Street photography/portrait

  

A recent street portrait I made. I thought he must be a jet fighter pilot but it turned out he’s a Malaya and Borneo veteran. I saw this guy from a distance…his fate was sealed. I liken my street photography to being a hunter in the urban jungle, I stealthily moved in, while adjusting the settings on my weapon of choice (In this instance a Canon 7D) and like the prey of a tiger, they don’t know what’s happened until its too late. But the people and animals I shoot live to tell the tale, and these images are my trophies.

Millennium Bridge

 

One I made recently with my Canon 40D and Canon EF-S 10-18mm f4.5/5.6 IS lens, at the wide end, (16mm in 35mm film terms) I spent a few days on the streets of London, images can be seen on my Instagram account @ streetshootertim I uploaded this one to IG but decided to delete it, thanks to IG degrading the image quality in the process! I’ve noticed this happens with some images I post there? 

I’m not really into landscape photography, I much prefer Cityscapes like this one, (though this could be classed as a landscape too) I can and do appreciate great landscape photography…Ansel Adams comes to mind, Don McCullin makes some cracking landscape shots too, he mostly does it as therapy after witnessing and photographing war. 

But I mean... how hard can it be to get good landscape images in a beautiful landscape? It can get a bit boring, you could probably give a monkey a camera and it would get good landscape photos in a great landscape, maybe even better as it could climb up trees etc 😀 I much prefer the challenge of street photography, social documentary.

 

The original Canon 7D

Just bought a Canon 7D, the original mk1, from Harrison cameras of Sheffield, in excellent condition for £235…and it is in excellent condition!, in fact it’s like a new camera! Can’t even see any dust in the button recesses! With less than 2k shutter actuations! I have been after one for a while but the ones I have seen thus far have been quite battered, it puzzles me how they get so, unless its been used in a war zone? I have been using Harrison cameras for some years now, its rare I buy camera gear new, I did buy a new lens one time, oh and a battery grip, that’s about it. Harrison’s offer a great service, their used items are checked by experienced, competent people and their prices are better than anything you will find elsewhere, including eBay.

Link to Harrison cameras click on this

The main thing that attracted me to the 7D is the 100% viewfinder, I often find I get more than I wanted when using the 40D, at one time I was well into cropping images but I have done a complete U turn, and now prefer to get it how I want it at the point of taking. The 7D has a few more pixels which is of no consequence to me, the rear LCD screen is a lot better, though I turn the review off and use it like a film camera, If I have been out of town I will start going through my images on the way back while sat on the train, that’s when my editing begins, deleting some, sorting out the wheat from the chaff, less is the new more. Also I don’t want to waste time working on images I won’t use.

I think the focus system is a bit overkill, though I can appreciate how sports photographers will like it, it has a great movie mode too, though I am more into still photography. I have disabled the live view mode, an optical viewfinder is all the live view I need. Not had chance to use it properly yet, but I’m already loving the feel of it, and that larger viewfinder, reminds me of the Canon EOS 1N film camera. Its substantial like a real camera should be, feels good in the hands. The pop up flash is impressive... for a pop up flash! I sometimes like a bit of flash for street portraits to make the colours pop.  

I have handled/used a few mirrorless full frame cameras (mostly Sony) I just don’t like them, don’t like the look and feel of them. It’s neither a compact nor an SLR, but somewhere in-between. I do have a mirrorless compact, a Lumix LX100, which I like and is a very capable camera, but it’s a compact, and I know it’s a compact, it will go in my jacket pocket, unlike the mirrorless, interchangable lens, full frame jobs. I considered getting one of the Fuji X100 series, I like the retro, rangefinder style but I heard even the latest V model can have focusing issues! How did they mess up the most basic thing on a camera, the focusing? 

Digital rev put a 7D through some challenges click here

I will keep the 40D and still use it, it’s a great camera, and makes good quality images, how much image quality does one need? Surely the actual image itself is more important, what’s the point of having super image quality of a boring image? The Canon 7d mk1 could possibly be all the camera I will ever need?

Yes… full frame may have the "edge" on IQ over the crop sensor, but I refer you to my previous points, and it may be better on low light performance but the 7D is no slouch in that respect, and there is always those things called tripods. Also I have some great lenses designed for the crop sensor which I like. All this obsession with resolution and pixel count, full frame etc bores me to death! Especially when most hardly ever make any prints, but just share online, also when it comes to printing we are limited by the printers ability itself. Even my 4/3rds sensor LX100 compact is capable of printing great looking LARGE prints! If I ever do go full frame, and it’s a big if! It will be a Canon 5D mk2 or the 6D. (I have not even looked into the newer R models, way too expensive, maybe if money was no object) 

"The photographer is the instrument not the camera" - Eve Arnold

Big Hair day

Street Portrait

A recent street portrait, one I made today actually (9/11/2021) saw this guy in my local town couldn’t let him pass without asking if I could take his portrait, he was happy to pose for me and I ended up taking a few. Shot with my Canon 40D and Canon EF 24mm f2.8 lens @ ISO 200, aperture priority @ f6.3. I like this lens for street photography, on the 40D its close to a 35mm in full frame focal length terms, (full frame for me means I didn’t crop the image 😀) its a similar set up to the Fuji X100 series, same size sensor and more or less same focal length lens, only the Canon 40D has a focusing system that works. 😀 And I have the option to change lenses. Did I mention its a lot cheaper too. 😀 And I can give it a retro style look to match the subject, thanks to Silver efex...

Shot in raw mode, processed in Lightroom, b/w using Silver efex pro

Art V Camera

I rarely see anything online about the art of photography, everything seems to be about the equipment, more so than the actual imagery itself, the content, framing, subject etc. I see people talking and discussing all kinds of things from image quality, lens distortions, corner sharpness, resolution, pixel count, high iso performance etc, (how often do you take photos in dark caves?) I don’t know about you but if I go to look at a photographic exhibition the last thing I’m interested in or looking for is any of these things! I don’t take a magnifying glass looking for corner sharpness or lack of! In fact I often like to put a vignette on my portraits, so what use is corner sharpness, just pointless measurements nothing to do with making good photography. And I don’t waste my time examining photos of brick walls looking for barrel distortions either! 

The internet, You tube etc is awash with self appointed experts doing reviews about this or that lens, this or that camera…YAWN. Most cameras are capable of taking decent quality images today, never mind looking for the next bit of kit that’s going to “improve your photography” you could buy an old Canon eos 350D for £40 with an equally priced Canon ef 18-55 lens and make good photography, on the other end you could go and spend thousands on the latest kit but its not going to give you great images, only you can do that, a camera is an inanimate object, a tool. “The photographer is the instrument not the camera” – Eve Arnold.

Yes, you need a certain level of technical knowledge/ability but its not rocket science, digital has made things easier in that respect. The most important thing is to enjoy your photography, do it for yourself no one else, and we are all learning all the time, one could be a hundred years old and learn something new, anyone who thinks he or she “knows it all” has already lost, stay hungry! I’m more interested in the end results, the art of photography, doesn’t matter how you got there, what you used. 

Here’s a recent street portrait I did with my 15 year old Canon 40D, and a Canon ef 24mm f2.8 lens from the 80’s! Which is more like a 35mm focal length on the 40D’s APS-C size sensor. 

'The butterfly effect'

 

Cropping? Resolution? Upgrade?

To crop or not to crop? I went through a stage of loving the cropping, I would see many images within images, btw even if you don’t crop, you are still in fact cropping as the image is just a small crop of the wider vision available to the eye. However I have gone right off the idea of cropping my images, now I prefer to get it right, just as I want it at the point of taking. Cropping reduces the resolution (especially when I’m still using a 10mp camera) which could be a problem if I wanted to print large, also with cropping I end up with odd sized images, which could also present a problem when printing and presenting your work.

It often amuses me when photographers talk about resolution, pixel count as if it’s the most important thing, when most hardly ever make prints, and just share their images online, so what does it matter? In fact when photographers start talking about equipment I often yawn and feel like walking away! My first dslr was a Canon 10D 6.3 mp and the A3 prints from it were very nice, it’s rare I print larger than A3 size. It was just a bit slow to use, I then got a 30D but the actual camera felt small in my hand even with the extra battery grip attached, so I got a Canon 40D slightly bigger and has a decent size and feel to it. The 40D is an old camera now, but I’m still using it together with some Canon and Sigma lenses. 

I’ve been having thoughts of upgrading, maybe getting a 7D (I do like the idea of having a 100% viewfinder, as I enjoyed with my old 35mm film cameras, EOS 1N etc) or maybe a Canon 5D mk2 or 3, but then I would have to spend loads of money on lenses to take full advantage of the full frame sensor, expensive! Most of my lenses I have now are designed just for the crop sensor cameras. The 7D has the same size sensor as the 40D but with more pixels in it, probably a faster engine behind it too, but I always shoot in raw, so would I see much difference in the end image quality? And I don’t need video on it, I am into still images also I have a Lumix LX100 which shoots 4K video. 

Some guy on instagram asked me what my “set up was” on one of my street portraits, the same image I have posted here, I said an old Canon 40D and an old Sigma lens, it’s a nice lens, light and compact too. I think he was a bit disappointed and was expecting something more high end, more expensive, he unfollowed me after I told him, Haha. People get too bogged down with the equipment and technical side, usually newbie’s, they think its all about the equipment! Off course we all enjoy the gear side to a certain extent, but the more experienced you become, the more you realize its simply a tool, and the 40D is a tool that doesn’t get in the way of making photos, and the image quality is more than adequate. 

At the end of the day it’s about the image, the content, the framing etc, doesn’t really matter how you got there. Most cameras today will take decent quality images, I’m not the sort of photographer who would take a magnifying glass to a gallery with me to check out corner sharpness! who cares about that boring stuff in the real world? Think I will stick with what I’ve got for the time being, if money was no object I suppose I would be getting all kinds of equipment to play with, maybe a large format film view camera and a professional neg scanner, that would give you plenty of pixels! And the money I save I could spend on travelling and actually taking photos, rather then talking about equipment.    

Btw, here’s an excellent review of the Canon 40D by a fellow photographer and blogger... Photographic Central Link

 

 

Heres a recent one taken with my Canon 40D & Sigma 18 - 50mm f2.8 (throughout the zoom) EX Lens, at the long end wide open @ f2.8 iso 400. I always shoot in raw, process in lightroom, maybe tweak a bit in photoshop if needed. Often I find they need little work on them from what comes out the camera.