Street Photography is hard to do well. Really hard. Even if you are great, most of your shots will not be.
The internet is filled with boring street photography. The biggest problem is people thinking any photo taken on the street is now Street Photography. There is so much more to Street Photography than that so how do you capture more in your Street Photography?
One way to strive for great Street Photography is by avoiding some of the habits of boring Street Photography.
Here are 7 of the Most Common Habits of Boring Street Photography:
1. Nothing of interest in the photo
If a photo has nothing interesting in it then odds are it won’t be an interesting photo. This should be obvious, but judging by the millions of street photos online, it’s not. A random picture of a street or group of people probably won’t have anything interesting in it, even if you add a black and white filter.
Looking for something of interest before you snap the photo is the first step towards avoiding boring Street Photography.
2. Too Far Away
Many people like to stay at a far distance when they take the shot. The problem with this is that the distance becomes part of the feeling of the photo, even if you’re using a telephoto lens.
So if you’re far away, it will look and feel like you’re far away. Usually, this translates to a boring a photo because the viewer doesn’t feel like they are part of the scene. If you can’t feel, or sometimes even see, what’s going on, then it’s hard to grab anyone’s interest.
3. Street Performers and Homeless
One of the most popular subjects shot in Street Photography are street performers and the homeless. Why? Usually because it’s easy. They stay in one place and rarely mind, or even notice, if you take their photo.
The problem also is that it’s easy. If you take a simple shot of them then it will look like millions of other photos of the same subject. That same street performer has their photo taken hundreds of times a day by everyone and every photo looks identical. Identical is boring.
Personally, I’m against photographing the homeless unless you’re actually going in-depth and personal into their world. For me, it just looks like you’re exploiting them unless there’s a personal side to it. There are some photographers who do it well, though, but they get more personal with it and treat the people with care. It’s not a simple snap shot while they walk by them on the street. They spend more time and energy into bringing out some genuine feeling.
If you really like shooting these subjects, trying to add more to the photo than a simple shot of the person will help make it stand out from the sea of other identical shots.
4. Too Much Bokeh
Everyone loves bokeh and that look where the background is all creamy smooth and the subject is crisp and pops out at you. In Street Photography, unless you’re doing Street Portraits, bokeh can also be a bad thing, though.
Say you have a photo of a whole scene, but only one small subject in the scene is in focus. Everything else in the scene, some of which might add interest, is turned into blurred, empty space. You can end up losing out on everything the scene had to offer, making it more boring.
Bokeh in Street Photography can also run you into the trap of looking cliché, tacky or losing some authenticity.
It all depends on what you’re going for, though. Bokeh isn’t all bad in Street Photography, just make sure it adds to the strength of your photo instead of taking away from it.
5. People Doing Nothing Special
Everyone’s seen a man sitting on a bench or a person waiting at a cross walk thousands of time before. If there’s nothing special about it other than that, then it’s probably going to be boring.
If you’re going to take a photo of person in the street, make sure they either have something interesting about them or they are doing something interesting.
Look for gesture, character, lighting, or something unique. If they have none of this, then it won’t capture anyone’s attention. It will just look like another person on the street. Boring.
And then there’s the most basic and trendy street photography technique of all. See a wall and wait for someone to walk by.
Even if Picasso himself painted the wall, it’s still just a person walking by a wall. There’s nothing unique or interesting about that.
6. No Composition
Many photos, especially in Street Photography, look like someone just quickly pointed their camera and clicked without even thinking about the frame. They even have a term for this technique, “Spray and Pray.” This might come from rushing to take the photo out of fear. Or maybe the photographer just didn’t care enough to frame and compose the scene.
You don’t always have to have perfect composition, but you should try to put some thought into it. What do you want to include and what don’t you want to include in the frame. How do you want to compose everything and how do you want the framing to look. It all affects the photo’s interest.
If you don’t put any thought into the composition, it will probably show in the photo. Leaving composition to chance doesn’t leave you with great odds of capturing an interesting photo.
7. Over Edited
There’s so much you can do with a photo today because of editing. This is great, but it can also be a trap for editing too much. Crazy edits might look cool to you at first, but when that wears off, it can look plain ugly.
In Street Photography, you also have to be careful not to lose some of the authenticity of the photo. If the editing adds to the feeling you are trying to portray, that is great. If it turns it into something that looks more like cgi than real life, then it’s probably not.
Bonus:
Using Black & White For Interest
This is just to add onto these 7 common habits. One thing I notice is that many photos that fall into these habits like to apply a black and white filter to help make it more interesting. Black and white does not fix a boring photo. A boring photo is a boring photo.
If black and white is your choice of medium, you should be thinking in black and white when you take the photo. Don’t use black and white to make the photo work, use the photo to make the black and white work.
If you find that you do some of these, don’t worry about it. We all have and probably still do sometimes. The main questions you want to ask yourself is why are you taking the photo and what are you trying to show or say in it. Just by looking to say or do more than clicking a shutter, you’ll already put yourself ahead of most Street Photography out there.
Focusing on making it interesting is the best habit to make it not boring.
Have any of you fallen into any of these habits before? What do you do to try to make your Street Photography more interesting and less boring? Tell me in the comments below!
Now that we’ve covered what makes a bad photo, check out 7 ways you can improve your Street Photography instantly and make good photos instead!
And for more Street Photography tips (and much more), start here, go to the blog post gallery or just go to the front page!
So true! But i think as much as we know about these facts we still keep on doing at least a few of them repetitively.. :)
Haha, yes we do. It’s hard not to do a few of those sometimes…:) Thanks for the comment!
Right on the spot!! And one more thing to your list – Avoid to upload them :)
Thanks! Ha, true, but that can be a hard one for me. I’ve tried that in the past with digital photography, but I hate having to look at a screen going through so many photos at once when I’ve waited a while. So now I upload them soon after, quickly organize by marking the bad and good in lightroom, then wait some time later to actually really go through the better ones. What’s your routine with digital?
You’re mean. Like, the meaning I’ve been looking for not shooting boring/repetitive/cliche street photography.
Ah, İstanbul!!!
yep, guilty to have done them from time to time, but you look and you learn.
Yes, we’re all guilty at times, but you’re right, it’s all about learning and focusing on our own development from experience.
Absolutely true!! Sometime we are shooting with feelings which hardly have anything to do with the scene we shoot. So, the photo may reminds us those feelings we had at that time. This phenomena might mislead us while assessing our photographs. Probably a better way is to wait for a week or so and then look at them with more objective way. So in that way, we may filter boring photos out of good ones. Certainly assuming that you have enough experience, knowledge and eye to distinguish strong photos from week, boring ones.
Very true. Our own feelings can easily get in the way of viewing our own work. Some of the greatest photographers had problems curating their own work, even with all their experience. Waiting a while is definitely something that can be helpful, though. Thanks for the comment!
In my opinion no one should to tell what is boring or not boring. An art is an art on itself, no jugdment.
I agree Ann, to an extent. No one is the authority on what is boring, anyway. But if you notice, all of these habits have one thing in common. No real attempt to create something interesting. If it’s an art to you, then I do believe that you should at least be making a mindful attempt at creating something interesting, or it most likely will come out boring. If you can’t tell me what’s interesting about your own photography, or art, then how can you expect anyone else to see anything interesting? Thanks for the comment and thoughts on the subject, Ann!
True but you can say the exact same thing about any type of photography, how many shots do we see of the same landscape the same model pose and so on some photographers have different views than others,that’s what makes every photo different and interesting,I don’t agree with the writers plane and simple view its to easy and not an artistic way of looking at photography.
I agree, you definitely can say the exact same thing about any type of photography. Or any art, for that matter. What it’s really saying is that there should at least be some sort of focus or attempt to create something interesting. Do you feel that every photo or artwork is interesting, even when the artist didn’t make any thoughtful attempt to make it interesting? This post and examples were written more for beginners who might be stuck from being influenced by the amount of lazy Street Photography they see everywhere, instead of looking to create something interesting through their own eyes. In my opinion, this would be more of an artistic way of looking at photography. Creating something through your own eyes and imagination. Thanks for you comment and thoughts, Martin!
I’m an landscaper for years. Since last year I do additional street/people. As your points are so true I discovered your BONUS phenomenon is pretty much present. As soon as a shooter turns his shot to b/w his opinion is it must be a cool street photo without thinking of composition, bokeh and all your other points. I’m against thinking of street of photography is b/w. Want to show the streets in color and occasionally in b/w. google.com/+KhunHans
Thanks for your fantastic essay.
I agree, Hans. I have a lot of passion for color photography, but also appreciate black & white when it’s done well. I believe choosing b&w or color shouldn’t be done to fix a bad photo or make it cooler, but to help bring out the vision you saw when you made the photo. I also don’t believe there should be any restrictions made between the two, shoot what you enjoy and how you see. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Hans!
I’m especially guilty of photographing people standing around and looking at their phone. I don’t know why I do it, it’s like a reflex. And then afterwards I look at my display or laptop screen and wonder what the hell I was thinking.
Haha, that’s funny. You could make a photo series of them then :) I’m kinda the opposite, cell phones bother me so much that I won’t usually take the photo if someone is using one. Something about them just take away the moment or life from the scene for me. Thanks for the comment!
Funny, I do the same thing! I think with me it’s because I think it’s an easy shot as they won’t notice when they’re staring on their screens.
On the other hand,regarding mobile phones and the boring and common place, what we take as every day and boring now will become unusual, old fashioned and of historical interest in the near future. My first mobile was the size of a brick and had a giant ariel sticking out the top – it would be interesting to see an image of someone using one now. Maybe soon we will all have chips implanted in our brains and we will look back on people using i-phones as rather quaint. And I guesse it comes back to what is considered ‘boring’ – an observant photographer will often see interesting things in the most mundane of situations and have the skill to create an intresting image from this. An unobservant and poor photographer may create boring images out of the most interesting situation. Any way its an interesting article.
I do agree with the writer in this context. But I in my opinion, a “boring” photo, when piece serveral photos together, it tell story of a place does makes sense. In effect it become a documentary style of shooting.
Hi Walker, Thanks for an informative article and a reminder that just pointing and shooting on the street doesn’t make one a good street photographer. I try to see a story with feeling in each shot. Of the many shots I take each time I am out, few make it to processing; and even then, sometimes they are cliche’ and boring for most viewers; but they are still my story, so I keep them to myself and go on enjoying the challenge and the interaction with life and life on the street through my lenses. I am just thankful I have photography in my life. It is a very life affirming and potent elixir in which I imbibe often. Be well.
Very well put! Photography is a beautiful thing, not sure what I’d do without it. Thanks for the comment, Jerry!
And poster shots! Endless boring poster shots.
A good photo also shouldn’t need a sign or people in funny costumes.
Yes, poster shots could definitely go along with wall shots! Thanks for the comment, Sam!
Thank you for this article! I’m certainly “guilty” of “no composition” and some others at times. I take too many meaningless photos and often click just in case even when I know it won’t turn out good, especially when I’m in foreign places where I have the feeling I will never be able to see them again.
The guideline “If you’re going to take a photo of person in the street, make sure they either have something interesting about them or they are doing something interesting.” is simple and therefore easy to keep in mind. After I read this, the next time I went out I took far less photos, not necessarily better ones, because I don’t always see interesting people or scenes, I don’t know how others can have so many photos of them, maybe I’m living in the wrong place ;-)
Haha, it can take a lot of walking and looking to find something interesting sometimes. Trying to make something out of nothing after all that searching can lead to some of these too :) You just have to keep shooting, no matter where you live, and you’ll find something. Thanks for the comment!
i actually really like that first photo you use as an exemple . Not sure if its the girl on the right or the light or that everyone is turning is back of the camera . LOL i maybe have to much imagination.
On point 4. you seem to confuse bokeh with a shallow depth of field, they are different things (but many people still confuse them). Still, you are right about those pictures needing a larger DOF.
By definition, Bokeh is “the visual quality of the blur in the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image,” which is what I talked about in point 4 so I’m not sure where you see confusion? Bokeh is what is created by the shallow depth of field. Thanks for the comment and if you have a different idea on bokeh, please share!
By your own definition, bokeh is about *quality* of the blur, not about its *quantity*. You can’t have too much or too little bokeh, but a nice or ugly one.
For example two different lenses with the same focal length and opened at the same aperture value should have the same depth of field, but the bokeh will look different, because they have different glass quality, different shape and number of blades on the aperture and so on (bokeh is created by those lens construction elements).
Back to your sample image from point 4., yes it is weaker because the kid in the background is neither sharp nor washed-out in blur. It is not weaker because the blur is ugly (actually, it dows not have the kind of light that will create a noticeable bokeh).
Usually when I come back from a street I find some of these bad habits in my shots, and do not publish anything. It is depressing ;)
There a million ways 2 capture the beauty that is the world stage. Just my humble opinion of course since, I´ve been doing this shitte in the streets for over 40 years…Many approaches and styles vary greatly, thank goodness that is the case…otherwise our world would be so very humdrum…all photos should be of exceptional quality regardless of the supposed golden rules one breaks from. They all deserve to be considered as single images as to the intent that they where made is another story. I believe this because it might be a body of work that goes beyond a single frame posted on some group or site out there…
Good article which benefit more for the beginners . This is something the beginners will miss for so many time and years to learn and understand their own photography.
Before the , STREET PHOTOGRAPHY THEIR WAS A PHOTO GENRE that was known as That is the photography they did photographing every thing they saw and which accessible . That kind of photo docent show much interest unless it is shown after a century or two. In the case of photos of the people who is using phones are now looking boring but will be quite interesting after sometimes back they were created. Many French and European photographers has done it in the past and they are origins of the eyes we are trying to imitate now a days. During these era we did not have rules to do photography as today and the STREET PHOTOGRAPHY did not excited as we define it today to say what’s Street photography is.
Agree in 100%. Bad habit number 8: Photographing people from the back, being scered of people or mentioned telephoto bokeh when photographing portreits. Instead of spying on or hunting for people frame them in the way they can be proud of being on your picture. In the worst scenario person will ask what you taking pictures for- if you know the answer there is no reason to shoot silhuettes or back of someones head.
Thanks for the comment, Tomasz! Shooting backs has definitely been the one readers have messaged me the most that should be included too. It is a very common habit out there. Cheers!
Your post motivates me a lot, because I makes all this mistakes here. Thank ou a lot!
Great to hear that and thanks for the comment! Cheers!
I think it is useless article, because there is no examples of “non boring” pictures. It is always easier to blame people taking boring photos(but at least they practicing photography and show they work for critique) that show the real classic street photo examples ) Good luck with that :)
Interesting…Good tips;) Cheers!
Thanks and cheers!