Well it's about time that I posted another blog item. I can't believe how busy I have been this past month or so. Where has all the time gone to? During the odd moment, when I get some time to think, I started to have some serious thought about my photographic style (have I actually got one?); I came to this conclusion.
One of the great things about street photography is that we never stop learning about it. So over a mug of hot black tea I made the conscious decision to re-energize myself by intentionally seeking out more layered street! So what is layered street photography?
Essentially it's a composition that shows more than one thing going on in an image and it opens up some interesting possibilities; forcing one to look more closely at a scene before committing it to the media card. Of course, we have to continuously scan the viewfinder for that decisive moment, when up to five different planes of interest could be happening in the frame at the same time. So, we are looking for multiple targets rather than just one prime target, but with a prime target still in mind. Although I have used this technique when it happens, I have mostly been on the look-out for single targets in the past. With layered Street photography we now have to concentrate on more than one aspect of the scene, ensuring that there is cohesion between all the elements happening at once. No, it isn't always easy to bring them all pleasingly together, but that's the challenge.
A thought about settings! For years I have always set my aperture to its sweet spot for street - usually 2 stops up from widest. With the Layered technique one needs a much wider depth of field to keep the whole frame in focus. For me it means an aperture of f8 and maybe f11 for this, but one still needs to ensure a good fast shutter speed to keep things sharp. I generally look for about 1/250 second or more, but I have used much slower shutter speeds in the past (not always successfully mind you).
So there we go! There are few images posted on this site that are considered to be 'Layered Street' so find them and see what you think. Then go out and give it a try.
One of the great things about street photography is that we never stop learning about it. So over a mug of hot black tea I made the conscious decision to re-energize myself by intentionally seeking out more layered street! So what is layered street photography?
Essentially it's a composition that shows more than one thing going on in an image and it opens up some interesting possibilities; forcing one to look more closely at a scene before committing it to the media card. Of course, we have to continuously scan the viewfinder for that decisive moment, when up to five different planes of interest could be happening in the frame at the same time. So, we are looking for multiple targets rather than just one prime target, but with a prime target still in mind. Although I have used this technique when it happens, I have mostly been on the look-out for single targets in the past. With layered Street photography we now have to concentrate on more than one aspect of the scene, ensuring that there is cohesion between all the elements happening at once. No, it isn't always easy to bring them all pleasingly together, but that's the challenge.
A thought about settings! For years I have always set my aperture to its sweet spot for street - usually 2 stops up from widest. With the Layered technique one needs a much wider depth of field to keep the whole frame in focus. For me it means an aperture of f8 and maybe f11 for this, but one still needs to ensure a good fast shutter speed to keep things sharp. I generally look for about 1/250 second or more, but I have used much slower shutter speeds in the past (not always successfully mind you).
So there we go! There are few images posted on this site that are considered to be 'Layered Street' so find them and see what you think. Then go out and give it a try.