One goal of mine is to get better at taking candid shots of people; we went by the Sweet Corn Festival in downtown Urbana today, and I decided it would be a good opportunity to practice. Here’s what I got:
1/1000s, f/4.5, ISO-200, 105mm (background slightly desaturated in Photoshop)
1/800s, f/4.5, ISO-200, 105mm
5 Comments
Oh awesome! That’s a goal of mine this year, too. How do you do it? Do you pretend to be photographing something else, or do people just not notice you at all?
The woman with the phone didn’t notice me at all. The kid looked straight into the camera a second later.
I’ve been doing some reading on the subject. You really have exactly one chance to get good candids, and you have to be fast on your feet. All your camera settings need to be dialed in perfectly before you take the shot, so you can bring it up and shoot in one smooth motion before they notice you and get all awkward.
Oh man, candids are difficult! I’ll have to get better myself at not feeling badly when people notice – just smile, move on, and if they seem to care smooth it over..
I tried to do that at the Newport Pier, where there were quite a view good opportunities for interesting candids, with varying success. Often I employ longer zoom in order to be less obvious.
Ahh, I accidentally ran into a street festival in Palo Alto today.. but didn’t have my camera! +1 for carrying it all the time.