13 Street photography mistakes
We all make mistakes all the time and street photography is no exception. I make mistakes - you make mistakes - and we all move on from them. But hopefully we LEARN from them. I've worked as a documentary and street photographer for a long time and in teaching these skills to others, I've identified 13 common mistakes street photographers make.
Before we dig into some of these mistakes, I’ve really got to hold my hand up and say that I make them too. We all make at least some of them and there's no shame in that - but the important thing is to recognise some of the mistakes we make - and that recognition is the first step towards eliminating them from our shooting. So here are some of the mistakes I regularly come across:
1 Letting fear get in the way
Perhaps the most common mistake is to let fear or discomfort get the better of us. We all have some degree of fear, whether it's a tiny bit of unease or it's abject terror - but it can take over and we worry far too much about what people think. The fact is that most people are so self-absorbed - especially in bigger towns and cities - that they're in the least bit interested in you or what you're doing. The two best things you can do to minimise your discomfort are firstly to de-sensitise yourself to the situation - and that means practicing relentlessly - which we should be doing anyway. Secondly - and this is the killer tip - avoid eye contact when you're shooting on the streets.
2 Not concentrating
Something I see a lot of is a real lack of concentration. If you want to be good at this, you really need to be in the zone - in the moment - and totally focused on what you're going. So tune out any distractions, keep your ‘phone in your pocket, turn the music off and stop chimping! (chimping, if you're not familiar with the term, is looking at the image you've just taken on the rear screen). Just don't do it! If you've ever watched any really good street photographers at work, you'll notice that they are completely focused on their environment, observing, finding the detail and making connections.
3 Expecting too much
I see a lot of street photographers putting pressure on themselves to come home at the end of the day with a card full of great images. Honestly, it's never going to happen so don't cause yourself stress by putting pressure on yourself to shoot loads of great images all the time. If I spend a day on the streets, I'm more than happy to get one or two keepers - and sometimes it's none, which is fine. And that's where your expectations should be. Street photography is a long game. It's a slow game where patience really pays off - just relax and let everything just fall into place.
4 Walking too quickly
Most people walk too quickly and they're really missing out on so much of what's going on around them. I mentioned earlier about being in the zone, in the moment, and that's much more likely to happen if you move around slowly. You'll find that you see, hear - even smell - things you would otherwise miss. Your senses will become more alert and you'll really start to read the streets - and this is when the magic starts to happen.
5 Avoid the street photography clichés
It's very tempting, sometimes, to fall into cliche territory with street photography; and yes, I accept that everyone does it early on - it's almost a rite of passage - but some of these tropes are very over-used and lack originality. I'm sure you know what I mean - the woman in the red hat who's also carrying a red bag, someone sitting in a cafe window, someone walking past some street art, someone walking through a beam of light - worst of all, someone just walking, where there's nothing at all interesting about the picture. So here's a good test you can apply to your pictures: is there an interesting moment? Or is there a very strong aesthetic? Or does the image convey a narrative. Three things. Any one of those three and you're good to go. This is my own quick litmus test for myself if I'm unsure whether an image is going to have any real appeal.
6 Shooting from too far away
'Get in close' has long been one of the teaching mantras in street photography. Perhaps it's a little overplayed, and we certainly shouldn't treat it as an absolute, but I do see a lot of people who are maybe new to street photography who are just not getting close enough. Now that's not to say you need to be in people's faces but, as Robert Capa famously said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough". And that has some truth in it. This closeness in street photography - the concept of proximity - often helps bring more drama, or emotion, or intimacy to a frame - a perspective or a feeling you wouldn't get from shooting from across the road with a long lens or, even worse, shooting from across the road with a wide lens which usually means that there are lots of insignificant or meaningless things in your frame. So when you're taking a shot, assuming you have the time, always think: could I get any closer? It’s usually better to be moving forwards than moving backwards!
7 Being creepy
This is a strange one. I was walking around Soho the other day and I spotted a guy who was clearly doing street photography and he looked really..... creepy. He was so obviously trying to disguise what he was doing that he really looked like he was up to no good. I got chatting to him and he gave this little lecture on street photography being all about stealth and being invisible and all that. Well, yes, that’s all fine but there's stealth and there's stealth. We all need to shoot quickly - and ideally not be noticed - but if you take this too far it will have the opposite effect and could could end up looking like a weirdo. So just be proud of what you're doing and don't worry too much about being 'outed' as a street photographer - and just remember, the more normally you behave, the less you'll stand out.
8 Shooting with too low ISO
Many photographers I meet have an obsession about keeping the ISO as low as possible but in street photography we need to have a different mindset. Because the street is a dynamic place, with lots of activity and movement, having a fast shutter speed is really important and in daylight conditions I always try to shoot with a speed of at least a two hundredth of a second - ideally faster. So if this means a higher ISO to make that happen, so be it. I'd much rather have that tiny bit of noise than a picture that's completely unusable because of camera shake or subject blur.
9 Not having a plan
If you head out onto the streets with no real idea of what you're looking for, you're more likely to go home empty-handed. There's a lot of luck involved in street photography and sometimes things just don't happen for us. But if we use projects as a vehicle for organising our work, we're much more likely to be productive and fulfilled. So hit the streets with a couple of projects in mind - but still focus on the stuff that's going on around you - that's the bonus.
10 Too much post-production
Don't get me started on this one! Right - deep breath - street photography is all about authenticity, providing a truthful and accurate record of our observations. Once we start to distort the reality of what we saw, it's becoming a kind of visual untruth - I hesitate to use a word as strong as 'lie' - but I see some street images with crazy HDR effects, massive over-use of the clarity slider and - probably worst of all - colour popping. Really, there's no place for this stuff in street photography. See the world as you would with a film camera and record reality.
11 Being gear obsessed
Please don't think that spending loads of money on gear will make you a better photographer because it won’t. Sure, it may help you to enjoy your passion more and it might make you feel good but please don't be under the impression that a £5K camera will improve your skills because it won't. It's far better to spend your hard-earned cash on things like education - books - travel - exhibitions etc.
12 Shooting everything from eye level
It's too easy to put the camera to our eye every time and get all our shots with the same perspective - some would say it's a cop-out, the easy option that doesn't really require any thinking. Street photography is very fluid and relaxed and you'll find that by varying your perspective you could bring so much more energy and spark into your street photography. So my advice is to mix things up a bit! Try something dramatic, unusual - maybe even uncomfortable and just see what happens.
13 Following the herd
My final point is largely related to social media. Social media can be great but it has a lot to answer for. How many times do we see a picture posted on Instagram by a "name", only to see it copied hundreds or thousands of times - the same style, location, subjects - whatever (ow many times have we seen a black & white picture of someone on the spiral staircase at Tate Modern?) Or a new 'look' will suddenly become widely used - last year it was making your images green and calling them 'cinematic'. Don't get me wrong here - I've nothing against using great work for inspiration - but should all remember to aim to be just a little bit original in what we do. Don't be a slave to social media - be a master of it. Don't take a picture "because it'll work well on instagram" - take it because you want to take it and if it works well on Instagram, that's a bonus - well done!
Having said all of that, we should remember that street photography is an art, not a science, and if it works for you then it works. We all make mistakes like this but if can try to eliminate as many of them as possible, you'll be a better street photographer. And do you know what? We do this for fun, so just enjoy it!
