People Photography

Taking pictures of random people on the street sometimes can turn out to be tricky and challenging. Not all people like their picture being taken.

As a photographer being discreet, making sure people notice one is around taking pictures, respecting if people refuse the picture, ... all about being respectful helps.

However, the best shots probably happen if they are taken quickly out of the moment. Usually this goes along with the subject noticing you as a photographer right after the shutter release. Depending on the culture it is good thing to show them the picture - something which became easy to do in the digital world - or have a short chat with people. In other cultures people just are not interested. And in some cultures people expect a tip for their picture being taken.

In order to get as natural as possible images it can be helpful to take pictures using a longer focal length lens. That way the subject is not perturbed in natural out of the moment behaviour, the photographer can keep some distance and is able to take some time for composing the picture and finding the right moment and exposure.

Depending on what you want to achieve as a photographer you want to make sure the subject to notice, or not to notice, that their picture is being taken.

Depending on what you want to achieve as a photographer you want to make sure the subject to notice, or not to notice, that their picture is being taken.

For example, the fish sales woman at a fish market in Barcelona, Spain (see above). She was in the middle of a conversation with a customer talking about the delicious fresh sea food at her booth. Hence, you want to keep that moment, you want to make the image speak. If she would be looking into the camera most of the content of that image would be lost.

Another example is the lady of this shop in Shanghai who was about to eat her noodle soup (see above, right). She was concentrated on her soup slurping the noodles surrounded by the products she is selling. Suddenly she looked up from her bowl directly into my camera, noticed that I was about to take a picture and gave me that look saying "leave me alone, I am eating".