Best Street Photography Camera 2013

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The best street photography camera of 2013 will depend on your style of street shooting. There is a saying that the best camera for street photography is “the one that you have with you”. Which would imply that smaller is always better. But that doesn’t mean that a smaller camera is automatically better, just that you need to decide your priorities.

Best street camera style

Henri Cartier Bresson shot in three distinct styles. Which one you identify with might help you choose the best street photography camera for you.

Street photography is a passion, a hobby and an artform so you’ll need to move on from your basic point and shoot into something more timeless. Sure, go out and experiment with your iPhone or your Point-and-Shoot, but once you’ve tested out whether you enjoy street shooting, then you’ll need a craftsman’s tool.

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50 People 1 Question Shoreditch

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On an idle autumn afternoon in London we took to Brick Lane to shoot a “Fifty People One Question” style video. We stopped almost fifty people and asked them all a common question about their lives. The goal is to edit it together to make a short video about how much we all have in common.

Fifty People One Question London

Getting strangers to stop and talk on camera requires a good dose of enthusiasm and diplomacy.

People in London don’t generally like to stop and chat to strangers, so we got a lot of No’s, but we managed to get Yes’s enough to make a short video. We had a real adventure filming the video and we even got asked to leave at one point by a security guard. It was a fun process and we’ll be releasing the footage on the London Street Photo channel on YouTube.

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Antonio Guillen with the Sony RX100

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The Sony RX100 is a great camera for street photography. If you’re used to a full frame but want to ditch the large kit for travel then the RX100 is a very interesting camera. The RX100 is still new but is proving popular with street photographers who are used to DSLR cameras. This week we have a guest photographer Antonio Guillen to share with us his review of using the RX100 for street photography in Europe.

Antonio has won an Emmy for is documentary film making and journalism work.

Antonio Guillen is an Emmy Award winning documentary journalist and has only recently started to explore street photography. I’m excited to see how his street photography evolves.

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Street Portraits versus Candid Portraits

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Street portraits are a powerful way of capturing the stories of the city. It takes guts to stop a total stranger and ask to take their photo. We’ve been shooting lots of videos recently of how to shoot street portraits.

Asked Street Portrait

The posed portraits can be less authentic if the subject is uncomfortable. So you need to work hard to make them feel safe and open up a bit.

It’s great fun to get out and meet new people. It feels more like design research, urban anthropology or investigative journalism than photography. I am naturally a bit shy, so the exercise of approaching random strangers is a real adrenaline buzz.

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Simon Cross Guest Street Photographer

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This week’s guest photographer is Simon Cross. He’s been exploring the Street Photography routes from the London Street Photo Photowalk Routes. Here’s Simon…

Exploring East London with Simon Cross

I recently came across Peter Thomson’s London Street Photo blog and read about the East End Market walks. I printed out a Google map of the walk and set off on a Sunday morning to Liverpool Street Tube Station. The route includes Petticoat Lane, Brick Lane and Columbia Road Flower Markets.

Columbia Road Flower Market Photo

Columbia Road Flower Market is great for Street Photography because it’s so full of interesting characters and it’s crowded enough to blend in.

This was a new adventure for me; in the past I have not gone out with the sole purpose of “shooting the street”. I recently bought an Olympus OM-D camera along with two beautiful little lenses, the Olympus M Zuiko 45mm f1.8 and the Olympus M Zuiko 12mm f2.

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How to do street portrait photography

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Stopping random strangers and asking them if you can take their photo is a bit scary but it’s worth it because street photography is all about telling a story. I’ve put together a video on how to shoot street photography portraits including some street portrait tips.

The goal of a street portrait is to capture something that you couldn’t have seen by simply shooting a candid shot instead. A street portrait is a very special form of street photography and it takes a while to get confident enough with your equipment to take on the extra challenge of interacting with your subject.

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Sony RX1 Full Frame Street Camera

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Sony have just leaked the first images of the new RX1 full frame camera. The Sony RX1 will compete with the Fuji X100 and a bunch of other fixed lens retro cameras. But the RX1 has a sensor the same size as a 35mm film. This means that it is going to be stunning in low light and allow for a faster shutter speed when shooting on the street.

Sony rx1 street photography

The RX1 has a full 35mm film sized sensor so it will be an impressive camera for street photography.

The 35mm f2.0 lens will let in a lot of light and will allow for a fairly shallow depth of field. Engadget is quite excited about the pro features on the camera. I’m excited about the subtle looks and retro feel. It’s perfect for candid street photography. Putting your subject at ease that you’re not pointing an SLR at them.

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Best places for London street photography

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One of the main things that drew me to street photography was my fascination with the wonderful characters and personalities of London. There are plenty of location guides and guides to the best locations for street photography. But almost all of them are about the best streets to photograph not the best place to find people to photograph.

London Photography Locations

The best places to shoot street photography in London are based on the best places to find the people of London that you want to shoot.

As you know, street photography is about telling stories, spotting the small human things in life and photographing people. So I’ve dug back through the London photo walks I’ve done with David Gibson and others to find the best routes in London for visitors and locals.

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Canon EOS M Street Photography

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Canon’s new EOS M will be an interesting camera for street photographers. The larger sensor size should allow for nice shallow depth of field and better performance in low light. But the lens range of Micro 43 is well matured with some lovely lenses from Olympus and Leica.

Canon EOS M Street Photographer's camera

The new Canon EOS M is small enough to be discrete but packs a serious punch.

The Canon is launching into a crowded market. But in the end it will come down to whether it’s the right camera for your style of street shooting. The small size and high image quality is going to give micro four thirds cameras a run for their money.

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50 Faces Project

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The 50 Faces Project is a shared photography challenge to encourage people to take more portraits and to have their portraits tell a real story. As well as the photography, each portrait includes three questions, one each about the subject’s past, present and future.

50 Faces Project

The Fifty Faces Project challenges you to shoot 50 portraits of your friends, family and community.

The challenge is to capture 50 portraits of people we see regularly ranging from our friends and family to our community and workplace. It seems easier than the 100 Strangers Project but it’ll be challenge for me to shoot people I wouldn’t normally ask to sit for a portrait.

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