best settings for street photography?

[Smogg]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

1 minute ago, Musky said:

Yea. I’m familiar with the AUTO under expose everything and recover later thing. I don’t like it myself. Manual mode is much better. Nothing on auto. Moving the camera just a bit gives you wild exposure changes. I don’t like it. 

Our favorite camera is also good because it allows you to use different approaches to shooting, depending on the convenience of the lucky owner

[Smogg]

This was obviously not the most illustrative example. Who cares about the exact focus on this Henri Cartie-Bresson photo?

 

 

[jaapv]

1 hour ago, Smogg said:

How do you manage to take a picture of an event that lasts for a moment, like here, if you are not always ready and do not use zone focus?

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

That is simple RF technique: focus spot- on, RF focusing is as fast as AF if not faster.Another technique : anticipate, pre-focus and release as soon as they walk into the sharp plane.  This photograph would work better if the bridge were well out of focus and the gentlemen in critical focus. Leica M photographers have been doing this for seventy years. 

[jaapv]

13 minutes ago, jaapv said:

1 hour ago, Smogg said:

This was obviously not the most illustrative example. Who cares about the exact focus on this Henri Cartie-Bresson photo?

 

Nobody. This is about brilliant content, not technique so nobody cares. But it is a bad example of zone focus. The subject was obviously in front of the zone ( if HCB even bothered to focus, zone or otherwise, which I doubt) I suspect he found the image when it was cropped down. 

[jaapv]

Please don’t post copyrighted photographs. I had to remove it unfortunately For the sake of the discussion: It was HCB’s puddle-jumper

[ianforber]

On 12/15/2022 at 12:24 PM, Musky said:

 

“Street Photography” is really sort of a meaningless term. So you’ll have all sorts of different tips on how to do it. 

settings for street aren’t any different from settings for any other sort of photography 

Personally I got out of the Auto settings. so don’t use them. Obviously the logic he is using is the higher the ISO the higher the shutter speed so you can let it do whatever it does. Problem with AUTO is inconsistent exposure. 

what do you want to do generally? Well, you want to expose properly and freeze the action. So your settings is whatever will do that in whatever lighting you have. 

I shoot 50mm. 400ISO is a very good ISO for general daytime photos. 

If it’s blasting sun outside then at ISO400 anything that is in the light will be F8 at 1/1000. If it’s not blasting sun then 1/500. If I turn to the shade 1/250. ISO400 let’s me keep the shutter speed up. 

so the settings are whatever you need to do to expose the highlights properly and freeze the action. 

Eric Kim is into lifting weights and posing. He shoots high contrast b/w snapshots. You just do whatever you need to do to expose your photos, not Eric’s photos. 

it also depends what you’re pointing at. These walls are very white. So sometimes I need to close to f11 and almost 1/2000 to expose it at ISO400. 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

it’s hard to just set it and forget it thing like Eric if you want to get the most out of your sensor and lens. Things outside are a bit chaotic. Being on AUTO is a bit I don’t know. AUTO isn’t why I got into Leica. 

He’s got his tool with the Ricoh. Auto everything. Everything in focus. He shoots it like an iPhone. 

the only thing you need to know, generally, is to give yourself enough depth of focus and keep the shutter speed above 1/250. The rest is just trial and error. 

Most advice on YouTube are from poser YouTubers who can’t take a good picture to save their life. 

Interesting. I have tried all manual (using ISO 400) in sunny scenes. The pictures didn’t look different than when using Auto ISO with highlight metering. Yes, the ISO varied considerably from shot to shot, but with a high minimum shutter speed set, the an actual picture didn’t look different. So I reverted back to Auto ISO. I grew up using all manual cameras so it’s not that I’m frightened to go all manual, I have just become lazy as the auto approach has become so much better on newer cameras. 

I might have a go at reverting to all manual. Out of interest, how often do you find yourself adjusting ISO?

[johnwolf]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

6 hours ago, jaapv said:

...danger of taking snapshots instead of photographs....

Hey! Don't dis the snapshot genre. 😀

I agree with Erwin; it's the heart of M photography: https://photo.imx.nl/blog/files/63568242eabf01174a5354419d00b14e-72.html

[Jeff S]

6 hours ago, jaapv said:

I cannot agree here. Precise DOF and critical focus are basic photographic symbols to draw attention to critical  parts of the image. Nglecting them by F8 and be there creates the danger of taking snapshots instead of photographs - also, maybe especially, in street photography.

On the other hand, it can be a far greater challenge to fill a frame clearly, side-to-side  and front-to-back, with cohesive elements that work together both subject-wise and geometrically/graphically, than to just isolate a single subject and blur out all else. The result may be snapshot, or crap, when it doesn’t  work, but wonderful when it does.  Few pull it off consistently, especially today by those enamored more by bokeh than by filling an entire frame effectively. Much easier to blur out distractions than to avoid them in the first place.  Most pics don’t work perfectly, or even well, for good reason; it’s hard.

Jeff

[raizans]

There’s no right or wrong in art. Plenty of great street photos have shallow DOF, or deep DOF.

[Dennis]

Interesting topic and answer; good to know all your modus operandi. In my personal experience, the manual mode is a win-win. I always set everything manually: SS, iso, aperture, and even WB (5000K by day). I want to be in control; I don’t like the camera deciding for me, especially during these weird times () when AI wants to be in charge, even to choose the best photos 

I don’t like auto settings (especially for iso) for two reasons. If I’m shooting the same scene, just moving/tilting the camera or changing the composition a bit, the exposure can vary a little and sometimes a lot. While in manual mode, once you shoot the same scene, all your photos will have the same exposure. It really makes a difference. Second, a higher iso usually means less dynamic range and possibly more noise. If my scene is good for 200 iso, why using 400 or 800. Does it make sense?
.
My starting setup for street photography, in a sunny day and exposing for the highlights, it’s the equivalent of the sunny 16 rule: 200 iso, f8, 1/1000
This way, my exposure in the same light condition is always the same, all day long. If I need to expose for the shadows, switching to 1/250 or even 1/125 for not fast-moving subjects is more than enough. If I shoot (expose) all day for the shadows, I can use 800 iso, f8, 1/500, and change the SS only when needed. For me, it works like a charm. And most important, your exposure is consistent.
.
A different method to try to take good pictures. Any technique, also fully Auto, is perfectly legitime and maybe wiser. But not for me.

 

 

[charlesphoto99]

On 12/16/2022 at 3:01 AM, Smogg said:

In this case, I recommend looking at the work of photographers from Magnum. Focus is not so important. I usually walk down the street holding the camera ready to shoot everything from 2 to 7 meters using zone focus. I take the first shots of an unexpected scene in this mode. In the process of shooting, on the fourth or fifth frame, if the time of the event allows me, I refine the focus

I think you'll find very few M shooting Magnum photographers using zone focusing. I think it's important to differentiate between zone focusing and depth of field. To me, zone focusing is just laziness, and not something to be relied on. On the other hand, depth of field can be useful on a partially or mis-focused subject. But I always try and focus or at least pre-focus as precisely as possible. But I generally try not to go above f5.6, esp with wides, as it can homogenize the image far too much. 

[JulyLL]

First time going out and using a range finder took about 30-40 photos but this one stood out to me.  

I know the edit is not pro-level but this was my first post with my M11. 

F8 Auto ISO and Auto Shutter with -1  EV

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[charlesphoto99]

On 12/14/2022 at 7:44 PM, JulyLL said:

Watched a video with Eric Kim where he mentioned...

 

 

First mistake... but you'll learn. 😆 Enjoy that M11! 

[JulyLL]

2 minutes ago, charlesphoto99 said:

First mistake... but you'll learn. 😆 Enjoy that M11! 

lol

[charlesphoto99]

Once one gets more comfortable (and quick) with the M, the thing to do is not jiggle the focus back and forth to get the right spot, but learn to trigger the shutter as one is focusing. So in other words, if somethng is happening in front of you, focus into it and don't hesitate to trigger the release if the moment happens even if one thinks they don't have correct focus. All thew while constantly recomposing. it can take years to master, but once on does, the M becomes a pretty magical tool compared to the bells and whistles of the Auto everything cameras. 

[evikne]

The real art of street photography is not getting the exposure or focus right (those are just the basics), but filling the frame with something meaningful.

[Dennis]

35 minutes ago, evikne said:

The real art of street photography is not getting the exposure or focus right (those are just the basics), but filling the frame with something meaningful.

+1

There is much difference between shooting at f22 with zone focusing using the "spray and pray" technique, hoping to catch something interesting, or instead composing with meaningful context, with purpose, and using whatever f/stop and exposure are needed for that intention.

[archive_all]

4 hours ago, JulyLL said:

First time going out and using a range finder took about 30-40 photos but this one stood out to me.  

I know the edit is not pro-level but this was my first post with my M11. 

F8 Auto ISO and Auto Shutter with -1  EV

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Nice start. Also consider that Leicas are perfectly designed to shoot with full manual control. Coming from film Leicas and also owning digitals M's I find it easiest to use the manual controls. If you're interested in that then maybe try to also add that in for practice so you learn metering as well. It's good fun when you start guessing correctly and these cameras have a ton of latitude if you're a little off.