The configuration of your camera significantly impacts the appearance of your street photographs. Properly setting up your camera for street photography is essential for capturing the right atmosphere and messages in your images. Damien Demolder shares some insights.
When aimed correctly and set to automatic, a modern camera can effectively create a well-exposed image with the main subject in focus. This is adequate for simply documenting a scene in front of you. However, for more expressive images, understanding the differences between f/1.4 and f/11, among other camera functions, is beneficial.
The emotions, ambiance, excitement, and energy of urban life can be amplified through your camera and lens settings, allowing you to capture visuals that transcend a basic representation of your surroundings and the individuals within them.
Configuring Your Camera for Street Photography
As you spot a potential image amidst the lively street scenes, you’ll develop an idea of what you want to emphasize. At this stage, your requirements surpass the capabilities of your camera’s automatic settings.
How you convey your vision to engage your audience will shape your subsequent choices. Knowing why your lens features over 20 aperture settings will become relevant, even if you can only apply one at a time.
Optimal Camera Settings for Street Photography
Recommendations from Damien:
- Aperture priority mode
- Use the widest aperture
- Set daylight white balance
- ISO around 400 during the day, 6400 at night
- Enable Touch Shutter
- Whole area metering
What is the Ideal Aperture for Street Photography?
Let’s begin with aperture settings, as they play a pivotal role when I’m capturing street scenes. The specific aperture number isn’t as crucial as the depth of field it produces—viewers will perceive the impact in the image rather than know which f-stop was used. I aim for an aperture that creates a distinctive visual effect.
Typically, I favor the extremes: I prefer f/1.4 for its dramatic focus and ability to isolate the subject, while f/16 or f/22 brings crystal-clear detail to the entire scene. In street photography, I find less use for the more ‘standard’ apertures like f/5.6, as they yield reliable yet uninspired outcomes.
Generally, the middle aperture values on any lens tend to provide optimal performance technically, enhancing resolution, contrast, and minimizing defects. However, street photographers prioritize visual and emotional appeal over technical specifics like line pairs per millimeter.
The widest and narrowest apertures often exhibit the lowest technical quality but can yield the most exhilarating results. A drop in sharpness at f/22 might be justified if it produces a stunning sun star. For superior technical quality, it’s best to stay at least one stop above the smallest aperture.
What is the Best Shutter Speed for Street Photography?
After selecting the aperture I want to use, I consider the essential shutter speed needed for the desired effect. Generally, I prefer to freeze action since I’m often photographing moving subjects. Although some subjects may be stationary, I tend to keep a fast shutter speed on hand to avoid constant adjustments, unless lighting conditions dictate otherwise.
For outdoor shots with people moving around, I’ll set the shutter speed between 1/500sec and 1/16,000sec. I prefer working in aperture priority mode so I can modify my ISO settings to allow the shutter speed to fluctuate.
I usually keep my ISO on the higher side to ensure flexibility with changing conditions. If the shutter speed escalates to 1/16,000sec, that’s fine. However, if it drops to 1/60sec, that’s problematic. I’d rather manage a little noise from an ISO 1600 shot than risk motion blur from a slightly too slow shutter speed. While there are no hard-and-fast rules in art, blurry subjects in street photography can often come across as errors.
If you prefer motion blur in your subjects, aim for a deliberate approach. The appropriate shutter speed will depend on how much blur you desire and how fast the subjects are moving within your view.
Using too long a shutter speed may cause subjects to vanish, so testing around 1/4sec for individuals walking about 15 feet away from the camera can be a good starting point.
Ideal Autofocus Settings for Street Photography
Manually adjusting ISO is relatively easy and offers numerous benefits in terms of speed and adaptability. In various photography genres, the camera’s auto ISO feature can fully handle this aspect, allowing focus on the subject. However, street photography is dynamic, requiring control over shutter speeds.
Is it Acceptable to Use Auto ISO?
Auto ISO features are designed to prevent camera shake by assessing the focal length and aperture to set an ISO that achieves a shake-free shot. However, auto ISO does not account for moving subjects, so while 1/125sec might work for a stationary scene with a 50mm lens, it would be inadequate for someone cycling, for example.
You can configure limitations on the ISO values with auto ISO and also control the shutter speed range, which enhances safety when using it. However, you must remember to adjust these limits when entering different environments, which can be challenging and potentially cost you a shot.
Steer Clear of Auto White Balance
To accurately reflect a scene’s true atmosphere, it’s best to avoid using auto white balance. These settings are adept at correcting color casts in the lighting, ensuring the true colors of subjects are preserved.
While auto WB or custom WB settings excel in accurately portraying the colors that are important for your photography, my concern is that they can sometimes erase the very colors that evoke reactions to the scene.
Auto
White Balance (WB) settings can sometimes make a scene appear sunnier than it truly is, which can help brighten up memories of a lackluster vacation; however, this isn’t ideal for accurately portraying the mood of a cold, dreary morning in the city.
Auto White Balance (AWB) can also eliminate the warm tones typically emitted by tungsten lighting indoors, or the unsettling green cast found in parking garages lit by dim fluorescent lights. The colors we see impact our emotional response to them; they grab our attention and encourage us to capture them, so it’s crucial they reflect truthfully in the images we create.
When I’m out shooting on the streets, I mostly set my camera to Daylight white balance. Many people mention that shooting in RAW allows for color adjustments later, but color memory isn’t reliable, and most forget to consider it during post-processing. It’s usually simpler to capture the accurate colors in the moment.
Should I opt for a mechanical or electronic shutter?
I appreciate the ability to shoot silently while on the street, as this lets me take photos discreetly and snap multiple shots of the same scene without drawing attention with the shutter sound. To achieve silent shooting, the electronic shutter must be used, a feature easily accessible for mirrorless camera users.
If you scrutinize closely, photos taken with an electronic shutter may display slightly more noise than those captured with a mechanical shutter, but in real-world situations, this distinction is generally imperceptible.
The electronic shutter often grants access to faster shutter speeds that mechanical shutters struggle to achieve, allowing for the use of wide apertures in bright light without needing a neutral density filter.
However, be cautious of issues like banding under fluorescent lighting—common in shops and on trains—and distortion when subjects move rapidly across the frame. Both conditions can ruin an image, and it’s often tricky to salvage them. In such cases, switch back to a mechanical or electronic first curtain mode.
Many cameras can automatically alternate between mechanical and electronic shutter modes to obtain those higher shutter speeds, so it’s wise to keep this feature in mind.
Utilize your in-camera profiles
I try to finalize my images in-camera as much as possible. This doesn’t stem from a desire to avoid cropping or editing; rather, it simply streamlines the process during and after my shoot.
I favor the Portrait Photo Style on Lumix cameras for color photography and Monochrome for black and white. I prefer observing the image’s complete effect as I shoot, instead of picturing how it will look post-Photoshop. I adjust the exposure (and contrast in Monochrome) to make the picture on the camera’s screen resemble how I envision the final result.
Seeing the almost-final image on the screen often encourages me to shoot more, as it helps me recognize intriguing elements I might have overlooked if I waited to edit the raw file later. This motivates me to capture as much as possible in the moment.
It also assists in identifying when something isn’t working or when a change is needed, or when it’s best to abandon an idea and seek out a new subject.
Observing a nearly complete image on the camera display should be invigorating (if it isn’t, it likely won’t be later either), enhancing the overall experience. Viewing a technically sound but flat raw file can be uninspiring and push all creative decisions to later, potentially causing you to forget what initially drew you to the scene.
Although I shoot in raw format, meaning most adjustments to color and contrast made in-camera are not retained in Camera Raw (some can be restored using the Camera Profile dropdown), I also process a few raw files in-camera to retain references for how the images appeared during shooting. Using RAW+JPEG is a useful method, albeit memory-intensive, for achieving this.
Interested in black and white photography? Check out our guide on black and white photography and expert tips for street photography.
Selecting the Best Lenses for Street Photography
Focal Lengths
I prefer using a standard lens according to my system—generally a 50mm for full-frame, 32mm for APS-C, or 25mm for Micro Four Thirds. This focal length aligns with my focus and what most viewers find comfortable. Approximately 90% of my street photographs are taken with these lengths. However, I enjoy using a 24mm wide lens for close-up shots, especially when I want to capture more background.
These standard and wide focal lengths help maintain a connection between the viewer and the subject and offer a ‘you-are-there’ perspective that longer lenses may compromise. There are no definitive right or wrong focal lengths; they simply yield different effects that contribute to varying atmospheres. Experiment to find which angle of view and distance suits your desired outcome. Don’t forget to explore our guide on ideal lenses for street photography.
Aperture Considerations
Wide apertures enable us to photograph in low-light conditions without pushing the ISO into noisy ranges. Options like f/1.2, f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2, and f/2.5/8 work well, but once you reach f/3.5, it becomes tougher to shoot at night and to achieve a shallow depth of field that makes the subject stand out.
If you’re only planning to use smaller apertures, you’ll have access to a broader and more affordable selection of lenses, but at the cost of limited effects and atmospheres.
Size and Weight
High-performance lenses are usually bulkier, heavier, and more expensive than standard options, so you must weigh your need for a wide aperture against how much weight you’re willing to carry all day. Larger, fast-aperture lenses will also increase the size of your kit and attract more attention, so evaluate your comfort level with that. While I enjoy a compact camera paired with a pancake lens, I’m also open to carrying larger equipment for sharper images at wider apertures.
Optimal Camera-Lens Combinations for Street Photography
Canon EOS M50 Mark II with Canon EF-M 32mm f1.4 STM
Price: $579 / £420 (camera), $570 / £360 (lens)
The Canon EOS M series offers a limited selection of lenses but combines Canon’s technology in a compact format at a more affordable price compared to the R series. The EOS M50 II integrates DSLR-like controls into a small body, featuring a hinged touchscreen that simplifies shooting from various angles and focusing anywhere within the frame. The 32mm f/1.4 lens serves as a standard option.
This lens features a fast maximum aperture, making it ideal for shooting in low-light conditions while providing a pleasing shallow depth of field.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 paired with XF 50mm f/1.0 R WR
Price: approximately $1,995 / £1,150 used (camera), $1,499 / £1,469 (lens)
While this may be considered a luxury, the XF 50mm f/1.0 is a remarkable lens that combines a notably wide aperture with excellent sharpness and a distinctive aesthetic. Though the X-Pro3 and lens size might seem unconventional, the compact body contributes to an easier-to-carry kit, with the X-Pro series being particularly suited for street photography. The camera includes various built-in styles for diverse visuals, and its raw files are delightful for editing.
Hasselblad X2D with XCD 2.5/55V
Price: $8,200 / £7,369 (camera), $3,699 / £3,559 (lens)
Although a medium format camera might not seem like the typical choice for street photography, the larger sensor of the Hasselblad X series can deliver a unique appearance when utilizing the aperture capabilities of the new XCD-V lenses. The autofocus speed of the X2D has improved significantly compared to previous X models, yet it may struggle with rapid movements. However, at a walking pace, this camera captures stunning images.
Leica M11 with APO-Summicron 50mm f/2 ASPH
Price: $8,995 / £7,800 (camera), $5,095 / £4,220 (lens)
Although manual focusing can be challenging for dynamic subjects, stopping down the aperture can help achieve the desired focus. The M11 excels in image quality, and the f/2 APO 50mm lens offers the resolution and contrast needed to maximize it. The ability to use live view makes contemporary Leica M models more user-friendly, though traditional rangefinder methods remain satisfying. For a more classic, softer appearance, the £3,550 50mm f/1.4 lens is a great alternative.
Nikon Z 6II with Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.8 S
Price: $1,497 / £2,299 (camera), $427 / £489 (lens)
The Nikon Z 6II is the brand’s most favored camera, making it a great selection for street photographers due to its quick response, robust autofocus, and in-body stabilization system. Recently, Nikon introduced a compact 26mm f/2.8 pancake lens, yet for regular use, the 50mm f/1.8 S lens provides a wider aperture for better results. The Z 40mm f/2 SE is also a highly appealing option, distinguished by its stylish design and nine-blade iris that creates beautiful out-of-focus highlights.
Olympus OM-1 with M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm F2.0
Price: $1,499 (current Black Friday price) / £1,130 (camera), $400 / £699 (lens)
The Micro Four Thirds system is well-suited for street photography, and Olympus offers a variety of small, lightweight, and responsive cameras. The OM-1 features an outstanding autofocus system and quick performance, making it an excellent choice for street work. It is likely the best MFT camera for still images available right now, providing control and image quality comparable to larger cameras. Paired with the 12mm f/2 lens, it delivers an impressive wide perspective through premium optics.
Panasonic S5II with Lumix S 50mm f/1.8
Price: $1,997 / £1,999 (camera), $447 / £429 (lens)
Although the Lumix S5II is a full-frame camera, it’s relatively compact and offers a responsive performance similar to the fast Lumix G9. The new autofocus system enhances performance in low-light situations, and the incredible image stabilization allows for long exposures without needing a tripod when motion blur is desired. The Lumix S 50mm f/1.8 is also compact, with the 24mm and 35mm lenses appealing to those preferring a wider view. The f/1.4 50mm lens is exceptionally good, but it comes with a higher size and price tag.
Explore our recommendations for the best lenses for street photography in 2024 for more options.
What is the top camera for street photography? Check out our curated list of the finest cameras for street photography, as well as the best smartphone cameras for photography in 2024 if you’re shooting street photography with your phone.
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