Weather & Light
Most photographers love to shoot when the weather is warm and sunny because often you get bright light with maybe a little bit of cloud for added interest in the sky. Not only does it make for a more agreeable day out but you can also be sure to have plenty of light for your shots.
If it is raining heavily you will probably be tempted to stay indoors but consider the wonderful shots you can make with all the puddles and reflections from wet surfaces that you might find.
Above: Water Reflection (1/160 s; f/5.6; ISO 1250; 113 mm) - Photo by Éva Zara / Pixabay
Try doing a Google search for Martin Parr’s “Bad Weather” series and browse some of the often amusing shots Parr made for his book of the same name. Wind, rain, fog and snow were all grist to the mill for Parr as he bravely ventured forth with his (waterproof) camera for this acclaimed series of shots made in 1981.
If you don’t have a waterproof camera, It is possible to buy a waterproof housing for your camera, whether DSLR or compact, or even make one from a plastic supermarket bag with holes cut in it but I have personally never got on with them very well. If it is raining lightly I don’t worry too much about the odd spot of rain and if it is raining heavily then I just use a shop doorway or the overhang of a building to make sure my precious camera keeps dry!
Strong Sunlight
Strong sunlight creates strong, hard shadows like those in the shot below, and is not ideal for making pictures of people. The soft, even light such as you find on an overcast day is better for most street shots because you won’t have to deal with these shadows which can look ugly.
Above: Three Young Men, Goa, India (1/250 s; f/8; ISO 100; 102 mm)
The shot above demonstrates how hard shadows can look. They don’t always spoil an image, but it is important to be aware of them. Also, you will find there is a loss of detail in the dark side of the face which can be difficult to retrieve in post-processing.
Back light
When the light is behind your subject it is called back light. If you want to create a silhouette or add drama to your shot, this can be a good choice. Macro shots of flowers can also benefit from backlight as the light will shine through their semi-transparent petals.
Back lit shots are a bit more difficult to expose properly though. You can either expose for the shadows to help you retain details in the dark areas or expose for the light to deepen the shadow areas and create a silhouette.
There is also the possibility of lens flare with back lit shots. You may not want to use a lens hood as they attract attention to your camera in which case just shield the lens from the sun with one hand. Or go with the creative urge and find an angle on your subject which uses the lens flare to good effect.
Above: Silhouette of an Old Man (1/320 s; f/18; ISO 6400; 50 mm) (Photo Courtesy of PublicDomainPictures / Pixabay)
Front light
When the light is in front of your subject (in other words it is behind you, the photographer, and illuminates your subject’s face) it is called front light. Front light can be very harsh and can make people squint. However, at dawn and dusk, front light can work well especially for city street photographers who can make creative use of the light reflecting off windows and walls. Keep an eye on the histogram to ensure the highlights are not blown out, and use the exposure compensation to adjust the exposure time to suit.
Side light
Light coming from the side can be very attractive and creates a modelling effect on objects, as you can see in the shot of a tree-lined avenue below. It also brings out textures. The shadows that side light cast can be an interesting element of the photograph in themselves. Early and late in the day, side light will create the longest shadows and can add drama and impact to your shots.
Above: Tree-lined Avenue (1/350 s; f/6.7; ISO 100; 90 mm)
The above image isn’t true street photography but I’ve included it here as it exemplifies the idea of modelling with side light plus you can easily see the long shadows and strong textures.
Cloud & Shade
Diffuse light occurs on cloudy or foggy days or when your subject is in the shade. It is soft, without shadows. There will be no modelling such as you get with side light and textures will look a little flat. The image itself will look flatter and have less contrast than an image shot in strong sunlight. Exposure is easier with diffuse light as the whole scene will be lit evenly.
One drawback is that the sky may be very dull and flat looking so just choose an angle that excludes as much of it as possible. Light levels are effectively a bit lower with diffuse light which can be an advantage as it allows you to increase the shutter speed time. Shadows and textures on faces will be minimised so diffuse light can be quite flattering for street portraits. Overall though your photos will be a bit lacking in contrast so consider giving it a boost in post-processing.
Above: Cool Dude (China) - (1/125 s, f/9, ISO 200, 60 mm)
Reflected Light
Reflected light is light that is bouncing off a light-coloured surface onto your subject. It can come from many sources including a portable reflector. However, carrying a reflector with you when you are shooting street photographs is a bit impractical but it’s often possible to find a reflector such as a white wall or a white van to throw back some light onto your subject.
The shot below was made in a street market in Xi’an in China and shows a calligraphy artist at work. The white of the paper acts as a large reflector and illuminates his face with soft light. Without the reflected light, his face would have been much darker and less interesting.
Above: Street Artist, Xi’an, China ((1/60 s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 50 mm)
Below is another example of reflected light. The image shows a man reading from a book, possibly some kind of a journal as there is a pen on the ground beside him. He is seated by a pillar in the grounds of a Hindu temple in Karnataka in India. I was drawn to make this shot as I liked his absorbed expression, the echoed shape of his legs in the carving on the pillar, and, importantly, the reflected light on his face from the white pages of the book.
Above: Karnataka, India (1/320 s; f/9; ISO 200; 94 mm)
Dawn & Dusk Light
Street photography can be extremely rewarding around dusk or early evening when there is still some light left in the sky. And if you happen to be near a river or a lake, then you have even more opportunities as so much of the light will be reflected in the water.
The image below was a grab shot, made on the move as I walked along the east bank of the River Garonne in Bordeaux. The light was fading fast, and I had my camera in hand, set to shutter speed priority (TV or Time Value) so that I could react as quickly as possible to the changing scene.
It was not quite time for the evening meal, and people were wandering about in a relaxed fashion. In France this is called the ‘hour of the aperitif’, roughly between 6 pm and 8 pm. Yeah, I know that’s actually 2 hours! But it’s a great time to just relax or have a drink with friends and because of the warm climate, many people are out and about – a perfect time for the street photographer!
Above: On the Banks of the River (Bordeaux, France) - (1/640 s; f/13; ISO 100; 45 mm)
The shot was taken at 1/640 second which was pretty fast, and the ISO was 100, which was really too low. I could have upped the ISO a bit and removed some of the digital noise afterwards as that might have given a crisper outline to the silhouette.
But I like the result and I think the slightly soft focus adds to the atmosphere. I also like the way the light shines through the bottle and draws our attention to the green of the glass and the gesture of the hand hovering above it. Clearly there is a story being told - I can only imagine what it might be!
Below is another dusk shot. Again, light is the main subject so I hope you can see by now that you don’t need to rely on daylight alone for creative lighting possibilities.
Above: The Bridge, Jonzac, France (1/30 s; f/4.5; ISO 2000; 22 mm)
Night Light
Once the sun has disappeared entirely, you’re dependent on man-made light to illuminate your way. The main problem of course is getting the exposure right. So make sure you don’t point your camera lens exactly towards the light source otherwise your shot will be overexposed. Also, try to ensure that your night shoots look realistic, that they look like they were made at night, i.e. a few bright areas, and some areas with dark, mysterious shadows. If you check your histogram, it should be bunched a bit more towards the left side.
Flash can be startling to your subject when making street portraits and frankly most of the light is lost anyway unless you are very close-up. What’s more, your subject is almost certainly not going to like it. So my advice is to switch off the flash before you leave home. Others may disagree with this but in my experience it’s not worth the hassle.
You can increase your ISO a fair bit for night shots but be prepared for increased digital noise. You can reduce the excess digital noise to some extent in post-processing but try not to rely on it. Keep it as low as possible by ensuring your exposure is as good as possible.
Some people like digital noise and believe it adds a gritty feel to their shots. Some think it looks ‘artistic’, others that it looks authentic and harks back to the golden era of street photography when great names such as Cartier-Bresson and Doisneau used film cameras. Others like to remove the noise in post-processing afterwards. Either way, more noise means less detail but really, it’s a creative choice and a personal one.
Above: La Coupe d’Europe de Montgolfieres (The Biannual European Balloon Race)
(1/30 s; f/4.5; ISO 2000; 22 mm)
If you are shooting at night and don’t want to use flash, a higher ISO is essential. I would aim for ISO 400 or less if you want to keep digital noise to a minimum and avoid a grainy look. Above 400 you will find that more and more noise becomes apparent with a concomitant loss of detail. You cannot get the detail back in post-processing so you probably want to choose the smallest ISO for the light available.
The shot above was made not long after dusk, in Jonzac, a small town near where I live in France. Jonzac is home to a bi-annual European-wide balloon race and although I had spent several hours watching balloons go up during the day, this night shot was one of my favourites. The two people are dwarfed by the huge balloon above them, and the glow creates a magical atmosphere.
Above: Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux (1/60 s; f/6.3; ISO 6400; 22 mm)
Above is another night shot, this time of the famous Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux taken on a hot summer night. At night the Bourse or Stock Exchange building, is lit up and the lights are beautifully reflected in the so-called Reflecting Pool. During the day, the Place de la Bourse is popular with children who love to take their socks and shoes off and go paddling in the water. This young boy was obviously out late, captivated by the cool sensation of the water on his feet. I hope his parents knew where he was!
Synthetic Light
Tungsten street lights, neon lights, window displays, advertisement signs and LED lights are a few of the man-made light sources you can find in your travels. Street lights today are most often sodium-vapour lamps and they emit a yellowish coloured light which many people dislike. If this is you, it’s possible to colour-correct in post-processing or even convert to black and white.
The next shot is lit almost entirely by LED lights and demonstrates that man-made light is not necessarily less beautiful than natural day-light.
Above: LED Lights (1/30 s; f/3.5; ISO 1000; 18 mm) – Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com
LED lights are becoming more and more popular and are bluer than sodium-vapour lights. They are still quite small and you need to have multiple lights or arrays of lights to be sufficient to photograph by but as you can see, the result can be very atmospheric.
Large advertisement displays also work well as a light source, and can be found at bus shelters or in railway stations. If there are strong colours in the advert, those colours will be reflected in your final image and can be used creatively.
The next image is a daytime shot taken in Paris in 2010. That year, around three million people demonstrated in 239 cities in France against the French pension reform which raised the pension age by two years. I happened to be in Paris on the day that two trade unions mobilized 300,000 people, divided into two, six-hour processions. This kind of event can be great for street photography, if it is peaceful!
Above: French Pension Reform Strike, 2010 (Paris, France) - (1/500 s; f/14; ISO 100; 25 mm)
Although the shot was made during the day, I used a fast shutter speed (1/500 s) and a small aperture (f/14) to underexpose most of the image while intensifying the flame of the torch and the smoky atmosphere. The flame seemed to me to be symbolic of the feelings of anger and injustice of the French people.
So don’t give up and go home if you think there is not enough daylight to make photos. Look out for creative opportunities with synthetic lights by making them the main subject of your image.