Day Two: “Street” — Establishing Shot

Yesterday, we asked you to interpret home in your own way. Today, let’s focus on a street. It can be a quiet road blanketed in snow, an alley covered with murals, or a busy avenue where pedestrians weave between cars and motorbikes, like this scene from Hanoi, Vietnam:

Wander your neighborhood — or someplace new — to capture your street snapshot.

Today’s Tip: While you’re free to take a picture from any angle, try to capture an establishing shot: a wide-angle photo that sets up a scene. You may need to back up a few steps, or climb some stairs to higher ground to fit the whole scene in one shot.

Day Two: “Street” — Establishing Shot

As you look through your lens to compose your wide shot, think about and look for two basic components: a foreground and a background. The foreground is the part of your scene that’s nearest to the viewer, and where you can place a subject or focal point of your picture. In today’s featured image, the woman balancing fruit baskets is the subject in the foreground, and the storefronts behind her make up the background. Identify your foreground and background as you frame your snapshot.

When we say “wide angle,” we’re generally referring to a type of lens with a short focal length, and its “zoomed out” nature means it can capture more within the frame. But don’t worry about lenses right now! Just know that if you want to take an establishing shot, you’ll want to capture a wide view — rather than close-up view — of what you’re seeing.

This is day 2 of a series of 10 special photography introduction issues. The goal here is to see what type of photography you might want to get involved in. Yesterday we focused on taking pictures at your “home”. Today, a quick lesson on “street photography”. Try these different photo ideas, and if you need some guidance, personally, I would be glad to help. Submit your question, your photos to: http://question.123photogo.com

Here are a few more examples of “STREET PHOTOGRAPHY” from one of my photographer friends in France. Elisabeth Engels is a phenomenal “street photographer” if France, and I think her photos are amazing.

One of the things that was mentioned in the above article is that the use of Wide Angle lenses (click that link). Wide angle lenses are the perfect lens for “street photography”.

However, sometimes you will see people in a distance doing something you want to take a photo of, and a Zoom lens for dslr or telephoto lenses is another good option. If you are using your smart phone or cell phone, there is actually good lenses for smart phones. Yes, even you smart phone photographers, you have options now more than ever. (click the items in red to see what is available for your camera)