I received a question the other day from a visitor regarding the processes involved in taking my street photography shots. Here is the question followed by my answer:

Have a couple of questions for you, hope you don’t mind. Do you ever get agro from shooting people in the street like that? Also, do you shoot in black and white or convert in processing? Do you need any kind of permission to put peoples faces on the net? I’m asking as I’d love to try this kind of photography myself. I tried it once a few years ago but nerves about being wrong got the better of me.
Keep up the good work, love what you do.
Kind Regards
A*****.

I’ve never got any aggro from people as they always think I’m taking a picture of something else. Normally something behind them.

I always shoot images in colour and almost always in JPEG though sometimes in RAW. Images are always taken in colour and then converted into B&W using something like Photoshop.

It’s not necessary to ask for permission to take pics of people in public places.

The best way to get into something like this is to go to a populated area – preferably a tourist area and use a camera with a long zoom lens just to help build your confidence. Afterwards, you can use a shorter zoom. I mainly use an 18-55mm lens but have on occassion used a 50-200mm to get that compressed look (when used at the longer end).

What I have also found works is to wear the camera over the neck and keep the finger on the shutter release. While you walk past people, press the shutter release and no one will realise you have taken their picture. That way you have pictures where the viewer of the image will feel as though they are taking part in what is happening in the image.

Hope that all makes sense and feel free to ask as many questions as you like.
Take care,
S

I hope you the one or two visitors I get to this site have found the above info useful.