in their face and quickly walk on. It is one of the dilemmas of street photography.

I have to admit to discretely taking this picture, by pointing my camera to the left as I sat on the next bench. By the look on his face, I think he guessed that there is something going on!

The other alternative is to be like street photographer Kevin Gilper. This is a man who is on a mission, to take one thousand portraits a year. He calmly walks up to his victim and asks politely, “Excuse me, may I take a picture of you for my portfolio?”. A few say no but the majority say yes.

Kevin is not out to make money, he just feels that everyone deserves a good picture of themselves. He share his pictures on Instagram (@kgilper).

Sony a6000 for Street Photography

by John Gough

The Baron of Beef / John Gough / Sony a6300

I am researching what the Sony a6000 and its’ derivatives the a6300 and a6500 are like at street photography. Not so long ago (well 60 years ago) you set forth into the streets of New York. (See Joel Meyerwitz) with Leica in hand. Now we are all striving to be street photographers, and there are lots of alternatives to a Leica. These include the mirrorless Sony, Fuji, Panasonic and Canon cameras. But how good are they? Concentrating on the Sony a6000s, here are some views from some street photography bloggers: Thomas Fitzgerald Photography

The big advantages of the A6000 for street photography are as follows:

1. It’s really fast in operation. The camera responds quickly and you are never left waiting for it to catch up, which can be an issue with some older mirrorless cameras, especially in this price range.
2. The flip up screen is great for shooting from the hip. It’s great for being stealthy when shooting on the street.
3. The autofocus is superb. It’s still one of the better autofocus systems that I’ve used on a mirrorless camera. I find it better than my X-Pro 2 for autofocusing (send your hate mail to….) especially when shooting street photography. It’s very fast and it locks on really quickly. Also, the face detection works well, and is a really useful option when shooting street shots.
4. It’s really small and discrete. When coupled with a small lens it’s not much bigger than a compact camera.
5. You can adapt it to an incredibly wide range of lenses (pretty much anything). While it doesn’t autofocus with adaptors as well as the newer A6500, if you’re willing to manual focus, and have old glass, there is more than likely an adaptor for it. And some of these adaptors are pretty cheap too.

Steven Brokaw Photography

There are MANY reviews on the A6000 focusing on features & performance, so I won’t try to do one myself. I would recommend if you are looking at an ILC for street then check out the online reviews, blogs and go to your local camera store to get the feel of the Sony A6000. However, I did want to highlight what I liked about the camera. They are:

Lighting fast focus,
Easy to use menus & menu layout,
Fine lineup of Sony lenses and readily available adapters for non Sony lenses,
Focus tracking is awesome,
Burst rate is stupid fast,
OK (but, not great) low light performance,
Feels good in my hand (very sticky),
APS-C sensor,
Good video,

Crazyaboutcameras http://crazyaboutcameras.com/best-cameras-for-street-photography/

The main benefit of the a6000 is its portable size. The ability to put a camera in a coat pocket and take it out everywhere with you is not to be underestimated. Especially with street photography where you may want to be discreet.

But apart from the portability, we are just amazed by the image quality that a camera of this size can produce. The a6000s sensor is incredible and is widely regarded as being one of the best in this “size class” of cameras. It picks up colors well and the processor that powers the whole product can accurately adjust the balance on auto mode.

Some other cameras without a digital viewfinder can struggle in bright lighting conditions making the shot reasonably difficult (or impossible) to take. The OLED viewfinder on the a6000 makes it well suited to shooting in bright conditions. It is perfect for the street where you never know when the next shot might arise.

Tim Brookes MakeUseOf http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/mirrorless-cameras-great-street-candid-shy-photographers/

For street photography, this matters. As someone who’s always been a bit shy when it comes to pointing a camera in people’s faces, a smaller and more discreet camera allowed me to get closer and push myself further than an SLR ever has. The amazing thing is that modern mirrorless cameras don’t require you to sacrifice image quality — I’ve been shooting 24.2 megapixel images in RAW format images in RAW format and the excellent low-light performance and 425 points of autofocus on the A6300 allowed me to trust the camera completely. Aforementioned street photographer Eric Kim notes that “ultimately capturing the moment, emotion, and feeling of a scene is more important than how many pixels or how sharp it is.” This could apply to a whole manner of photographic applications, but it’s especially true for street photographers and anyone who wants to get into candid photography. Kim’s top pick for a dedicated street camera is the Richoh GR-II, a compact camera with a fixed lens and an APS-C sensor that retails for around $700.
Considering the flexibility offered by an interchangeable system, Sony’s A6000 is cheaper and ultimately more versatile. The newer A6300 has a groundbreaking autofocus system and full silent shooting for around $1,150 with a kit lens. These are easily two of the best mirrorless cameras on the market in terms of value for money, raw performance, and overall size — so be sure to check them out if you’re planning your next move as a photographer.

The Phoblographer

Review: Sony a6300

In many ways the Sony a6300 is an excellent camera. Great image quality, very versatile RAW files, a small size, great autofocus, and more. What more could you possibly ask for? My qualms with it have to do with the fact that the high ISO output is starting to fall behind the competitor and that I genuinely feel like the ergonomics need to take a step up at this point. Otherwise, it’s a very solid camera.

It is interesting gaining the views of actual users. The Sony a6xxx have fantastic autofocus, good IQ and are small and discrete, ideal for street work. May also have to invest in some primes. the Sigma 30mm 1.4 looks a good option very highly rated by DPReview. Plus a top tip, if the 30mm is too tight then take a few pictures and stitch together in Lightroom

Where to Buy Your Equipment

I buy my equipment from Wex because of their exceptional customer service. I once returned a camera after 30 days, and the next day they called to return my money to my account. Their prices are always competitive and they offer good prices on the trade in of your used gear

Camera Wrist Strap

I have avoided dropping my camera so many times using a simple inexpensive wrist strap like this one. Cameras and expensive lenses do not bounce! UK USA

Joel Meyerowitz Photographer

by John Gough

Joel Meyorowitz is a contemporary of Tony Ray-Jones. His YouTube videos are both educational and inspirational.

Here he describes how his photography is not the record of a single thing, but the coming together of two different things. This is about contradictions and connections in photographs which we talk about frequently in these pages. However for Meyerowitz it is about having the scene as busy as possible so that the eye is not necessarily drawn to just one thing.

This is how he works and why it is important to photograph in colour, and not have a single thing dominate the image.

Tony Ray-Jones Photographer

by John Gough

My aim is to communicate something of the spirit and the mentality of the English, their habits and their way of life, the ironies that exist in the way they do things, partly through their traditions and partly through the nature of their environment and their mentality. For me there is something very special about the English ‘way of life’ and I wish to record it from my particular point of view before it becomes Americanised and disappears.

Tony Ray-Jones was a documentary photographer even before the term was coined. He studied in the US at Yale and returned to the UK in 1965, it was then whilst doing work for the Radio Times and other publications, that he decided to turn his camera on the English at leisure. At the time, his photographs were considered “exotic”.

In 1968 his attempts to publish his England by the Sea album, which served as a basis for the A Day Off (which was published after his death), came to nothing – the publishers claimed that the album would raise no interest.

He was a major influence on Martin Parr, but sadly died at the age of 31 from leukaemia.

Here Martin Parr talks about his influence on him.

The Guardian have a super collection of his work

More of his work at Lensculture

In 2004 Liz Jobey wrote a very informative article about Tony Ray-Jones

The critic Sean O’Hagan said:

in his short life he helped create a way of seeing that has shaped several generations of British photography

Ruddy Roye Documentary Photographer

by John Gough

I came across Ruddy Roye in the Fuji Spotlight Series of videos about photographers:

He is a photographer based in Brooklyn specialising in editorial and environmental portraits and photo-journalism photography. His photographs are gritty and real, this is his website

He has also been instrumental in using Instagram to showcase his interest in his community of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. He has over a quarter of a million followers on Instagram and was TIME Instagram Photographer of 2016. See here.

“My Instagram account has become a way for me to question everything around me,” said Mr Roye, who has uploaded roughly 2,000 images in the past year. “The media has a way of deleting the stories of people who society does not want to deal with. This is my humble way of putting these stories back in people’s faces — forming a real and active dialogue about these issues.”

It is inspirational to see a photographer use his camera for social activism. He takes pictures about the issues of race, deprivation and inequality, which if he were a journalist would be difficult to publish.

Dougie Wallace Street Photographer

by John Gough

I love the work of Dougie Wallace, here is a street photographer that works right on the edge. This is a series of shots is from his project photographing stags and hens in Blackpool.

A rich seam he says is the kebab shop late at night.

This is from another project documenting the rich, in what he calls Harrodsburg.

Notice though how fast he moves, and how little time there is to get the shot.

I like his use of colour and flash.

Lastly a lot of us budding street photographers head to Shoreditch, the street art and the mix of people make it a great hunting ground.

However we don’t all get shots as good as these.

Respect.

Link to his web site.

What is Street Photography?

by John Gough

Street Photography

I have always defined street photography as ‘taking pictures of strangers’, but I was interested how others defined it. These are my notes:

Street photography, also sometimes called candidphotography, is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Wikipedia

The definition of Street Photography is actually extremely vague. The most accepted “term” states that it is a conducted art that features unmediated and randomness in public places. Something like “serendipity,” so to speak. phototraces.com

‘the decisive moment’, ‘when form and content, vision and composition merged into a transcendent whole’, Cartier-Bresson

‘When I’m photographing I see life. That’s what I deal with’ Garry Winogrand

‘To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place…it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them’. Elliott Erwitt

‘Seeing, looking at what others cannot bear to see is what my life is all about’. Don McCullin

‘To me, street photography is just documenting human life. Period. Candid or with permission? I don’t care. Colour or black and white? It doesn’t matter. Street photography is about capturing the essence of humanity’. Imran Sahid

What is street photography? You don’t need a dictionary to define it. Study the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andre Kertesz, David Seymour (Chim), Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis, Brassai, Walker Evans, Elliott Erwitt, Mark Riboud, Garry Winogrand, Helen Levitt and Robert Frank, who are only a few of the masters of street, and you’ll have a much better appreciation for what street photography is than words can give you. The Luminous Landscape

This particular genre of fine photography is probably best explained as an opportunistic moment in which a photographer captures a candid public scene in front of him. …. – in order for a street photo to be genuine, it has to feature an unposed situation within a public place, regardless of where that place may be. Openwallsgallery.com

Now I understand that ‘Street Photography’ is just ‘Photography’ in its simplest form, it is the medium itself, it is actually all the other forms of photography that need defining, landscape, fashion, portrait, reportage, art, advertising….these are all complicating additions to the medium of Photography, they are the areas that need to be defined, ring fenced and partitioned out of the medium of ‘Street Photography’. Nick Turpin

There is nothing more inspirational and satisfying that a day on the streets with your camera. The definition of Street Photography has many different interpretations depending on what photographer you speak to. Personally, I like to take the simple approach and don’t like to curtail my picture taking in any way. To me if I take a picture on the street or any urban environment then it is street photography; this will include urban landscape, candid shots of people, portraits and still life. Ronnie Cairns

A recent article in the Huffington Post was entitled, ’Street Photography Has No Clothes’. As the author clearly intended, it sparked a lot of controversy. In it, he decried the lumping together in one category, of the work of time-honoured masters with the ‘hundreds of thousands of dull, hackneyed candid images of random strangers by hopeless photographers. olafwilloughby.com

I met an old friend the other day who I had not seen for years. He asked what was I doing. I told him that I was into street photography.

‘Does that mean you are a nosy parker’, he replied.

I guess that about sums it up.

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