Street Photography Magazine

Street Photography | Workshops

Street photography beginners are often quite
cautious and don’t dare to photograph even
the shoes of a stranger. If this applies to you, I
recommend that you use a telephoto lens for
your first attempts. Long lenses can be used to
produce great street shots, as proved by much
of Andreas Feininger’s best work. Telephoto
lenses not only bring the subject closer but
also compress the space within an image,
which visually reduces the distances between
objects. This effect can be used to create
striking and often quite abstract-looking
compositions.
Once you have had some practice using a
telephoto lens to shoot strongly cropped
images, you will realize that it is much more
than just an emergency solution; you can use
it to isolate your subject and block out
distracting detail in the surroundings.
However, you have to remember that the
relatively large reproduction ratios produced
by a telephoto lens cause significant
background blur, even at medium apertures
(f5.6 or f8). If you want to avoid producing too
much blur, you will have to stop down and
increase your ISO value accordingly to prevent
camera shake creeping into your results.
For this exercise, look for an interesting
location that provides plenty of everyday
action, but is not as hectic as a funfair or a
parade. Saturdays are perfect, as more people
have time to go into town without having to

hurry. Street cafés, bus stops and park benches

are great places to start a shoot like this.

Make some test shots to check your

exposure values and then begin to view the

activity around you through your camera’s

viewfinder. Try to guess which situations will

bring people together. It is often more

productive to concentrate on a single situation

and wait for it to develop than it is to

constantly pan around looking for isolated

moments to capture. If you plan to publish

your images later on, make sure that you select

an angle of view that prevents your subjects

from being recognizable in the finished

photos. Shooting at telephoto distances

makes it much more difficult to make contact

with your subject and get permission to

publish once you have finished shooting.

The aim of this exercise is to capture a

sequence of 12 effective telephoto images.

Telephoto Effects

Telephoto shots have their own special

look. Converting this image to black and

white and adding a digital grain effect

makes this couple look as if they

inhabit the good old analog era.

ISO 250 | 220mm focal length | f5 | 1/40 s | -2/3 EV

Time required:

3x four hours

Equipment:

200mm telephoto lens