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Comments
48 responses to “Why Try Street Portrait Photography?”
🔴 Any tips for street portraits please let us all know below… it’s hard!
Also this video is a new format for me, so let me know if you’d like to see more videos like this in the future!
Thanks for watching ✌🏻
Love this mate! I think that the most genuine photographs come from having real interactions before taking the picture. I'm starting to take street portraits like you and found nerve racking to ask random people for a photo. I discovered that it's quite easier to just make conversation with someone because of something they are doing and have a proper interaction and after a while telling them what you do and ask them for the picture comes naturally and you can get so much more out of it, just like the last person in the video, the connection can be felt trough the picture. Awesome video man!
My tip – If someone shows an interest or comments on the camera, that’s a green light for a portrait. 🚦 📸
It beats walking the streets.
This is awesome mate! I currently live in Bangkok and I often will ask for street portraits when I come across an interesting character! Keep doing it mate awesome work
!!
Very well done Tim! It is for sure not easy to leave the comfort zone and to ask totally strange people for a portrait!
just my suggestion. maybe shoot a bit wider so we can see the environment they are in also? I think that would add to the story too. thank you. great channel. subscribed.
Hi Tim.
Something for you to try next time you do this. Introduce yourself first, as it makes it easier for them to tell you their name. Then, ask them what is their favourite song, film or book. It keeps them there as they tell you and enables you to interact with them and get more pictures. Try it with two people and take pictures as they interact with eachother and yourself about what you asked them.
Think about taking pictures of people in your own area, shopkeepers for example. (it might be that you already do this and I don't know as I'm new to your channel).
Enjoy your weekend.
That was amazing Tim 👍😊👊. I struggle with this myself big time and I was feeling the angst for you as I was watching 😂. Fair play.
any cheap ways to develop films?
Wow, the focus on these pictures makes me more confident about my focus not always being tack-on, great work, love the photos!
The act of asking a person is somehow not common here in Indonesia, but i could try next time, but again using only smartphone i highly doubt anyone would take me seriously.
Bravo, Tim! Great video. I applaud your honesty and willingness to show doubt and anxiety about doing what you love. You're an inspiration 👏👏👏
Love the new format with seeing you as you walk around and great to see how you embrace the project, some incredible images and has given me food for thought with regards trying it. Whether I can get out of my comfort zone of shooting from the hip capturing candid images to portrait will be a tough question.
Nice!
Maybe you need to make it clear to them that you don't charge for your photoshoot.
I'm feeling anxious just watching this!
I love the images of the two ladies together and the last guy. I think you are very brave and probably did it the hardest way i.e. rush and run. I have watched Paul Reid on You Tube and he has some great advice which I would recommend. He says pick a compelling subject i.e. not just an ordinary person who does not want to be picked out. Couples or groups are easier to work with. Take your time as it is going to be a great talking point for them that day so make it pleasurable for them. Don't practice on people – find someone you really want to shoot and you will come across better. Say you are doing a Portrait project. Most of all don't just click 3 shots and run – that is not the best way.
You have broken the ice so now you can develop further. Good luck.
I thought you done very well Tim, but I would say that being a Brummie! the people of Birmingham love having their picture taken and I love it in the City Center, but the weather has to be good and some special offers in New St Wetherspoons before I will jump on the bus to go there, well done and thank you for sharing your day with us!…
good luck out there, i did this for a few days in my hometown I live in Baltimore, Maryland. and currently editing them, im annoyed because my wide shots i didnt capture anyones feet lol anyway I love your camera .
I'm chicken. I steal shots rather 😅
Trying to expand my style (just been doing landscape and my grandkids high school sports), and doing street photography as always interested me… but as you were saying.. the thought of approaching someone makes me nervous. Great video, Tim. Can't wait to watch more of your stuff.
Hello Tim, I can feel that it wasn't easy for you. It is not easy for me either. Thanks for the video! I love this format.
I like his style but it doesn't shoot me and the reason is the subject is posing. I prefer natural photos
My philosophy is that I use my camera as a tool to interact with people, and if I get a rejection I still aim to stop and chat to potential subjects. On a recent trip to the Barbican I got rejected twice, but still had a chat with a fascinating chap from Venice who comes to London once a month to play a church organ, and also a lady from Texas who came to London for love and now tends plants in her old age. If the request for a portrait is accepted, then so much the better but refusals are not to be regarded as a lack of success. The shot of the stall owner cutting his material was the winner for me; I liked how his hand holding the scissors acted as a leading line.
I can see myself so much in this video. Really comforting connection and inspiring to get out the box ❤ thank you for sharing always!
You did great!… Keep at it, as you will see those nerves fade away. Once you find your confidence, the world will open up to you.
It might help to give the person upfront a compliment and offer to send them the picture free of charge. Digital helps more in this regard. Thanks for your video.
Thanks for that Tim, very inspirational, took my first street portrait this week, I only had phone on me, I tried my usual approach of street, but it didn't work out, in the end I stopped and asked. So glad I did because on my "posed" portraits the lighting was so much better. I only wish I'd asked his details, as I think his family would like them, but at the time it was spur of the moment and wasn't sure if I got anything worthwhile.
Hi, Tim great video. You managed to face your fear and still do it.well-done. Just a quick question if you don't mind , did you ask them to sign a disclaimer ? and if so how did you go about it ? keep up the good work. Cheers Ivan
Great video and experience, that you shared with us! Thank you, mate!
Bravo brother! Been hesitating on this one for a while so admire the bravery by just pushing on no matter what… almost like with anything in photography, just when you're about to call it a day, you get the shot, or learn that bit extra or have a great interaction. Good man!
Interesting video, surprised that you seem so nervous and out of your comfort zone! Just take your time, work the scene, don't always shoot straight on, square! Your normal approach to street photography works, why not portrait? Just engage with the people, practise, practise, practise!
Looking forward to seeing more of the same, pethaps using digital!😀
Why don't you just take a candid scene shots…
love the video, love the shots. Two thoughts from personal experience:
a) looking for "outstanding characters" is common, as it makes it seemingly easier to get a good image, but it's actually like shooting with rainbows or during sunsets. Try instead going for another session, taking picture of very "common" people and be surprised how they may start glowing in front of the camera since no one ever wants to picture them, and they're much more patient if you want to fiddle with setting, pose or composition, since every step is really "exciting", and it makes you more calm since you're the expert they are not. I once took pics of a cashier and she wrote back with "thanks for making me feel like a model for a few minutes."
b) if you get the chance to portrait two people like the women around 10:15, picture them separately. You get two different takes with one ask, the second person will be more relaxed since he/she saw the process with the first, and you will be calmer inside since the seemingly existing pressure to speed up is totally gone (and yes, I always feel I have to rush street portraits because I feel like stealing people's precious time, silly me…)
3:18 I love that the film cut off the photo perfectly down the middle! Makes for an interesting image imo
So rear to see or feel anything real on here these day, you manages to capture something raw, somthing worth viewing, you could hear that in your voice too…
Great watch Tim and I can relate to your apprehension about doing street portraits. A while back I set myself the challenge of a '100 Strangers' project and well remember how I felt about approaching people. However I found it a most satisfying project and enjoyed some great interactions with different people and was frankly amazed at the very high percentage of people that agreed for me to take their portrait. For me the key was being very friendly and positive and like you demonstrated, complimentary.
If you are interested some of my results are shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUTMVlEAIsA
Of course delete the link if you would prefer not to have it in the comments. Enjoying your videos, maybe we will bump into one another one of these days. 🙂
One of my favourite parts of my street photography, love the connection with people, try the fish market on Wednesdays , much more challenging to get a yes .
Thank you Tim for this new and inspiring video! Your approach to street photography, which you usually report on in your other videos, is exactly what I would like to be able to reach these days (with all the modesty of an amateur who has only got back to photography for a few months)… Your underlying philosophy of life speaks to me hugely, inspired by photography but with extensions towards the precious notions of attention to others, respect, personal research, acceptance of failures, Carpe Diem… How soothing!
And this new experimentation of street portraits, which you show here, is a challenge that I have wanted to try for a long time, but I have not yet managed to overcome my psychological barriers!
By sharing your experiences in this way, with sincerity and authenticity, you contribute to giving courage to introverted photographers! Photography can be quite a solitary activity, and I'd like to find ways to make it a more social experience.
Personally, I'm still stuck for the moment with disabling beliefs (for example: To what extent is the approach you show here transposable to France, where the way of speaking to strangers seems less "relaxed" to me than in the Anglo-Saxon world? Does the complicated choice of using the informal "tu"/formal "vous" make it more difficult to establish contact in French? What legitimacy do I have, as a totally amateur photographer, to take portraits of strangers, when I have almost no experience at all in portrait photography? Or again: Am I too old, with my graying hair, to avoid looking like a voyeuristic pervert?… 😅)
I hope that one day I'll have the courage to take the plunge and try street portraits, to confront myself with the freedom of response of the subjects I choose, and to manage the frightening emotions that such encounters can arouse for the moment… Your videos will undoubtedly help me, and I thank you already for contributing to my path!
I look forward to your next sharing of experiences!
Toh – IG tohmopi
Hi Tim, Thank you for showing us your struggle, and your joy. Most of us are so vulnerable when we go out on the street. Asking people for their portraits is the hardest thing. It's something I avoid at all costs, unfortunately, because street portraits can be so satisfying, especially if you strike a chord with your subject, as you seem to have done with a couple of your subjects in this video.
I really want to do more street portraits, and your candid, honest approach here has encouraged me.
Thanks for this enjoyable video. Please do more of those. One or two thoughts: in my opinion you posted the people too far to the background and at least the last guy looked great looking to the side.
I love videos like this. Raw, honest advice. Real interactions, none of that staged social media crap. Super educational and entertaining. Great job!
Nice video Tim, love the two women in front of the green gate. I did a couple of strangers projects a few years ago that I posted to Flickr. I really enjoyed the interactions with the people I met and the story’s they told. Cheers.
My tips would be, Move them into the light that you want, Pose them how you want them to look, and be positive and take charge.
Format works well, Tim. Sporting of you to keep photo-bombers😊. Practical and straightforward approach. People in their environments my preference — so cloth cutter rates high. First image of last series more revealing of persona than the others — see into soul kind of portrait.
Film a tad limiting for this kind of shoot — I’d fire off several quick digital shots (silent e-shutter) to get a better chance at a good one. Quick tip: say “We’re done.” and then when subject relaxes take one more.
BTW, what was the name of the second gent??😊 Cheers!
Great video. Very honest and real.
I do street portraits in Birmingham every weekend, Will be there in the morning
Jeeeeez, Tim. That hype music! I expected you to come out in sparkly kit or something. Are you sure you're British? 🙂 (Teasing!)
And on the topic, I'm also quite shy, so I love (hate love) practicing asking to take photos of people. It takes me a while to warm that up. But you're right about what you said early on: it's about practice. Keep em coming, ole sparkly intro man! Brave brave brave! Love it. Love the art direction. I never get THAT far. I just stand there mutely. Good job on James.