Skip to main content

23 tips to help take your street photography to the next level

23 Ninja Tips For Your Next Photo Walk
Street photography might seem like a fairly straightforward genre to dive into. Grab a camera, head out to your favorite location, and start shooting the scenes and people around you. Right? Technically, yes. But when it comes down to it, there are plenty of nuances that help make or break your street photography.

To help make the most of your street photography endeavors, Cooperative of Photography, or COOPH, has shared “23 Ninja Tips For Your Next Photo Walk.”

Coming in at just over four minutes, the video covers a wide range of tips and tutorials on how to improve your street photography. In it, the COOPH team follows street photographer Thomas Leuthard as he walks the streets of Salzburg, Austria, capturing the busy world around him.

Some of the tips come across as no-brainers that make you say, “duh!” But in between the more obvious tips, there are a few clever ones that oftentimes get left behind in the hustle and bustle of capturing the moment.

Summarizing his thoughts on street photography, Leuthard has this to say: “Street photography is like fishing. Catching the fish is more exciting than eating it.”

For those who can’t watch the video, we’ve gathered the 23 tips for you below:

  1. Wear dark clothes – bright colors make you stand out.
  2. Some cameras can be controlled wirelessly – use this to your advantage.
  3. Choose the camera mode most suited for your experience and location.
  4. Frame your shot and wait for the right moment – you don’t always have to chase an image. Let them come to you.
  5. Shoot in burst/continous mode to ensure you have multiple shots to choose from in post-production.
  6. Be patient…wait for the decisive moment.
  7. Squint your eyes to see the luminance in a scene – this will help you better take into account how you should frame and expose your image – then place your subject in the brightest spot.
  8. Take a break and share a shot or two on social media so you don’t flood your followers with a ton of images at once.
  9. Use this time to back up your images – last thing you want to do is lose a hundred shots because you haven’t backed up your card recently.
  10. Find new angles. Get down low…
  11. …and up high.
  12. Use a tripod to expand your composition options.
  13. Water is great when used in combination with slow shutter speeds.
  14. Use available objects as framing tools – this not only lends context to your scene many times, but also helps balance the composition and tonality.
  15. Alleys and doorways are perfect tools for tip number 13.
  16. Sometimes only part of your subject is more interesting than all of it – don’t be afraid to experiment.
  17. Utilize shadows – they make for great shots.
  18. Ditto for reflections.
  19. Don’t be afraid of your subjects – worst thing they can say to snapping a photo is “no.”
  20. Use these meetings as a way to introduce yourself. Promise to send them a copy of the image and hand them a business card – it’s one of the best ways to get new followers on social media.
  21. Never delete photos. Storage is cheap – back up your photos as many times as possible.
  22. Black-and-white is wonderful for street photography, even if it has become a bit of a cliche.
  23. Don’t over-edit your photos – less truly is more.

If you’re new to street photography or photography as a whole, and have some questions, reach out in the comments below and this writer will respond to the best of his ability.

Editors' Recommendations

Gannon Burgett
How to take better pictures when you know nothing about photography
lg g7 news thinq hands on camera app

May is National Photography Month, and there's no better time to brush up on basic photographic skills than now. While more people are taking photos than ever -- thanks to the popularity of smartphone cameras and apps like Instagram -- it doesn't mean everybody knows the basics of photography. No, you don't need to know the lingo (it can be confusing, although it helps to better understand a camera, in our opinion) but by applying a few basic concepts, casual photographers can snap better photos without reading any words more complicated than “shade" -- no ifs, ands, or bokeh about it (we'll stop with the photo terms now). Here’s our non-photographer’s guide on how to take better pictures, minus the technical jargon.

Don’t want to settle for mediocre? Not afraid of a little photography jargon? Try these photography tips instead.

Read more
Tips on how to take jaw-dropping monochrome pictures with the Huawei P20 Pro
huawei p20 pro review pointing camera jc

Black-and-white photographs have a very distinctive style, and can add a completely different look or considerable visual drama to an everyday scene, as well as help unclutter busy scenes and focus attention. Once you start experimenting with black-and-white photos, it’s easy to get addicted.

The Huawei P20 Pro, along with the Mate 10 Pro, the Huawei P10, and the Huawei P9, have a dedicated monochrome lens in the camera setup. Co-engineered by Leica, it produces glorious, true black-and-white photos. They are the only smartphones to offer this feature, but a black-and-white filter can be added to photos during or after taking them on most other phones.

Read more
The best wedding photography tips for capturing the big day
9 can't-miss wedding photography tips for capturing the big day
wedding photography tips

Thinking about putting your camera chops toward wedding photography? A wedding day is one of the most stressful and demanding events to shoot, but as challenging as it can be, it is also incredibly rewarding.

Whether you’ve already shot a wedding (or three, or 33) and are looking to improve your work, or are debating dipping your toes in the water, we’re here to help you take your work to a whole new level with wedding photography tips for newbies and pros, alike.
Understand the business side of things
If you're looking to do more than a one-time gig as a favor for a friend, one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a photographer is to go into wedding photography without a solid business plan. First and foremost, no matter how close you are to the bride and groom, have a contract ready to sign. One of the most simple solutions is to use a service like Agree.com, which is an online platform designed specifically to handle the contracts and release forms photographers use. You can use the basic boilerplates for simplicity or customize the various stipulations within the contract to fit your needs.

Read more