Street Photography is an easy access way for a beginner photographer to immediately start practising good photography.
Looking for the best cheap camera for street photography?
The street offers an ever changing range of ideas that keeps you on your feet. You need to focus and think quickly to finish a street photography session with a few good shots to be proud of.
Here’s something about the cameras and lenses that I use to get my shots.
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Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR Camera including many extras
Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR Camera body with lens
Easily affordable entry-level, semi-pro, DLSR Camera
Wi-Fi & NFC
Excellent touch screen that can be angled to suit awkward positions, like when you are doing street photography, and want to stay candid. holding the camera at waist height, looking into your screen, adjusting, clicking, without disturbing anybody’s day.
I don’t use the viewing screen for photography. It’s only a 95% coverage of the image seen, and I’m old school about looking through the viewfinder. If needed, a quick check on the histogram in the info section. I look at the balance of light. Tones of light and darkness is where the game is at.
Canon have been leading the way in the digital revolution on cameras. Starter cameras, travel cameras, and top level professional cameras that you can rely on have been Canon’s strength ever since digital cameras became the go-to object for photographers at all levels.
The Canon T7 750D Rebel is a sweet machine for photographers who want a DSLR, light weight, with something easy to handle and still end up with superb results in their work.
For those people looking for a camera that is intuitive to use, and delivers the results that you’re hoping for, then Canon’s 750D Rebel gives you all that. It’s an excellent choice for a street photographer, or portrait photographer.
The challenge in photography is to get better at what you do. That means owning a camera that has enough sensor power to deliver a noiseless finish, functions well in low light settings, and is robust.
It’s a crop sensor that boasts 24.5 megapixels of quality photography. I’ve never had a complaint about it, and even though I once thought about selling it on, I couldn’t do it. I’d miss this little lightweight too much when I’m out and about doing street photography.
At 5fps in continuous shooting, you are sure to capture your subject in motion. Sure, other cameras have raised the game of a fast selection of photos in one burst of shots, but you might find that’s more useful for fashion photographers. The need to capture a fortuitous moment as the model stretches, turns , and shifts, is captured with series of fast shots from a professional camera.
I use my Canon Rebel, or the 750D Ti, in Europe, for street photography, portraits and still life. The results are always impressive.
Photographers are always on a learning curve. If they stagnate they get bored, and often blame the camera for the lack of creativity. The Canon Rebel allows you to keep learning, keep getting better at taking photos, and keep pushing your creativity to higher strengths.
Intention is your friend. Figure out what floats your boat as a photographer and as a person in everyday life, then photograph it. This will help you form your intentions, your deeper interest in what you are looking at.
ISO is always a friend in low light, or overcast days. If I’m using a 4.5 lens, and I want a close up on the street, and I see my image needs a depth of field, F16 – 22, then I can wind up to ISO 800 without worrying about noise. That normally does the job.
Street photography needs guts, sometimes, you have to get close to get the sweet spot for a good composition, and to ensure a decent quality in the finished shot. Not all lenses perform well at a distance. So cropping down too much can take away the quality.
It’s when you use the canon Rebel with a 50 mm lens, or as I sometimes do, a wide angle for street photography, closeness to the subject is imperative.
I’m always surprised after getting close, taking the shot, then realising that nobody noticed me on the busy city street.
ISO 1600 is about the limit before I have to wrangle with an image that could turn out well compositionally, but might just end up a little noisy. It’s a good rule of thumb to always do your best to get the shot “in camera”. Removing noise in Photoshop works, but at the same time you are increasing the darkness and contrast in your well thought out image. This can lessen the quality of a photo that should have been softer and fluffier with lots of light.
The task is to get an in camera shot that needs little post-processing. The Canon Rebel, 750D, is the tool for the job.
It’s light to carry, and small enough to hold in one hand when necessary. The choice of lens determines the real carrying weight; I have Sigma lenses, and they add a hefty bulk to my camera. But, as I walk about, focussed on what’s going on around me, looking for the nice shadows and those pools of sunlight that offer up great ideas for a shot, I forget all about the relative weight of a Sigma lens.
When I bought my Canon Rebel, it came with the Nifty-Fifty 50 mm Canon lens. It’s a great starter lens if you’re starting out. 50 mm gets you into every situation with an easy idea of how to compose and frame a photo – you’ll get it later, when you buy an 85 mm, or a wide angle lens to experiment with. Things look so different and your whole concept of composition and framing the shot needs an overhaul. That’s fun, and it creates progress in your learning and skills.
I love a new lens, but my wallet doesn’t. So I buy what’s needed. Work with the same lens on the same type of photography for a while, and you’ll get deeper into what’s possible.
It’s all very well to read the technical details of lenses, high tech, with lots of whizz bang features. But at the end of the day quality glass, with auto focus and a stabilizer if possible, is all you need. After that, it’s about how you get to know your lens’ capabilities.
The same goes for cameras.
Comparing cameras so that you can understand which one is best for you, puts you into confusing territory. Canon offers an excellent range of digital cameras that cater for everybody’s needs.
If street photography is your thing; then a lightweight camera that offers the ability to take high quality photos is what you need. I chose the Canon Rebel, after a lot of reading about sensors and how they compare, I feel that I made a good decision. I wasn’t looking for a Professional camera set up at that time. But I have used my Rebel to take professional portraits, and to do headshots. All of the work turned out great, satisfactory, and something to cherish as a photo.
If you want a travel camera to record scenes. Or a camera that will put you into a full professional bracket of technology, then Canon have something to offer. They are reliable, and easy to operate with a lot of quickly learned controls that become second nature when you are thinking on your feet.
I’ve recently turned my eye more towards landscape photography, and urban architectural photography. For me, it’s always about the deeper artistic touch.
I look at the world as if it’s a wonderful stage full of props. I have a Canon 5D mark II. Great camera, full frame, and it turns out photos that have a special finish to them. I am still astonished by the quality. I want to upgrade to a Canon 5D mark IV, but I’m in no hurry. My wallet will stay happy for a while longer.
Here is my Medium page with a thread of similar articles and posts that cover creativity.
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