PHOTOGRAPHY EXPOSED
by John Peters A.R.P.S.
CONFIDENCE
Confidence, how does that affect my photography? Confidence can affect your photography on many levels. Perhaps the most obvious "type" of confidence is when pointing a camera or phone towards another human or a group of people.
TOP TIP If you lack a bit of confidence in attempting Street Photography, you can shoot "covertly". Just be careful you don't break any laws and don't get caught. When shooting covertly, make sure your "camera shutter sounds" are set to silent and shooting covertly is greatly aided by using a camera with a "flip-screen" and holding it at waist level.
Taken on a film camera in the 1980's along Princess Street in Edinburgh, with a little compact camera, an Olympus XA2. It took a degree of confidence to take this photograph. Ask yourself if you would have asked this chap (in the day of skinheads etc.) if he would pose for a photograph? "Has your mother got a sewing machine" -"stitch that" springs to mind as a head butt cracks your nose. Interesting to note, taken on XP1 at 400 ASA or ISO now, which was a black and white film processed as a colour film. It had markedly less grain than the likes of Tri-X or HP5. Photoshop was used to add a little blurring in the form of a vignette shape.Taken in a public place, so no laws broken.
Confidence is responsible for many good photographs. You need a certain degree of confidence to get your camera or phone out in the first place, you need a degree of confidence to point your camera or phone at a person or subject to take a photograph, you might need a degree of confidence to carry and use a tripod.
TOP TIP Learn to use all the main controls on your camera so that you don't have to remove your camera from your eyes, don't fumble about - be quick and alert, learn to hide behind the camera and become another person so to speak, shoot with confidence and try to anticipate the peak action.