I have never been a keen street photographer, not saying that I don’t like street photography, I just have never felt right photographing people without consent. At the weekend I went to the Light Move Festival and although the lights were amazing, I found photographing the people walking around the festival more interesting. Not because it was dark and people couldn’t see me taking pictures (I am sure I stuck out like a sore thumb), but because of the mixture of light and dark playing with the way people look, as well as the movement of people (most exposures even at the highest ISO were between 1/20th of a second to 1/4 of a second). I didn’t use flash to fill in the shots as I didn’t want to distract people from the exhibits.
This was one of my favourite shots that I took. I like how it feels so busy yet still, as people wait for their food in the same way people stand looking at the installations in the park. The bright hot spots of light, in this case the food vendor, creating enough light for people to see where they are walking allows for this combination of still and moving subjects to create the feeling of action.
I processed the shot in Lightroom using a Kodak T-Max 3200 preset and lowered the grain it applies. I chose black and white processing as this is a stylistic element of street photography and the high ISO preset replicates the film I would have had to use if I shot with film.
This shot is my contribution to Leanne Cole’s and Laura Macky’s Mono Madness. Please check out Leanne’s Blog where all of the images entered will be shown later today.
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In Europe I shot all my night time street shots with the X100s. I set it to Auto iso, max 3200 and a couple of times 6400. The results were always interesting, even when blurred. I only shoot for personal use and the blog / Flickr. If anyone sees a shot and objects I will take it down – hasn’t happened yet. Its a mental hurdle all street togs eventually get over. Night shooting offers so many opportunities with light and shadow.
That is a good policy to take down shots people don’t like and taking pics of people in public is a hurdle or for me a brick wall. I just don’t seem to like taking pics of people incognito.
I set my camera to 6400ISO automatically for night shots. If I set it any higher there is so much noise the image is unusable.