Shooting photos of People

[SalvadorMontenegro]

(Perhaps not the best thread title...)

Does anyone take pictures of people?

I was looking at Henri Cartier-Bresson's exhibit at MoMa and the majority of his photographs are of society. The people in the photos seem completely oblivious to him and his camera. It's them living their lives.

I've tried taking photos of people before, but I'm shy. I always worry that people will be creeped out, like, "Who's this *** taking my picture?" How does this work? Do you just build up courage? I feel kind of silly asking this question, but as a novice, well, I'm asking, anyway.

 

[jkh]

Sawed off ... you're right, it wasn't the best thread title.

 

[SalvadorMontenegro]

Haha. I can't edit it, either. Bummer.

 

[DavyRay]

The HCB formula was a quiet camera and lots of chutzpah. People did not react to him partly because he learned how to blend into the scene. If you practice capturing event photos, this will become a natural activity for you. The key word here is practice.

 

[SalvadorMontenegro]

Fascinating. Was he a fellow of smaller stature? I'm 6'3. It's going to be somewhat difficult to blend in.

I read that he wrapped his camera in black tape to make it less conspicuous. Did he even use the view finder or did he just snap the picture without trying to focus on the image? I'm guessing it had to have been the former, but, boy, he must've been quick.

 

[Uncle Erik]

I don't shoot strangers usually, but I take lots and lots of candid shots of my family, especially my niece and nephews.

My go-to weapon of choice is the 70-300mm Nikkor. It lets me hang around a good distance away and shoot without being noticed. One of the great things about this lens is that it has tremendous bokeh. I get some really nice portraits of the kiddos with this lens and they hardly know that I'm there. I much prefer candid shots to posed ones.

 

[Miles]

I had a friend who would take photos in crowds of people without their noticing. She used an old twin lens reflex camera, so instead of looking like she was snapping a shot, she looked like she was just fiddling around with her funky old camera settings. Almost always resulted in natural, unposed, un-self-conscious images.

Ever since then, I've wanted to try one of those cameras...

 

[wdwrx]

I agree with Uncle Eric, a long lens is best, though the idea of the reflex camera is a good one.

I too am too shy to just take photos of strangers, and to do it sereptitiously just seems a little too "creepy" to suit me.

The photography books I've read often suggest having a card printed up to give to your subjects, another suggested a portable printer and to print off a copy to give to them afterwards. Both seem like good ideas. You still need that "chutzpa" to take a photo of strangers in the first place though. In any event, I think you've got to act fast , you might only get the one chance before their attention is caught and you loose that candidacy. Use that as an opening to give yourself a chance to introduce yourself, give 'em a card or offer a print, or at least show them the photo so they can see that you are sincere.

I wonder if desentitization is the way to go... just act like a crazy tourist, wave your camera around, generally draw a bit of attention to yourself, until people forget about you and your camera, and go back to whatever it is they were doing....
I limit my candid photos to my own family members, and mostly landscapes/nature. And razors.... lately

 

[CMATakashi]

I am in a similar boat, and have contemplating joining this: http://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

 

[wdwrx]

I am in a similar boat, and have contemplating joining this: http://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

Ya. That' s a great way to go about doing it... The first one is surely the hardest. By the time you were done 100 , you'd be a pro.

It's probably much worse in the anticipation... If someone approached me and asked to take my photo, I probably would be glad to do it. Especially if they had a story behind it.
Whether it was true or not, a cover story would be good, something along the lines of "Hi, I'm a member of a local photograohy group, and one of our projects is...bah blah blah."

Cash bribes would always work too

 

[SalvadorMontenegro]

Honestly, I think you just have to do it. If you go up and introduce yourself, that's okay if you think some guy or gal has an interesting face and you just want to photograph it. But if you're trying to capture actual scenes where people are living their lives, as Cartier-Bresson has done in the exhibit I viewed, to introduce yourself is to to destroy the... naturalness. Everyone will know they're being photographed and act a little more restrained.

Here is what wikipedia says about Cartier-Bresson's method:

"Cartier-Bresson exclusively used Leica 35 mm rangefinder cameras equipped with normal 50 mm lenses or occasionally a wide-angle for landscapes.[6] He often wrapped black tape around the camera's chrome body to make it less conspicuous. With fast black and white films and sharp lenses, he was able to photograph almost by stealth to capture the events. No longer bound by a huge 4×5 press camera or an awkward 2¼-inch twin-lens reflex camera, miniature-format cameras gave Cartier-Bresson what he called "the velvet hand [and] the hawk's eye."[citation needed] He never photographed with flash, a practice he saw as "mpolite...like coming to a concert with a pistol in your hand."[6] He believed in composing his photographs in the viewfinder, not in the darkroom. He showcased this belief by having nearly all his photographs printed only at full-frame and completely free of any cropping or other darkroom manipulation. Indeed, he emphasized that his prints were not cropped by insisting they include the first millimetre or so of the unexposed clear negative around the image area resulting, after printing, in a black border around the positive image."

Here's a picture of this Leica 35mm: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2105/2395423061_c3857920b3_o.jpg

It's a little sucker. Obviously a lot less conspicuous than a lot of the bulky Nikon and Canon 35 mm's.

 

[SalvadorMontenegro]

I am in a similar boat, and have contemplating joining this: http://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

I love this. I love the stories behind the people in the pictures. Great stuff.

 

[wdwrx]

I read of one photographer who kinda "sneak attacked" his subjects. IIRC he would set focal distance and mentally pre-frame his photo, then would walk up to them, lift his camera into range and snap as soon as his subject was within the right distance. He had just a split second to capture the image before the subject's expression would change : "WTH?! Who's this guy?"