Start Street Photography Now with These 5 Tips

How to Learn and Master Street Photography from Scratch

Start now, from nothing! Okay, maybe not nothing. You do need some basic photography knowledge to use these starter street photography tips.

Street photography is an interesting and niche style of photography. And as all niches go, there are some specific tips and tricks that will help you get going and master the craft.

In this video tutorial, Roman Fox shares his advice on starting out doing street photography and what he would do if he had to start over now.

Get Started Taking Street Photos with Gear, Settings and Tips 

Starter Street Photography Tips #1: Gear

Get a simple gear kit to start with, nothing too fancy or crazy expensive.

You want to be able to feel like you can take this camera and your lenses outside in different conditions so getting a really expensive one isn’t going to help you. 

The camera you could start out with could be one like the Fujifilm XT3 or similar. 

Then get yourself one prime and one zoom lens. A 16-80mm F4 Zoom lens and a 35mm F2 Prime lens should get you started the right way.

You’ll also want some accessories like wrist strap, extra battery, extra memory card, and hard drive.

Starter Street Photography Tips #2: Settings

Set the camera to full automatic mode. This means that all of the settings like Aperture, ISO and shutter speed are set by the camera, which is great for street photography.

Since the conditions, subjects and compositions change quickly in street photography, you will want the camera to adjust the settings accordingly.

You can set your own parameters for the automatic settings in the camera settings. So set the auto ISO to a base of whatever the camera has, such as 160 for the Fujifilm XT3 and max of 6400.

Then set the shutter speed minimum of 1/200. 

In harsh conditions, you can adjust the exposure slightly below 0 to about -0.3, and in overcast days to +0.3. 

Continuous autofocus is the best setting to use on the street as well.

Starter Street Photography Tips #3: Shooting

Look for good light. Bad light makes even great compositions look boring and drab. So find good light, which comes down to natural contrast.

Look for dark vs bright spots and lighting whether it’s the sun and shadow or a neon sign on a dark wall.

Find a good composition, using the basic elements and overall balance of the scene. Ask yourself, is my eye guided to the focal point of the scene? Adjust to balance the scene.

Shoot what you like! Subjects don’t matter as much as making sure the other elements are good.

Starter Street Photography Tips #4: Workflow Processing

Try to not let your galleries build up for too long.

your library in a system that will work for you.

Whether that’s folders by year, location or something else, think about a system that will help you keep your gallery organized long term.

Starter Street Photography Tips #5: Editing

It’s helpful to have either a desktop or iPad for editing on, a cheap subscription to Lightroom and a copy of Affinity photo.

Try shooting raw plus jpeg which will give you an idea in the peg file of what the camera thinks that photo should look like.

This will help you initially not over edit your photos if you have that reference for the raw files.

It’s also important to learn and master each individual tab, slider and setting in your editing software so you will be able to edit better.

Start with general exposure sliders and color grading.

Did you edit a photo you are really proud of? Save it as a preset! This is the start to creating your own personal style.

There are more tips for finding your style, sharing your photos and mistakes to avoid you can check out.

In the video Roman goes on to talk through a few more tips, but these first 5 will get you out and shooting street photography now.

Want to improve your photography overall? Read this Comprehensive Photography Guide NOW!

Which of these street photography tips will you apply THIS MONTH?

Comment below!