Why Most Street Portraits Fall Flat (And How to Fix Yours)
IMPORTANT - the portraits posted here were taken at the DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS They are not street portraits. This is to demonstrate my practice. See my ACTUAL STREET PORTRAITS.
From Studio Setups to Pavement Grit
Back in the day, the Dare Photography workshop was focused more on portrait photography. These days, it's tilted more toward Street Photography and with a healthy lean into Street Portraits.
Snapshots Aren’t Street Portraits
A lot of so-called street portraits are little more than snapshots, and one of the reasons for this is that the photographer shooting them has little experience of shooting portraits away from those streets.
Portrait Practice Starts at Home
The trick is to practice shooting portraiture whenever you can. Practice on friends. If you have any :). Family, siblings, children, parents.
What You Learn Away From the Street
For me personally, I've ticked all of those examples as well as a great many conceptual projects I've undertaken for myself, working with various models.
SHOOT EXAMPLES
When I die i want to go to VOGUE
And … lots more on my website here … just attack the menus.
This practice, away from the streets, nurtures your ability to manipulate light and all of its subtleties, as well as beginning to pose your subject. Posing here doesn't have to be anything extreme. This is street photography after all — we're not shooting covers for Vogue, unless that's your plan. Nothing wrong with it.
Movement Over Model Poses
A pose can be triggering the subject into a subtle gesture of movement, and that movement, from beginning to end, can be a source of a multitude of possibilities where portraits are concerned.
Something for the Bold Ones
If this kind of thing fires you up, then check out my YOUTUBE CHANNEL as well as the DARE PHOTOGRAPHY PODCAST. We also have a WHATSAPP community, which was set up to support photographers to transcend what is holding them back. No fluff. Real chat, real creatives, and the stuff no one else wants to say out loud.
MORE GOODIES
Back in the day, the Dare Photography workshop was focused more on portrait photography. These days, it's tilted more toward Street Photography and with a healthy lean into Street Portraits.