Street Lighting

One of my favorite places to capture images is in a busy city setting.


When shooting in street scenes, day or night, special attention needs to be given to the type and quality of your lighting. Weather and the time of day play into this as well.

Shooting portraits and street scenes at high noon during the brightest part of the day is not ideal. Harsh sunlight can provide too much contrast and blast out the highlights of your subject.

With daytime outdoor portrait work it's best to find open shade and use a fill flash to help balance the lighting of your subject and the background.

Nighthawk shooting is the most rewarding time to me. When I'm out hunting night scenes I normally set my camera to the "vivid" setting and bump up my saturation as well.

Typically, I use my 35MM (the crop factor equals a 52MM normal lens) F/1.8 fixed mount lens. Using it allows me to keep the ISO at a decent level which provides me with less noise that high ISO night shots are prone to.

Further, the smaller lens is lighter and easier to lug about. It also makes the photographer less obvious in a crowd so they can more easily capture candid images with out frightening folks off or getting bonked over the head by an irate subject.

The catch is figuring out the correct WB (white balance) setting for your city lights. If in a hurry, I opt for the auto setting on WB and correct in post production if it is needed.

Ideally, if you're working with a newer point and shoot or DSLR, it's best to shoot some test shots and then use the customize control to adjust your WB setting to fit the lighting.

Good luck and watch that traffic...