10 Photography Tips for Street Photographers

3/07/2017 ISO 1200 Magazine 0 Comments

Street photographer Eric Kim gives us 10 simple but awesome tips to improve your photography style.

1. Don’t take photos; make photos

Making a photograph is creative. It is a collaboration with someone else. You are more intentional, more artistic, and more loving in your approach. You dance with your subject, and both of you make the image together.

2. Make meaning; not photos

Remember, the end of our photography is to live a good life. If your photography isn’t helping you live a good life, figure out what to change to live a better life.

3. Strip away the superfluous

The best way to make better photos is to strip away the superfluous.

4. Don’t specialize in your photography

Another thing that screwed me up — over-obsession with specialization in photography. The problem with specialization in photography is that you will have less longevity.

5. Make photos that please yourself

If your photos don’t please yourself; why are you doing it? So before you share any photos with others, look at the photo yourself and ask yourself: "Do I like my own photos?"

6. Capture emotion via gestures

Remember, the aim of all photography is to evoke emotions, feelings, or some sort of thought in your viewer. Of course you need a good composition to do so, but make sure that you prioritize emotion over form.

7. Soul photography

How is it that we are the only ones who can make the photos that we do? How do our photos show our unique perspective and view-point of the world? How do we take our pains, sorrows, struggles, pains, victories, joys, and delights— and integrate them into our photographs?

Do your photos show your soul?

8. Light

Ultimately as a photographer, you are also a painter. You’re just painting with a camera, instead of a paint brush. Figure out how to paint with the light, by changing the direction of your camera, by asking your subject to move, or photographing different times in the day.

9. Black bliss

What I love about black is that it is the ultimate blank slate. When you start with a black canvas, you can add anything to it. The possibilities are endless.

10. Photograph today like it were your last

We need to photograph each day like it were our last.

If today were your last day on earth, who would you photograph? Strangers? Your friends and family? Yourself? Who?

See all photo tips on: erickimphotography.com

About Author:

I am an international street photographer currently based in Berkeley. I travel the world and teach street photography workshops and will try to share as much knowledge as I can about street photography here! Let's Get Connected: erickimphotography.com