How to do high-contrast street photography

I'm often asked how I go about taking my high-contrast street pictures and what my method is as regards light, camera settings, exposure and post-processing etc. Well, I've made a number of videos around the subject in which I've looked at my system and there are a masses of tips and information in my book Fine Art Street Photography, which is available here.

In this article I’m going to look closely at some specific pictures and analyse them in some detail and I'll explain how and why they were taken. Hopefully, you'll learn something from each image to help you in your own urban photography.

I've not been as active so far this year as I normally would be with my street photography. The light's not been great, we don't seem to be having a summer this year in the UK. And, I've been doing quite a bit of fashion photography and video, both in the studio and on the streets, which I've really enjoyed.

I'll be making a video about it soon and looking at how we can do things like fashion and street portraits in the urban environment using the available light. So make sure you subscribe to the channel and you can look out for that one. I have a number of new videos coming down the pipeline looking at some of the more fascinating aspects of street photography and how we can use the streets to produce more unusual and striking images.

I did have a week away in May of this year and I travelled to Porto in northern Portugal. It was my first visit there and I discovered it to be a wonderfully bustling city with steep hills, narrow streets and, at least
for the week I was there, beautiful light.

It was the perfect setting for some high-contrast photography and I spent some quality time exploring it. On the right, is a picture taken at around 4pm one afternoon just as the light was starting to soften and
the shadows were beginning to lengthen and thicken.

This is the sort of scene that I go looking for at this time of day, down a back street, away from the bustle of the busier streets. I will always head for the quieter places, often the light is more interesting and you're guaranteed more shadow to work with.

Turning the corner into this particular street, I was quite taken with the big, dark shadow area on the building on the left and in particular the
cross shape being cast at the top. This was being cast by a cross on the roof of the church opposite and it triggered my imagination.

Once I see something I like in a scene, I then start to think about how I’m going to best capture it. What is the most advantageous position and how am I going to frame it so that I can maximise the composition?

When composing for this sort of image it's important to look right into the very edges of the frame, to make sure you are including everything you want and are eliminating anything that you don't want.

For me, the cross shape was an interesting detail that should became a focal point. This is the sort of thing that can add that little bit extra to an image, lifting it and perhaps helping to create a story. It's in these details that street photography comes into its own.

To experience the rest of this article please watch my video on youtube

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