Can telephoto lenses be used in street photography?

On this issue, I often feel puzzled when I just came into contact with street photography. From the first day of the street sweeping, some older men patiently told me: The young man, he must use a wide-angle fixed focus head to sweep the street, and then he came face-to-face with the names of some photographers, using the 28mm focal length to sweep the streets of Moriyama, with Elliott Erwitt, who sweeps the streets in 35mm focal lengths, and Bresson, who sweeps the streets with a 50mm focal length, and more. So for a very long period of time, whoever asks me to use what focal length to clean the street is better, and I only drift through these three numbers in my mind. Until one day I saw the following set of photos on the Internet.

The photo was taken by street photographer Nick Turpin. These photos were from his photography project “Througha Glass Darkly”. Nick was born in the UK and studied art and design during college and also studied photography. He once worked as a professional photographer at a newspaper office, and then later photographed a lot of different types of photography, portraits, advertising, fashion, etc. have been involved, he fell into interest in street photography.

Most street-swept enthusiasts may not be familiar with such a photographer, but I am very familiar with his contribution to street photography because we are doing similar things in different countries. He is also relying on his own. Power spreads the charm of street photography internationally. We will talk about this later and go back to Nick's photo. He applied telephoto lenses and chose to take long distances to take pictures of passengers in the bus. After a long period of shooting, a series of photos was formed. After this series of photos was published on the Internet, the response was large. Many large-scale domestic photography websites have also been reproduced. This group of street photography works also has a lot of enlightenment for me. I will share with you one by one below.

1, holding a telephoto, sweep the street calmly.

Nick uses his work to prove to us that the telephoto lens is not just a snap weapon for the paparazzi. He shot this group of photos without the help of a tripod. Instead, he held it in a handheld manner. The shutter speed was kept to 1/40S. This speed is far below the safety shutter speed for telephoto lenses. Care must be taken to keep the camera stable. This is also the key point we should pay attention to when we use the long focal length to sweep the street, especially at night. Telephoto is more space-saving than wide-angle, but because of the space-compression it generates, it is very good for photographing street portraits, which is helpful for some emotional details.

2. "Street" is not only on the streets

All of Nick's photos were taken in the carriages of the bus. Some people might say that this is not street photography, but what is it not on the street? The definition of street photography in Wikipedia says that the street is not Specifically referring to streets and alleys, any photograph taken in a public space can be called street photography. So when you next time in the exhibition hall, in the mall, on the beach, in the train, and so on in any public place, don't forget to bring a camera, it is possible to shoot satisfactory works there.

Actually, I am very interested in the choice of bus as a public place because it is open first, but because each passenger enjoys a private space, I think it is a relatively private public space. Photography is in this specific space. It is easy for a teacher to shoot extremely natural street portraits. What is particularly emphasized here is the need to pay great attention to respecting the privacy of the person being photographed while filming and must not infringe on the privacy of the subject because of the art.

3, increase mystery art for the work

A careful analysis of the success of this group of photos is not just the use of telephoto for street portraits. There are two more important points: one is to choose to shoot in the winter, and the other is to choose to shoot at night. A lot of water mist condenses on windows in winter, and some windows cover everything in the car with a thin layer of gauze, and some windows give people a feeling similar to painting because they are wiped off by the passengers. In addition to shooting at night, the lights in the car serve as background light, adding a bit of atmosphere to the work. The mysterious texture of the water mist on the windows, the varied passengers, and the soft lights constitute a looming picture, which can not help but imagine the story of the passengers in the car.