"How to" posts

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New York street photography, photo by James Maher, posted with his permission

New York City is one of the most photographed cities in the world. For good reason, too. It is one of the most interesting places in the world to photograph. From iconic landmarks to gritty street scenes, New York City has it all. You can even photograph nature and wildlife in the numerous beautiful parks if that is something you like. On a street photography level, you could say that New York City offers a one of a kind street photography experience, making it something of a genre all of its own.

Also referred to as NY NY or simply New York, the city has photo opportunities everywhere. Iconic landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Chrysler Building, or Times Square make for wonderful backdrops in your New York street photography images. To capture an image that stands out, changing one’s perspective or point of view can be helpful. On the other hand instead of focusing on the overall scene, you might want to key in on a detail of a landmark and use it creatively in your composition.

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Guide to Minimalist street photography cover

Minimalism is all the rage right now. Spend any time reading blogs, flipping through cookery books or design magazines and virtually all you see are neat straight lines, uncluttered desks, and seas of overexposed whites. We can attribute this to all sorts of factors. For instance, modern web design is all about a light, clean look with lots of negative or ‘white’ space, so similarly themed photos fit perfectly with this style – ditto on Instagram, where, when reduced to a thumbnail, a neat, minimal image leaps out compared to a busy, intricate layered shot. IKEA built a flat pack empire furnishing our homes with smart, scandi styles, and part of Apple’s stratospheric rise to the colossus it is today can be attributed to Steve Jobs’ and Jony Ive’s obsession with minimalism, both through functionality (binning CD drives and ports), and through worship of the Bauhaus design school, and Dieter Rams’ incredible industrial design functionalism showcased by many classic Braun products. So, with minimalism so highly influential in all aspects of our life, how can we start channeling this look into our street photography? And, as we continue to admire all your superb submissions from last month’s minimalism themed street photography monthly theme contest, and marvel at the brilliance of our contest winner Achim Katzberg’s street shot, what could be more apposite than taking a look under the hood of minimalism to seeing what makes it tick? Read on for a minimalism primer in our guide to minimalist street photography

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Guide to Flash Street Photography On Camera cover

Introduction to Flash Street Photography

You will probably have guessed by now that we here at Streethunters.net are big fans of flash street photography. We’ve recorded no less than three Street Hunts dedicated to off-camera flash street photography in Rethymno, Crete, Greece, as well as producing a guide to flash street photography during the day as part of our street talk video series. Spyros Papaspyropoulos regularly runs hands-on flash street photography workshops for intermediate and entry level photographers in Athens, with places still available for the December workshop! Flash street photography was the theme for our March 2017 monthly theme contest too (won by Christoph Wuzella), plus we’ve made an awesome list of top flash street photographers for you to follow on social media. In amongst all this we’ve put together two guides on using off-camera flash in street photography and an explainer for how to rock an off-camera flash setup with the Fujifilm X-Pro1. But we realised that despite all our flash street photography love we’ve never actually put together a basic primer on shooting with a flash the way the majority of you will like to shoot – i.e. on the camera itself. So, we’re now going to rectify that with a simple little guide to flash street photography (on camera).

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One of the fabulous things about street photography is the myriad of different styles it offers. All different flavours and colours of shooting can fall under the street photography genre umbrella: black and white street photography, street portraits, colour street photography, slow shutter speed street photography, and of course flash street photography and off-camera flash street photography to name but a few! The technique I want to discuss today is a really effective one to use if you are a street photographer who enjoys creating street shots with punchy, powerful graphic quality, often with natural light, but sometimes even with artificial light. It is known as high contrast street photography.

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Plan street photo trip to a foreign country cover

Street Photography Abroad

Travelling is important for your street photography. It is not the be all and end all, and a great many street photographers consistently produce great bodies of work shooting in one location or home city. But for a great many other street photographers, travelling is an amazing way for them to get inspired, and if they travel specifically for their street photography, often gives them the time and opportunity to focus on their street photography that they wouldn’t normally have which is also very important. And all these factors are increased dramatically if your travelling for street photography extends to a foreign country. Everything becomes just that little bit more exciting and a little bit more exotic. At Streethunters.net we’ve been lucky enough to have enjoyed several opportunities to visit foreign countries for street photography, so we wanted to take the opportunity to share what we’ve learned along the way with you, so read on for our top tips for planning a street photography trip to a foreign country.

Find inspiration in street photography cover

I’m not afraid to admit that I am currently going through somewhat of a creative block with my street photography. I am feeling rather listless with regards to the street photos I have been creating of late, and not enjoying the process of shooting much either. Part of this stems from a feeling of general frustration I have with shooting in my hometown – I’ve mentioned before how I find it so much easier to shoot when I’m on the road, and why I think travelling is so important for street photography, but I can’t always rely on travelling to get me out of the gutter, nor can I think I can get away with being a purely fair weather street photographer (both in a literal sense and a metaphorical one). So, there are clearly times when I need to learn how to try and force myself to be more sharp and get the creative juices flowing. To develop as a street photographer I feel I need to be prolific, because virtually without fail the only way to get really good at something is practice at it really hard until it becomes second nature. To do that I need to be able to get myself in the zone and that means making the most of all my opportunities, but also trying out new methods to galvanise myself and think creatively in order to get inspired. So I’ve put together a list below of techniques I’m currently experimenting with to help myself out of a creative rut. If you’ve experienced similar problems of frustrations in shooting in your hometown, I highly recommend you give Spyros’ article on how to get over the boredom of shooting street photos in the same location every day. There is some overlap, but my list covers a mixture of things that include both activities out on the street and broader ways of changing my mindset, so hopefully something from this will work! Read on for more…

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Hip & LCD Shooting for Street Photography Cover

It’s a slightly controversial approach, and one that will have some purists up in arms, but I think hip shooting has an important role to play in street photography when deployed as part of your wider street photography shooting technique arsenal. With that mind, I thought I’d put together a short little of my top tips for the best results using the hip shot technique for street photography, plus an extra tidbit of advice that will come in handy for hip-level LCD shooting too. So dive into our guide to hip shooting in street photography and head on out to the streets! And if you want to see some examples of the hip shot street photography technique in action, don’t forget to check out a video of Spyros Papaspyropoulos on the streets of Rethymno, Crete in our Street Talk Episode 6 – The Hip Shot Technique in Street Photography.

Keeping Track Street Photo Contests cover

NOTE: This is a Guest Blog post written by Jacint Juhasz exclusively for www.streethunters.net.


As I’m practicing street photography I find contests and different assignments very useful. Not only they help to find new topics within the street photography genre but also sometimes push me out of my comfort zone.

At this point I’m a member of more than 5 groups which have different weekly, bi-weekly or monthly contests, including StreetHunters.net. When I first joined these contest groups I tried to use different text files to keep track of the topics and also the deadlines, so I wouldn’t miss anything. However the text file based method was hard to maintain and also not really mobile friendly, which meant I couldn’t check the list when I was actually away from the computer. As I’m a control freak and “Getting Things Done” enthusiast in my 9-5 job, I figured a specific todo/task list would be perfect for this job!

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Ultimate Street Photography Hacks Cover

In our combined years of experience out shooting on the streets, the Streethunters.net team have picked up a thing or two. The more you practice your street photography, the more little tips and tricks you learn along the way. Things that might not seem obvious at first (or inversely, are blindingly obvious when you think about it), but that actually make a real improvement to your street photography experience. We’ve pooled our knowledge together to come up with a list for you, so strap yourselves in for the Street Hunters Ultimate Street Photography Hacks!

**Update!: This list has been updated with a couple of new hacks inspired by your suggestions, thank you!!**

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Street Photography Cloudy Weather Bad Light Cover

Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone. As a street photographer from the UK I should be pretty familiar with my country’s glorious weather. But I must confess that the sight of a leaden grey cloud-filled sky still fills me with dread. And even more so if I’ve got my camera in hand. As someone who’s fallen in love with the magic potential of powerful natural light my shoulders drop when it’s cloudy, and I lose my mojo. But I’ve resolved to do better, as I can’t forsake all the photo opportunities out there just because the weather is pants. And living in the UK, with our miserable weather, I can’t afford to either, as I can’t expect all that much sun year round here. So, if you’d like to join me on my quest to better my street photography when the clouds come rolling in, read on for my top tips for street photography in cloudy weather and flat light. And, if you’re a really hardy soul who’s not in the mood to let a spot of rain dampen your spirits, don’t forget to check out my tips for street photography in rain and bad weather too.