Talking to Chimera the other day we both agreed that we love the Sartorialist and wouldn't it be cool if we would also have enough guts to make pictures of people. And I don't necessarily want to take fashion pictures of cool people or anything, just an attempt of bringing life into my shots. Because I know just buildings and churches and streets are not all that appealing.
Alas, this is what you will see again when clicking on to the Flickr-shots (not in a seperate set unfortunately, I need to upgrade *sigh*). I just feel weird and embarrased when focusing on people in my pictures. I try to, but these are not out there on Flickr, because it just doesn't really capture what I want to do. I'll keep experimenting I guess.
Alas, this is what you will see again when clicking on to the Flickr-shots (not in a seperate set unfortunately, I need to upgrade *sigh*). I just feel weird and embarrased when focusing on people in my pictures. I try to, but these are not out there on Flickr, because it just doesn't really capture what I want to do. I'll keep experimenting I guess.
3 comments:
In the beginning I also felt awkward photographing people, but once you overcome that it gets easier and easier. You develop tricks, like making it seem you are focusing on something behind them. Just shoot, walk on, look relaxed and never look at the people you are going to or have been shooting.
I mean, you mention the sartorialist, but these are of course all staged pics with people posing. I find them extremely boring, not far as interesting as capturing people naturally.
Of course you can use a zoom lens for that(although I dont know what camera you use).
I have one 200mm zoom lens, which which you can make close ups of people without them actually noticing. Sometimes this works great, but other times it makes the image too "dull", because the photographer is not really part of it.
These are my best examples from the past month.
http://flickr.com/photos/orandajin/477830981/
http://flickr.com/photos/orandajin/478593070/
But of course, rather than zooming in, getting closer is better, so in which case you have to zoom out as far as possible,or if you have an SLR, use a wide lens.
Then it al about composition, get your main person not in the center, but at either left or right side of the frame (which again makes it easier to act like you are actually shooting something behind them) and shoot.
Oh, great tips, thanks Erik! Unfortunately no spiffy lenses/SLR-type things on my camera - have to make do with an IXUS-60 for now.
My camera has been in my bag daily lately, because I'd love to do some more experimenting but so far I just feel silly doing so at home... :-/
cool pics erik!
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