What are some common ISO, aperture, and shutter speed settings for street photography?

Question

I recently purchased a Panasonic GF1 with the 20mm pancake lens. It's by far the nicest camera I've ever owned and I'm really excited to learn the basics of digital photography (primarily street photography) with it. It comes with all sorts of "scene" modes (which I guess are just preset iso, aperture, shutter speed values... is that right or is that totally oversimplifying things?). It also has the ability to define 2 custom modes... so, while I'm having fun experimenting with various combinations of these settings I'm finding it to be kind of overwhelming. There are so many different combinations of iso, aperture, and shutter speed that can be set I'm wondering if there are some good "base" values to start with? I think I'd like to setup one of the settings to work in b&w and the other to work in color, but am open to any and all suggestions.

Answer 1

Your tripod of settings, iso, shutter, and aperture, all work together to create an exposure. That level can change every second, based on whether a car is driving by, a street light is flickering, the moon goes behind a cloud, your subject puts on a hat, etc.

Heres my oversimplified two step approach:

• Learn how each of the three legs affect a picture other than in terms of light adjustment
• Set your camera to automatic, see what it records, switch it to manual, renter those exact settings, then play around.

Answer 2

Most street photographers will insist, loudly, that the technique and equipment are very much secondary to the vision and the results. They're quite correct, and it's important not to obsess.

That said, from a very basic standpoint, there are some pretty simple constraints to most street work:

1. People are probably moving.
2. You don't have time for extra-careful focus.
3. It's outdoors, but you have to deal with shade and shadow.

Movement means you want a slightly higher shutter speed. Not having time to focus would imply a higher f-number to increase depth of field. Take both of those together, and combined with the variation in light and shade in the city, and you'll want to raise the ISO, at least a little. Tri-X 400 was the photojournalist film of choice (though sometimes downrated to ~250).

This is a very typical 'photojournalist' type of setup, with nothing particularly special about it. And there are always reasons to vary your approach, like this great long-exposure shot by Trent Parke:

And very much worth reading is his commentary on how he got the image, reproduced on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/onthestreet/discuss/72157617875097800/

Answer 3

There is no common setting that produces a good exposure. You need to practice, experiment and make sure you understand how these settings work together. Some general guidelines I've come across in the past might help you on your way:

• Photojournalists have a saying, "f/8 and be there", meaning that being on the scene is more important than worrying about technical details. (from Wikipedia)
• The Sunny 16 Rule might help with exposure levels, but it doesn't suggest an appropriate depth of field

Answer 4

A suggestion - nothing more

ISO

The lower your ISO, the less digital noise you will have. Although modern cameras are improving noise very quickly, I suggest that you start by setting the lowest ISO you have.

Shutter

To start out with, you probably don't want any motion blur in your photos, so set the shutter speed at faster than, say 1/50 of a second. (The rule of thumb is to have the shutter going at least as fast as the length of the lens, so at least 1/50 of a second for a 50mm lens, at least 1/100 of a second for a 100mm lens, etc.)

Apperture

This leaves apperture - leave apperture on automatic so that you can get the correct exposure having set the ISO and shutter speeds.

Try it out and see how it works for you - then have fun changing things.
When changing settings, it is often best to choose one setting and change that, rather than making lots of alterations at once.

Answer 5

My own setting

With my GF1, I set up the 2 custom modes : on C1, my "back to Leica" setting :

• Dynamic B&W
• 400 ISO
• Manual focus
• Aperture priority; I Usually set it à 8 or 11 for street shooting

on C2, my "shoot without thinking" setup :

• basically, everything AUTO, in RAW.

Answer 6

These are the setting that I generally find work best for me. I use a 35mm film camera, but should be the same for digital. Shadow characteristics. St. photography ISO Set shutter speed to match ISO f/16 Sunny: Distinct with sharp edges. f/11 Slightly cloudy: Soft around edges. f/8 Overcast: Barely visible shadows. f/5.6 Heavy overcast: No shadows. f/4 Open shade: sunrise/set no shadows.