Street Portraits

[PhatimagesAberdeen]

HI Group,

Looking for a bit of feed back, Mainly focused on wildlife until last year when i stepped out my comfort zone to try street portraits. want to venture down the route more in 2025 and beyond when time is limited so i can still get the joys of capturing images.

to those who have a good experience with this do you just use natural light or carry a flash?
i am currently using a Canon R7 with either a 50mm or 85mm lens when i tried a few last year.

I have attached a few i took.

I know i need to adjust with poses as well which is something i need to learn through practice.

 

[gramps]

I did a 'Strangers' project a while back, just to see how I got on approaching people and asking to take their photograph.

The results are on my Flickr Album.

I did not use flash for any of them, however I now do carry a flash but am not very forward in using it for many occasions - it does make a difference if used with care but can introduce some distracting highlights.


Zora by Bristol Streets, on Flickr

 

[benc98]

I really enjoy looking at stranger portraits and i think they end up being some of most interesting photographs to study and approaching strangers is a great skill to have, but don't really do a lot of it myself - something I'd like to change.

there's lots of people that do this sort of thing, but look at Joel Sternfeld's Stranger Passing and Jamel Shabazz - two very different approaches! The poses can neutral and often not smiley.. Some of the times they're posed to stand how the photographer found them - so I don't think you need to worry too much about posing. Two more contemporary practitioners worth looking at are Naeem Douglas and Gaberille Montola - all of these are natural light I think.

I think the very best stranger portraits have a collaborative feel about them and it's about recording the connection you made with the stranger as much as it is about getting the portrait.