2020-04-01 TechLife

When you’re shooting on the streets, being subtle is
everything. If you want true candid shots of people
who are unaware of your presence, they will also need
to be unaware of your big camera. Holding a DSLR in
front of your face shows subjects that you’re
photographing them, so how else can you snap
images? In this tutorial we headed to the city to reveal
how simple it is to use zone focussing for sharp street
shots – with practice.
To zone focus, switch to manual focus, set a lens to
a predetermined distance and shoot subjects when
they fall into this range of focus. The technique is
ideal if you hold the camera at hip level and don’t look
through the viewfinder. Pre-focussing enables you to
take pictures with surprising accuracy and speed –
and without alerting those interesting street subjects
to your presence. While older lenses have markings
on them to aid zone focussing, you can easily work
out the distance of a lens yourself.
To determine the focus range (and change it) you’ll
need to know the focal length of your lens, the
aperture and the intended subject distance.
Fortunately, there are apps such as DoF Table that
will work out all the distances for you. This technique
takes time to master, so don’t expect sharp shots
straight away. When editing, boost the colours or
switch to monochrome to finish off your photos.

Capture street

shots with zone

focusing

Capturingcandidbutsharpshotsofstrangers
isatoughtechnicalskill.Keepthecameraat
yourhipandusezone focussing for better
street portraits.

H E LP STATION

Photography Masterclass

1

THE RIGHT SPOT Head to a

bustling area of high people traf-

fic, such as a market or train station.

Interesting street photos tell stories

or show quirky characters and social

interactions.

2

LENS CHOICE It’s best to use

an unobtrusive prime such as

a 50mm. Some older manual primes

have a marked distance scale on the

lens barrel. Switch to manual focus

(from the menu or on the lens).

3

CAMERA SETTINGS Switch to

Aperture priority mode, and start

with an aperture between f/5.6 and

f/11 and an ISO of around 400. A high

ISO will enable you to set a narrower

aperture for greater depth of field.

Before

SHOOT SUBTLE

To take successful

candids you’ll also

need to blend into

the crowd and

remain unnoticed.

Cover bright

camera logos and

dress in drab

colours.

After

CANDID CAPTURE

Yes, this man was

already engrossed in

his phone – but by

shooting from the hip

instead of holding the

camera to our eye we

were able to stay

subtle, stand in front

of him and capture a

more pleasing

perspective and

frame-filling shot.