Candid photography: tips for taking people shots with an SLR or point-and-shoot camera

A Candid Approach to Photographing People
Eight ways to take more natural portraits
(adapted from Travel & Leisure and Reader's Digest)

By Robert Winkler
About the Author

andid photography is photography stripped to the essentials. Rooted in the snapshot, candid photographs are simple and immediate. They require minimal equipment and a willingness to let technique play second fiddle to spontaneity.

The best candid photography shows the medium in its purest terms: an instant of poignant life snatched from oblivion by that magical machine, the camera. No other visual art can lay claim to the reality, the moment in time, the pleasant surprise of a candid photograph. You may catch a person in an awkward position; an unaccustomed slice of life may lie between your frame lines—but this is what it is all about.

Practically speaking, candid photography is fun and comparatively easy. Sometimes it can be demanding, but its challenges are the sort you can relish. You roam the streets and byways a kind of visual gunslinger, your eye sharpened to detect that person whose appearance or behavior or environment (or a combination of all three), compels you to draw and shoot.

Having a camera as a sidearm can make you more adventurous. It can spur you to meet new people, tread unfamiliar physical and emotional territory, embrace human behavior you might otherwise avoid. Take a freewheeling, intuitive approach to picture-taking and you have entered the candid photographer's realm.

On a stroll, you tip the camera up to your eye as you pass a daydreaming policeman. On a park bench, you turn for a quick shot of the old man sitting beside you. At a street fair, you take, unnoticed, a shot of a vendor who deals with another customer after finishing with you. You stop to photograph a girl sitting on a city stoop next to her dog. At pond's edge, a woman leans toward her lover and the wind blows her hair across both their faces. If your aim is true, you have caught it on film.

"On the Banks of the Marne, France" by Henri Cartier-Bresson

You'll experience the full power and dimension of candid photography by studying the work of its masters. Among them are Henri Cartier-Bresson, father of "the decisive moment" and one of photography's most illustrious names. Though perhaps overshadowed by the fame of Cartier-Bresson, André Kertesz was among candid photography's earliest practitioners. Lately the subject of increased attention, his work continues to gain in stature. Renewed interest is also contributing to greater awareness of the work of Jacques-Henri Lartigue, who is known for his photographs of women and of people at leisure, some of the best of which he took as a boy. The photography of Garry Winogrand, a denizen of streets, parks, and parades, stretched the notion of candid photography to include people and events framed unconventionally and captured in attitudes that appear almost accidental.

If candids are photography at its purest and simplest, then the 35-mm camera, compact yet capable of high photographic quality, is the candid image-maker's finest tool. And among 35-mm cameras, the classic candid camera, and the one still preferred by purists, is the rangefinder. Like the more versatile single-lens reflex cameras that eventually supplanted them, rangefinders have interchangeable lenses. Yet they are often smaller, lighter, and quieter than SLRs, distinct advantages when a photographer wants to be inconspicuous. With either a rangefinder or an SLR, a standard 50-mm lens is all you need for most shooting situations. Cartier-Bresson most often used a Leica rangefinder camera with a 50-mm lens.

Today's popular point-and-shoot 35-mm cameras are even smaller and lighter than rangefinders, and they have fully automatic exposure and focusing. At a modest cost, a point-and-shoot will fit into your pocket and do everything except decide when to take the shot. It is arguably the ideal tool for candid photography in all respects but one: the motorized film advance, if especially noisy, can blow a candid photographer's cover.

Whether you choose a rangefinder, an SLR, or a point-and-shoot, you may find that your candid photography improves if you keep these eight shooting tips in mind:

1. Trust your instincts
If a person intrigues you, don't equivocate about taking a shot. When you're pressed for time, it's tempting to tell yourself to come back later, but in candid photography you rarely get second chances.

Once you decide to shoot, be simple and direct. Take the obvious approach first, then try unusual angles. If your photography happens to be going extremely well, don't move on until you've exhausted the possibilities.

2. Blend into the background
The best candid photographers become part of the scenery. This could involve hanging around a place long enough, until others begin not to notice you. It's unlikely that, suddenly arriving on the scene, you can immediately take pictures in which people appear natural and relaxed.

In a public place, do what others are doing, whether it's reading a magazine in a park, watching a ball game, or feeding the squirrels. The object is to fit in. Achieve that, and your photography will be little cause for concern.

"Prometheus and Boy" by Robert Winkler

3. Try to capture a moment
Don't be cheap about film, but don't wildly photograph everything that happens. Be selective. Develop skill in reading other people's behavior. Even if you're in a foreign locale where you don't understand the language, you can often see when a significant action, gesture, or expression is imminent. Wait for it, and when it comes, act.

4. Look for people who are doing things
When people are occupied, especially with work or with activities they enjoy, a photographer can often move among them with effective invisibility. Parents with children, people playing sports, craftspeople at their trade, couples too tied up with each other to notice anything else, waiters and waitresses, shoppers—all are fair game.

Their unguarded, unposed expressions can say more than a formal portrait. If you want them to look toward the camera, make a friendly comment or ask a question. You can also hold the camera up to your eye and wait for the inevitable glance in your direction.

5. Get to know the subject, or just be an observer
If you're a person who makes friends easily, by all means take advantage of your gift. Once you get to know people, they show a side kept hidden from strangers.

Simply establishing rapport with someone can bring down the defenses that get in the way of a good candid shot. After talking to a shopkeeper about his wares, you may find him a more relaxed and willing subject.

There is just as strong an argument, however, for being a dispassionate observer. Some of the best candid photographers record only what they find; what is there before they arrive and after they leave.

They try not to let reactions to the photographer creep into their pictures, and they don't impose themselves on the subject. This more objective approach might better convey realism. Of course, nothing prevents you from being friendly in one situation, dispassionate in another.

6. Don't press your luck
Although you may have every right to photograph whomever you wish in a public place, if someone objects it's only prudent to stop. There's also little point in trying to make extroverts of people who claim to be camera shy. With all their protestations and avoidance maneuvers, they invariably come off looking bad.

You usually don't have to ask for permission to take a picture, but it may be advised if you think your subject perceives the camera as an intrusion. People can seem to be looking daggers at a photographer, but when disarmed by an unexpected request for permission, their stern demeanor can dissolve into friendliness.

Many people, perhaps the majority, like to be photographed, and some will even volunteer to pose for you. Don't pass up the opportunity. Willing subjects tend to be the most photogenic.

7. Experiment
Photograph from cars, buses, and boats. As you walk down a street, try shooting without breaking stride. To shoot over a crowd, hold the camera above your head the way press photographers do. Tilt your camera to add drama to a closeup. Turn away from the standard fare of pretty people in pretty situations.

8. Don't be overly concerned with technical perfection
In quick-shooting situations, different standards apply. A good picture may be lurking behind an apparent error. Cosmetic defects—fuzziness, less-than-ideal exposure, awkward composition—can actually be desirable. Such imperfections speak the human, gritty, momentary visual language that sets candid photography apart.

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A message from Robert Winkler

Jeff Brush/Connecticut Post (used with permission)

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