rules of street photography

I had an interesting chat with a friend about photography this afternoon.

We spoke about why I chose to focus on street photography, the workshop that I am planning to do and the philosophy behind both these topics.

Then we discuss at great length about photography rules. And I resolve that there is only one rule in street photography:

THERE ARE NO RULES IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Here are my reasoning:

Full frame, crop or rangefinder? 
Most younger generation photographers use full frame or crop sensor SLRs. Some of the more redefined or retro fans prefer rangefinders. But seriously, how many of us can afford a USD9,000 (RM28,000) Leica M?

Film or digital?
This is a bit tricky. I shoot mainly digital nowadays but I started out with films and I still shoot films. The only advantage between shooting digital and film is cost. The advent of digital cameras has turned the film market into something akin of a vintage car status. Films cost 3 times more expensive than they used to and only a handful studios still process them, so they dictate the prices.

Wide or telephoto?
While more experienced street photographers prefer the former, some equally good ones prefer the latter. Whichever your preference is, bear in mind there is a difference if you are using full frame vs crop sensor. Eg. if you are using a 50mm lens on a full frame sensor, you get 50mm. If you use the same lens on a 1.6 crop sensor body, you'll get 80mm equivalent on 35mm film.

High ISO or low ISO?
I toggle my ISO between 400 and 800 and I won't hesitate bumping it up to 1600. Why? Well I don't mind a bit of noise (and a bit of grain and some blurriness) in my pictures.

Aperture? Shutter speed?
If you are going for details, go with F/11 or F/16 although it can get a little tricky if you are shooting at night. I usually go with F/5.6 or sometimes a little wider.

Shutter speed-wise, well use Aperture Priority and let the camera decide the shutter speed for you. Personally I love to demonstrate the action so I usually set mine to 1/30. I tend to like some aspect of blurriness. Because life is not always as clear. You may see clearer amidst blurred scenes. I have, many a times.  

White balance?
I tend to prefer a little overcast, "cloudy" like settings.

So there you go. On the gear and technical requirements, there isn't any hard or fast rules. It is really, a matter of preference.

I'll share a bit on how to put these no-rules rules into practice next. Yes, I know I still owe you the post on camera bags :p

Before signing off this post, I'd like to share some update on the workshop. I'm glad that the idea is gaining traction and I have 2 other friends who have expressed interest in joining me. Both passionate about sharing knowledge and equally dumb :) as I am since they both agreed that our objective is not to make money!

Hopefully whatever we are planning here materialises. So please watch this space for more info. 

Thanks for reading!