Where to be? How to approach people? How to describe their lives? Which photographer are you - Documentary or art photographer? Which lens to use when?
Today I'm starting new serious of articles, tutorials and essay about people photography. Based on my experience, what are the best places to photograph people? To present and discuss what are the main challenges in people photography? How best to bring the culture and the social/geographical environment into the frame? We will discuss also technical issues, such as what lens to use and when? And much more pictures from all over the world – great people in amazing places.
People photography's challenges
There are several types of challenges in that kind of activity. In each one of these types you will be faced by more question to asked and decision to take before taking the shots.
Type of photography – Portrait, geographical photography, cultural, ethnical, and more
- What do you want to describe? Personality? Emotions? Culture? Environment? Etc. The way you might answer these and other questions, will change the way you take the specific picture. For example: if this classic frame of portrait with focus on the faces and their characteristic, you might choose the following options: take the photo in portrait and not in landscape mode (obvious, no?). You might choose prime portrait lens for example my canon 50mm F/1.2. (There are much more cheaper lenses which are also vey good – the 50mm but with the F/1.4 from the same manufacturer, Canon, is very good lens and lot of people might the ROI of this lens is much better than the former one).
- Another option is to bring into the frame, the subject's environment. In order to do so you might choose wide angle lens like the Canon 16-35 F/2.8. You have to be carful, because this lens twist in the corner and most of the people don't like the effect. When you locate your subject on the corner of the frame, use 24m"m and above. The thumb rule is that your subject fills at least 30 percent of the frame's foreground and the environment, as background, fills 50% to 66% of the frame. Another advantage of this lens is that it depth of field is very deep due to the wide angle. So your foreground and background will be in focus almost all the way.
- These types of questions might impact the way you should prepare yourself to the journey. What type of involvement will you intend to commit and much more question that I will try to elaborate in following blog' pages. If you choose to be very close to the subject, such those that will look into your picture will feel that you part of the scene or you choose to take candid shoot. One of the best lens for candid photography is the Zoom telephoto lens of canon 70-200mm
Relationship with the subject
- How you treat your subject? How to create first contact? How you create eye contact? What do you know about subjects' attitude about photography?
- And the main question to pay or not to pay to the subject? Or what kind of commercial relationship or agreement to from with the subject? Before during or just after taking the photo?
Environmental challenges
- Light condition – where do you intend to take the shots? Internally? Externally? In shaded places? Weather – looking in advanced into weather forecast and hot to avoid flat photo in cloudy day? What type of equipment should you drag with you and how this going to impact your vision.
- Dynamic of the event – is going to be static shooting, real life of extreme conditions? Challenging conditions as photographing people that are dancing in low light or having luck to shoot people that are sitting just in front of "magic hour" light
Technical challenges
- Light – if you are a people photographer not all of your assignments will be in magic hours. People live their lives along 24 hours of the day. People work in 3 shifts. People are hanging out mostly until dawn. The paradise places for people photography like markets, fishermen's deck, sports fan balcony, usually suffer from either low or rush light.
