Contextualising the candid
How can we shed light on candid photography, and what hints and tips can I give to help you capture something worthwhile?
All of us as photographers have a preferred way of shooting. We’ll have our favourite lenses, favourite priority/manual modes and favourite spots to go to when we go out to shoot. However, since the theme of ‘candid’ photography can cover the likes of street, portrait, public, tele, action and even landscape, it’s important for you to know how to adapt to the situation in which you’re going to be shooting.
To try and contextualise all of this for you, I’ll be running through some lenses and the impact and advantages they might have in certain environments and contexts. This way you can take what I say as entirely suggestive, and perhaps change your situation based on the lenses you prefer or change your lenses based on the situation you prefer.
1. The Wide angle (8 – 20mm)
I understand that with something like an 8mm we are very much encroaching on Fisheye territory, but I thought I would include it anyway.
Many would take out the likes of the wide angle lens or use a wide angle (perhaps up to the 18mm mark on most standard lenses) to shoot a large open space or landscape. With this in mind, it would be quite difficult to encroach on a living, breathing subject and get any proximity without them noticing.
But with candid photography, we don’t necessarily have to make our subject the clueless human, front and centre. The beautiful thing about wide angle photography is that you can open up a large space, that may well be crammed with life and shoot it as it happens. A busy market place or bustling beach is the perfect environment for shooting candid with a wide angle. A super fast shutter can capture life in its abundance within a quite frankly vast space in this sense.
Inversely a landscape scene with a lone farmer working or perhaps a seascape with a couple of local fisherman dragging their boat onto the shore is perfectly acceptable in the realms of candid photography. Many would instantly assume that a wide angle scene can render any sign of life in an image redundant, but when shot right, this ideology can be quite the opposite!
2. The Street Lens (20 – 35mm)
The street lens is any lens. Street photography was made for rule breaking. But as a general rule, I like to offer anything between 20 and perhaps 35mm as a great start to shooting street.
Prime lenses mean the photographer simply has to be in on the action to get the shot and with street photography, proximity is key. We need to feel what the photographer feels, whether it’s a near miss from a fight that’s broken out or a swipe at the camera when being caught out!
So how do we make this candid? Around the 28mm mark, something wonderful happens, which is a perfect middle ground for quick, off the cuff shooting. This focal length is fantastic for a quick exposure in close proximity, but still just wide enough to cast some context into the shot.
As a result, you can perhaps try shooting from the hip as you walk in this scenario, or maybe wait for life to enter a space as we all now Cartier-Bresson did. Work quickly, work discreetly, then leave.
3. The Portrait Lens (35 – 50mm)
One of the first and probably more poignant facts I ever learned with regards to lenses and their capabilities is with the 35 to 50mm focal length.
Respectively these focal lengths are said to be the closest relation to vision in both and each human eye. This relation gives enormous gravitas to images captured within that focal range as we subconsciously relate to their proximity and in my opinion, their intimacy, making them perfect for the likes of portraiture. As a result of this proximity, shooting strangers candidly may be a dangerous game.
By all means try, as long as you can explain yourself should you get caught! Moreover, this focal length lends itself to tender moments between loved ones, a mother and her child, a boy and his dog, a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.
You’ll find that shooting candidly with lenses of this calibre will work much better around people who are comfortable and used to seeing you with a camera in your hand. You can still make eye contact with an individual, and it is a candid moment also. Set yourself up perhaps and call their name.
That instant that they connect with whoever shouted their name will be one of the most genuine moments you’re likely to capture as your subject stared right down the lens.
4. Approaching Tele (60 – 70mm)
This focal length I find is still a little less intimate. You’ll find that your distance becomes somewhat less obvious, but you’re still close enough to shoot a portrait. It’s a bit of a grey area, whereby you could perhaps experiment a little more.
Candid photography in this instance can be a bit more impersonal again, but it would still be more appropriate for people that know you’re at least around photographing – wedding photography for example. Not the deepest and profound of examples but there’s still something very wonderful about capturing a genuine smile or laugh from an individual deep n conversation with another or a bride flinging a loving look at her groom during the speeches!
5. The Tele Lens (70mm +)
When firmly in Tele territory you’re able to be a little sneakier. You lose the intimacy and start to gain almost voyeuristic qualities, which can work well for individual projects.
A favourite artist of mine, Dryden Goodwin, spend some time documenting lone travellers on night buses across London using a Tele lens. From a safe distance, he was able to zoom in, filling the frame with condensation and tone and in the midst of it a subject staring off into space, alone with their thoughts. Beautiful candid work that still haunts me to this day.
So there you have it! I hope I’ve managed to shed a little light on the subject across a range of different genres and lenses. Enough at least to have you considering your favourites.
Candid photography is one of my favourite ways to shoot because people are truly fascinating creatures.
You’ll find that in any environment or any scenario a person or group of people can lose themselves either to the imagination, a daydream or even the anecdote of another.
So best of luck for the next couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing all your submission.
