Street Photography Quick Tip 4 – Shoot out of a moving car or bus
On the heels of my latest Instant Inspiration here is a new Street Photography Quick Tip. Street Photography isn’t limited to shooting while walking on the streets. You can do it as well shooting out of a moving car or bus, as you can see from my photograph “Sleeping Mr. Price” above, that I took in Tanzania through the window of a fast driving Land Cruiser.
Interesting street scenes are everywhere. Just make sure you set the camera to a fast exposure time (I suggest at least 1/1000 sec) to make sure the photo you take is still sharp, despite the moving car you are sitting in. This technique comes in handy when traveling in groups, where you can’t avoid being caught in buses and cars for hours and where the driver won’t stop just because you saw a nice street scene you wanted to capture. It helps if you use a fast prime or zoom lens so you can use very short exposure times without having to increase the ISO too much. Switch your camera to manual focussing and pre-focus your camera to infinity so you don’t waste any time focusing while doing “drive-by-shooting”, set an aperture that ensures everything is sharp from 10 feet out and then just press the shutter.
This photo was taken with my OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 12-40mm F2.8 Pro Lens with 1/2000 sec @ f/3.2 and ISO 200. Focal length was 36mm (equivalent to 72mm full frame with the m4/3 crop factor of 2). I did some cropping and straightening in Lightroom.
Take your cam and practice. And have fun!
Marcus
Related Posts:
Street Photography Quick Tip (1)
Street Photography Quick Tip (2)
Street Photography Quick Tip (3)
yup love the tip too. also, nice contrast on the photo you posted!
Thanks, Kevin, so much appreciated! Marcus
Reblogged this on From 1 Blogger 2 Another.
Thanks so much, reblog is highly appreciated! Marcus
Marcus you are so very welcome. I admire your work and am happy to share it!
Awesome tips! I love street photography and this photo is so vibrant and alive. Will come back for more.
Thanks so much for this great feedback! It is really appreciated! Marcus
Superb as always and nothing but the best.
Thank so much! This means a lot!
Great post! It doesn’t only apply to street photography, but also to nature photography.
It’s too bad I’m the one who is driving most of the time. Will need to force my wife to get behind the steering wheel. 😉 Oh, and I will have to clean the windows!
😂! Thanks so much for your visit and comment, highly appreciated 🙏😊!
great photo, Marcus, and thanks for sharing this awesome tip!! I should try practice this… when you say set to infinity, you mean you shoot in manual mode?
Hi Alexandra, thanks so much for you great comment. And of course you are right, I mean shoot with manual focus mode and focus set to infinity. Will correct this in the post – thanks for pointing it out! Marcus
I have never ever used manual focus (blush) and have been wondering on what occasions do I use the infinity focusing… so your tip was very very helpful and interesting, Marcus, thanks once again… 🙂
😊🙏👍
Great photo Marcus! Very colorful too! I think the lady in the middle might be looking at the camera- maybe. 😉 Thanks for sharing this!
Thanks so much for your beautiful comment! I think we were too fast as that she really noticed me 😉
Wow…you’re good. Can’t even tell you were moving at all…. Oh and….HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! ❤🎈👀🎁
Thanks for the compliment 😊🙏! And thanks for the Birthday wishes ❤️! Heading for the party now 😀
Great tips! Your excellent photo reflects them.
Thanks so much for your kind comment!
I love street photography, but finding it hard because I cannot control moving objects such as large vehicles, someone pulling a silly face or people walking past right in front of me. I shoot a lot in the street but pictures I want to keep remain rare. I now started to use continuous mode to ensure I get lots of fast shots from every single scene, but still… please keep the advice coming, it`ll be much appreciated…
Thanks for your great comment 🙂 ! You’re so right about shooting in continuous mode, which significantly increases the success rate. Will need to do a post about that and “working the scene”, meaning to not take only one shot.
Marcus, that is a great advice. I never took pictures from buses:) I know some street photographers go to nearby cafe on a busy street, sit at the table watching life passing by and take interesting pictures through the windows.
I like this image so much!
Thanks, like your comment so much 🙂
Agree; we were also in Tanzania last year and on the road up to the Serengeti I took a lot of photos from the 4×4. It was a Sunday so many of the locals were in their ‘best’ and carrying their bibles on the way to church. The advantage of a digital is that you can fire away and if it doesn’t work you can delete. Nothing worse than getting back and thinking “I wish I’d tried that shot’.
Thanks – great comment!
That’s a great tip, Marcus. I tend to take pictures from moving cars and buses quite a lot so this will help now with fast exposure time.
Thanks so much for your kind comment! Highly appreciated!Marcus