3 Tips For Better Street Photography

Use these Helpful tips to take amazing photography inspired by the streets!

Street photography is a fun and inspiring type of photography, and you can improve your street photography skills easily by applying some simple tips.

Like any type of photography, street style has certain compositional, lighting, and angle nuances that can make or break a good photo. 

In this video tutorial, photographer Chris Chu takes some street photos while sharing the tips you can use to improve your skills!

Street photography is an interesting photo style that’s all about candid shots and capturing moments.

Street photography can be really interesting to capture, whether it’s traffic, people, or even highlighting issues like homelessness or crime.

But there is a lot more to it than just taking pictures of people out in public.

If you are looking to upskill your street photography here are 3 quick tips on how to get better shots and capture more interesting moments!

Improve Street Photography Tip #1 Have Eye Contact 

In your street photography, you should be looking for eye contact. This may seem a little strange at first given the candid nature of street photography.

It will also probably make you feel uncomfortable as the photographer to be looking for eye contact in this setting. 

The fact of the matter is that eye contact is engaging. Being able to see the eyes of your subject lends relatability and authenticity to the photograph that can’t be captured otherwise. 

 It’s actually pretty lazy to just take photos of the back of people’s heads, and they don’t tend to make for very compelling photographs. 

Getting shots with eye contact and people’s faces better showcases your skill and your courage as a street photographer. Our goal as photographers shouldn’t be to take safe photos but rather compelling ones.

Take a little risk and get some eye contact!

Improve Street Photography Tip #2 Get closer to the Subject

Taking a street photographer from a safe distance with your telephoto lens is pretty lazy. More importantly, though the distance has an effect on the perception of closeness seen in your photo. 

The subject can be zoomed in on to be seen as close, but if feels different than if you were actually close to the subject when you took the photo. Zooming in is not a replacement for being close. 

Physically closing the gap yourself and getting up close and personal with the subject creates a level of intimacy in the photo you will not be able to achieve by zooming in from a distance.

This is something even people who don’t know anything about photography can sense when looking at a photo. 

Capturing emotion and intimacy with a subject is vital to getting compelling photos. 

As a guiding thought when you are out there getting street photo shots, take one step closer to your subject than you feel comfortable doing. This will help you capture more intimacy and relatability and get better quality out of your photos!

Improve Street Photography Tip #3 Capture Some Action

If there isn’t anything happening in the scene you are shooting, there won’t really be much happening in your photograph.

In your street photography, if you are simply taking photos of people in different places because the place is cool but there really isn’t anything happening, people are going to see that in your photograph.

It’s much more interesting and compelling to photograph something that’s actually happening. Get some expression, capture some real genuine human interaction and emotion

Sometimes you gotta wait. Wait for a group to get comfortable and make their own moment, and wait for something unexpected people react to. Be comfortable waiting for a moment to happen, and be ready to capture it.

Street photography is an art form that you can use to showcase a perspective on the world.

And applying these three tips, your photos will be much more engaging for your audience. Get people talking about your photos, the subjects and the commentary on the world.

Grab your camera and hit the streets!

If you want tips on improving you photography skills overall, read this awesome comprehensive guide!

Which of these tips for better street photography will you apply to your shots TODAY?

Comment Below!