Elevate your street style photography with tips on scouting out great fashion and snapping fast to capture it in the best light.
If you live in a big urban city, you can probably step outside and find the interesting fashion trends that are unique to your location—especially with Fashion Week around the corner.
Every city has its own approach to new trends that present itself through its own street style. Capturing this with your camera can be an exciting thrill, as you must scout out riveting outfits passing by and be able to quickly snap your photo.
Getting these shots to stand out can be both a fun experiment and a challenge. It’s all about having a great eye to observe eccentric outfits while anticipating perfect moments to capture candid shots.
Everything moves quickly when it comes to photographing strangers. Ultimately, it’s about being at the right place at the right time to capture the best photos.
This also includes some planning ahead in order to put yourself in situations where you come across compelling street style.
License these images via KIRAYONAK YULIYA, andersphoto, and Elena Rostunova.
Street style photography can encompass capturing strangers in creative outfits, or you can take a more planned and posed approach to this. You can stop your subject and give them direction if they’re open to getting photographed.
Either way, you’ll learn how to create the most ideal environment for your photos to allow them to truly shine.
Find Your Ideal Location
Setting yourself up for the perfect shot is all about location. Choosing the right place will not only provide you with a stunning background, but it can also put you in the middle of incredible street style.
To get your photos to stand out, an interesting background is the first step. Look out for interesting architecture, painted walls, and great lighting.
On the other hand, if you want your street style to come alive on your subject, try looking for a more subtle background.
Once you’ve found your location, feel free to experiment with your surroundings. You can always move around to get a variety of shots and see what works best for you in the process.
License these images via German Linares / Addictive Creative, HighKey, Guerilla, Elena Rostunova, and Creative Lab.
It’s not always just about the location, but the timing as well. Find a time or event that draws people in to show off their most captivating style.
Fashion Week is one of the most ideal time to capture street style photography. Set yourself up around these events to capture some of the most fashion-forward people in the world.
Scouting the Style
Once you’ve set up in your location, it’s time to scout the style. The outfits and accessories are going to be your main focus. These will guide you into telling a story with your photos.
Also if you shoot for long enough, you may begin to see patterns of trends that can be interesting to group together for trend forecasting.
Be on the lookout for compelling accessories, outfits, and different ways of how people are combining it all together. If you are a natural observer of people, scouting interesting ensembles will come easily to you.
After you spend a day or two shooting street style photography, you’ll be able to quickly discover what will photograph well.
Photograph at a Low Aperture
Getting your camera settings ready before you start shooting is important to getting those quick candid shots.
As you shoot more and more you will can develop your own style, but shooting at a low aperture allows you to focus mostly on your subject while blurring out the busy surroundings. This will get the person and outfit to stand out well.
If you really want to achieve this look, it’s best to invest in a lens that allows you to go to at least a 2.8 aperture. This will help you achieve a blurry background with your subject as the key component of your image.
Shoot in RAW
If you are not already shooting in a RAW file format, it’s even more important in this type of photography. Shooting in RAW allows you to capture a wider range of data with each photo. This is beneficial because if you over or under expose a photo, you will be able to correct it later on in post production or editing.
This will help your photos stand out as you will never miss a special moment if your camera settings are not ready. Sometimes the light can change rapidly in outside environments so it’s not always the case that you’ll be 100% ready for every shot.
With this said, you still need to be at a reasonable range with your camera settings. If you’ve gone too far in over or under exposing your photo, post production cannot always save every photo. This is simply a good practice to help you not miss out on the fast-paced nature of street style photography.
Capture a Variety of Angles and Shots
With all kinds of in-the-moment photography, it’s best to capture as many shots as you can. Not only is this important to get different perspectives of an outfit, it’s beneficial to make sure you’re not missing a beautiful candid moment with your subject.
You can make sure you are capturing it all by setting your camera to shoot continuously and hold down the shutter when you see something that sparks your attention. Once that subject is in focus, then keep shooting.
You can also capture more of the style by moving around and capturing the outfit in different angles. This can be challenging if a person is walking by but you can quickly move around them to get other perspective shots. If you see something especially compelling, you can always ask the person if you can photograph them in more detail.
License these images via Guerilla, Veam/Westend61, Africa Studio, Look Studio, LightField Studios, and Victoria Chudinova.
Like any type of photography, capturing street style takes practice.
If unique fashion trends and fast-paced, candid shots excite you, this type of photography might be a fulfilling genre to try. At first, it’s all about mastering the skill and then allowing your creativity to shine in capturing your surroundings. This is the key to elevating your street style images.
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Plus, see what other stock photos fashion lovers are searching for.
License this cover image via Luca Ponti.
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