{"id":28526,"date":"2015-05-15T19:34:13","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T23:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=28526"},"modified":"2019-10-07T23:15:19","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T03:15:19","slug":"informal-candid-portraits-on-the-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/informal-candid-portraits-on-the-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Informal \/ candid portraits on the street – Applying what you know"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Informal \/ candid portraits on the street – Applying what you know<\/h1>\n

New York City abounds with characters – interesting and colorful people. This is one of those constants if you’re out on the streets in NYC, especially when taking photos or busy with a photo session … or as in this case, during one of the\u00a0individual\u00a0photography\u00a0workshops in NYC<\/a>. This man approached us to sell his artwork … and we ended up taking a few photos of him. With a few quick, automatic steps, the informal portrait is improved.<\/p>\n

I’m one of those people, who, if tourists in Times Square give me their cameras, I will also pose them and correct a few things. Adjust an awkward\u00a0pose. Hide shopping bags.\u00a0Any quick fixes that will immediately improve even a camera phone snapshot.<\/p>\n

Similarly here, I immediately asked him to go to this doorway a few yards away – the gold trim and black of the facade would perfectly match the dark suit and warm tones of this flower and his skin. Working in this doorway also meant we had shade – no struggle with hard sunlight. The pose is all his! He immediately went to this pose.<\/p>\n

If you look at the 4 images in the entire sequence, you will notice the first image he had his left hand out in the sun. I asked him to drop his hand a bit so that he was entirely in the shade. Then another 3 quick photos, as I\u00a0adjust my composition slightly to pull in more of the blue sky reflection. I knew the blue tones would balance the warmer tones to the bottom of the frame.<\/p>\n

All of these micro-decisions to adjust an informal portrait, are done in a few seconds. Decisively, but gently. This is all done with the idea of elevating a random snapshot into an informal portrait that could hopefully stand on its own as an interesting photo of an interesting character we met out on the street.<\/p>\n

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A short while later, we were all set up,\u00a0photographing Anelisa<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0the Profoto B1 flash<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate<\/em>). Then Roberto approached us and struck up a conversation. He told us that everyone around the neighborhood calls him the Mayor Of Meatpacking District. He said he appears on 54 different websites … so I offered that we make it 55 websites. Here he is … the Mayor Of Meatpacking District.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally enough, without any prodding he struck up a very similar pose to the previous gentleman. I liked how the bright red colors of his shirt and hat were complemented by the warm tones of the metallic door.<\/p>\n

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This second frame is from the next image in the sequence – very similar, but tightly cropped in post-processing of the RAW file. This is one thing where the high-resolution cameras such as the\u00a0Nikon D810<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate<\/em>) which I used here – even cropping the full-length portrait as tight as this, I still ended up with a 13 megapixel image!<\/p>\n

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Summmary<\/h2>\n

With the 2nd person, Roberto, the pose was all his. It was spontaneous after we had asked if he would stand in the same doorway where Anelisa had been. Very simple because the idea and lighting were already in place.<\/p>\n

With the first portrait –\u00a0the gentleman in the dark suit\u00a0–\u00a0there was more of a rapid-fire decision-making to make this portrait work better than a mere snapshot.\u00a0If you want to adjust\u00a0candid portraits, especially out on the street like this, you need to be\u00a0quick\u00a0and\u00a0decisive. Just change\u00a0one or two little things. Maybe three things. But it needs\u00a0to be fast so it isn’t about your<\/em> process.\u00a0Keep the\u00a0spontaneous feel by not overdoing it.<\/p>\n

There is a pattern to shooting it. An algorithm that I run through as quickly as I can, without losing spontaneity:<\/p>\n