I think it’s way underrated for street photography. In LA there’s such a wide variety of places to shoot that all look different. Easier to make a nice image that looks very different from one another. And there’s no reason not to come away with decent photos on a daily basis. You could bike down The Strand and make very different images from Santa Monica to Redondo. All have unique character and demographics of people. And that’s just on the beach, a small slice of LA.
Color in Photos
If the only thing interesting is the color, is it an interesting photo? Probably looks good on the wall but has little emotional value for me, at least. I see a lot of good color photos but seems like there is a tendency to match colors in the frame. The photo becomes more about the color than the moment.
Ricoh GRiii Street Photography Settings
I’ll start with shooting settings. 99% I’m using snap focus. I use snap distance priority so I can easily change distance using the front wheel. I start at 2m and change accordingly. You’ll have grainy files using my ISO settings. Adjust the lower ISO setting if you want cleaner photos.
- Snap Focus
- Face/Eye Detection Off
- Snap Focus Distance 2m
- Full Press Snap Off
- Exposure Mode P
- AE Metering Highlight Weighted
- ISO Auto Lower 12800 Upper 3200 Lower Minimum Shutter 1/250
- Program Line DOF
- ND Filter Auto
- White Balance AWB
- Snap Distance Priority On
- File Format JPEG
- JPEG Recorded Pixels L
- Dynamic Range Compensation Auto for Highlight and Shadow Correction
Here are the JPEG settings.
- Image Control HI BW
- High/Low Key Adjustment +4
- Contrast +2
- Contrast Highlight -4
- Contrast Shadow -4
- Sharpness +1
- Toning Off
- Filter Effect 2
- Shading -1
- Clarity -1
- Grain Effect 3
3200 ISO
Looks fine to me, even in bad light.
Analytics
Not a concern. Free yourself from the validation.
3.8 Earthquake
One of these woke us up two nights ago. I think it’s the fifth one since I’ve lived here. They seem to always happen around 2am. Feeling of hopelessness. It wasn’t strong, but I could only imagine the fear from a bad one.
Unintentional Characters
My favorite to photograph. Ya know the normal people that just don’t have it all together. The characters begging for attention are boring to me. Unless you’re completely ridiculous, then I just have to take the photo. But there’s a lot of that where I live. People starved for attention.
Weird Photos
Maybe the most timeless? Photos that make you think for a bit or examine further. Evoke a reaction. Harder to duplicate. Not easily repeatable. Should be the goal?
The more I know…
the less I understand.
Originality
Seems like every photo has been done. How to be original? Probably not possible in 2023. Better to just focus on having fun with it.
Chris Athanasiadis 