Hunting Technique: We keep walking (or moving) while prepare to click our camera’s shutter at anytime necessary, and constantly search for any moments that attract our eyes and mind. Hunting Technique is the opposite of Fishing Technique: We only stand at one spot for an amount of time till we satisfied with what we captured (Read here for more about Fishing Technique).
Hunting Technique is all about how quick our eyes sense any subjects or objects that able to create strong story line or form an artistic looks from their gesture/movement. The true action of capture decisive moment (Decisive itself means to make a decision quickly).
There are some tips that able to help us generate higher success shoot’s rate when using Hunting Technique:
Camera setting
Most of the time I left my camera in same setting when shooting at place that has constant good lighting, here is my setting to shoot outdoor at bright sunny day:
- Aperture f5.6 at APSC sensor (depth of field like f8 at full frame equivalent)
- Shutter speed 1/1000
- ISO Auto (from ISO 200 to ISO 6400)
- Autofocus (I love fast autofocus lens, it is even more important than the optical quality itself)
When the lighting condition begin to change, like become cloudy, or shooting under a big tree or shade then I will start to use bigger aperture and let the other settings remain. This way, I only need to reading the light with my aperture setting.
At the other time when I feel want to even more focus on scenes, I will use this setting:
- Aperture priority, most of the time at f5.6 (APSC Sensor), occasionally also use the biggest aperture (f2 or bigger) to create smooth shallow depth of field.
- Auto Shutter speed, program up to 1/500s
- Auto ISO, program from ISO 200-6400
I like to keep my camera’s setting as simple as possible so I can concentrate more to hunting moments instead fiddling around with camera setting, which is only slow me down when I need to capture a split second moment.
Shoot while we are walking
One method that I do the most, right from the very start I learned street photography itself and even till now. I just love to satisfied the urge from my mind to capture things that attract my eyes. Be it someone that laugh sincerely, or a person with unique fashion style, or perhaps a person who has pose unique gesture that I do not see everyday.
When hunting while walking (literally keep walking, not even stop a single step), I will let myself see things with gut (feeling) more than logical sense. I do not care whether it is an artistic moment or not, as long as it attracts me and I like it then I will snap first and decide later whether it was good moment or not.
The best part of shooting street while keep walking?
Most of subjects that I ever shot did not recognize that actually they were being shot, even when I could get their eye contact in my frame. My opinion is they just confuse about what I’m about to photograph, and think that I just captured something behind them. Most people will think that they are not the subject itself.
This method is the main reason why I keep my shutter speed at high position (at 1/1000s). My experience taught me even if I walked a bit fast, or my subject walked in hurry, I would still able to freeze the motion precisely.
Shoot in the middle of crowd
This method is the extension of shooting while walking. Walk inside a crowd place (like inside traditional market in busy hour), raise camera like we want to shoot video, and start pointing our camera to any subject that attract us. Do not put down your camera after took shots, just keep your hand steady and move it right-left or up-down like someone who documenting things in video mode. I found this is the “most cheating” way of shooting people from close distance without disturb them or make them give question to us why they were being photographed.
Wide lens like 35mm (Read here) or wider are my favourite choices for this method. We can get closer to subject and create more intimate feels.
Shoot person who busy with other people
Hunt unique looking subject while they are in the middle of having conversation or interaction with other people. Hunting Technique means we captured photos rapidly in short time, perhaps 2-3 shoots max. People who busy with something will not recognize or care about us. This way we can freely capture their candid moment without interrupting them.
Always have our camera in our side
As we know, we can do street photography literally everywhere and anytime even in places that we think bad or boring. We will never know when the artistic moment will happen in front of us, therefore have our camera always be with us all the time, even when we are just casually going somewhere without any plan to hunting on street. In the photo above I captured it when I was standing in mall’s lobby, waiting for my taxi to arrive. I was talking casually to my friend, when suddenly this guy seated near shiny wall. I snapped 3 frames rapidly without him noticed, then suddenly he just stand and leave the scene. Moment gone in 2 seconds.
Always pay more attention to unique subject
Unique subject means person who stand out or simply different than the others. Let’s say we are in the middle of crowd, try to notice someone that has different looks, someone that feel out of place. Like in the photo above, I attracted to them immediately because they were bringing balloons when most people there did not have it. So, balloons become the main point that make them interesting to be photographed. Same thing happen to other factors like colourful dress, attractive hat, weird shape of shoes, etc. Anyone that outmatched their surrounding are usually artistic to be photographed.
Look further away
Do not only pay attention to only people surround us, but also other people that still in distance. Look for subject that “different” than the others, then walk toward them and shoot.
That is all for my tips in Hunting Technique, have fun shooting out there to hunt attractive subjects!
Keep shooting and stay inspired,
Nico Harold