Posted on: June 5, 2017 at 8:25 am

When you start off on learning photography, shooting candid and street photographs is probably what you have at hand as practice. While this can be a pleasure for some, it can seem like a daunting task to others who are waiting to start shooting in the studio. We’d like to point out here that candid photography will help you with timing and shooting at the decisive moment, and that is something that will help in all genres of photography later.

So lets get into it! Candid photography is all about capturing the right moment. And this can be harder than a pre planned photo in the studio. You need to have the ability to somehow pre conceive a moment that is about to occur! This is not as hard as it may sound. Think of candid photography as going fishing…you lie in wait for the right moment, keeping all your gear ready. Say for example you are looking for images of children playing in a park. You select the right lens, you set the exposure based on metering from a mid tone area, and you could even get your composition in place. Take for example this image photographed somewhere in Himachal –

The doorway of this eatery provided nice side light. The pillar on the left gave an opportunity to showcase a little depth of field. All that was missing was a live subject to bring the image to life. So, exposure was calculated, composition was made, and all that was left was to wait for someone to appear in the doorway. Eventually, this little girl walked in and the shutter was fired before she became aware of being photographed – a good candid moment!

Digital photography makes candid images easier. You can shoot on burst mode and select the right frame later. The other image of the girl with hat in hand was shot on film, which made things much trickier. An entire roll of KODAK film was shot to get this one perfect moment. Well worth it in the end though…