5 Street Photography Mistakes You Need to Avoid

Reading time: 6 minutes

We’ve all picked up bad habits along the way when it comes to street photography and sometimes we don’t realise that we’re making mistakes that are really stopping us from progressing and reaching our full potential. But luckily just being aware of some of the bad habits we have can drastically improve our street photography quickly, so in this article I’m going to share some big mistakes that might be holding your street photography back and how to fix them.

1. Cliché Photos

So the first mistake is cliché photos. For example in street photography a cliché photo might be: a lone figure walking past a snazzy background, a silhouette shot, a photo of someone homeless, street performers, someone behind a rainy pain of glass, someone with an umbrella, a couple kissing - there are so many street photography clichés.

Now cliché photos are cliché for a reason because they are popular, look nice and people like them. So what’s wrong with that? Well nothing for sure especially if your a beginner, in fact if you’re a beginner I encourage you to take cliché photos as this is such a good way to figure out what you’re interested in to then improve over time. But down the line don’t you want to make work that resinates with your soul and not just follow trends or fall back on over-used tricks?

As you progress and become more of a serious street photographer then cliché photos are fine to make too (I capture cliché photos all the time) but just don’t be lazy, try and do it well, lots of people love those kinds of shots because they look great, very aesthetic, so if you’re going to shoot a cliché shot of someone walking past a wall for example, then think about how you can elevate it to make it more engaging. Find a really eye-catching wall, wait for the exact right subject, try to include a gesture or a moment or humour or fill the frame and then your cliché photos will likely become more original with time and practice.

2. Not Enough Patience

Patience. That’s something not all of us street photographers have a lot of. Some will be happy to find a spot and wait hours for the perfect interaction, for example Jeremy Paige aka Eaten by Flowers, has enviable patience creating insanely good street photography by making sure he’s in the right place at the right time. Others, like me, only have the patience to wait around for a little bit. But patience is such an important skill to have as a street photographer and a lot of us don’t make time to improve it, which is a mistake.

I don’t just mean the patience to wait in a location for a shot, I mean the patience to go out regularly even when not getting results, the patience and perseverance to keep going even when you miss that magic picture and the optimism to know that you will start getting better work with time.

So try this, next time you feel your patience fading on the street, play games with yourself, say to yourself, ‘I’m just going to keep going until I make it to that lamppost or that street’, then when you get there, set another distance goal. When you don’t feel like going out, go out anyway but just for 20 minutes and build up the time spent out as you progress. Better still, try and take your camera with you everywhere, you never know when you might come across an amazing scene. Ultimately you can’t make street photos and get better at street photography unless you’re out on the street as much as possible.

3. Hesitation

In my opinion the greatest enemy to a wonderful street photograph is hesitation. Things happen so fast on the street that hesitating even for a split second can mean you’ve missed the shot and the moment is lost forever - that can be devastating as a street photographer. The amount of times I’ve hesitated and missed that magical photo is way bigger than I’d want it to be, but it’s natural, street photography is really hard to do well and it can be intimidating so sometimes we hesitate.

How then can we make sure that we hesitate less when a moment presents itself to us? Well, confidence helps and that can only be gained by building it over time and experience shooting on the street. I promise the more you do street photography the more confident you get and the less you hesitate in those moments.

Having a reason in your mind already as to what you are doing should anyone ask you, or having a few samples of your work handy, can be a great way to overcome hesitation. Then you know that if you shoot the shot without hesitating and someone has a problem with it you can explain clearly why you’re there, what you’re doing and this is sure to defuse a situation if someone is annoyed at having their photo taken in public. Remember there is a long and celebrated history of street photography. You’re documenting life too and that is so important.

To get the best street photos it’s best to take the picture first and ask for forgiveness later, if you hesitate, you’re going to miss that award winning shot.

4. Repeating the Same Idea Over and Over

It can be quite easy to fall into the trap where we look for the same sort of scenes and images each time we go out. For example we might enjoy photographing silhouettes, or small figures in an expansive environment to show scale, but after a while all our images might start to look a bit samey.

If you want to stick to one idea and find different variations of it then there is absolutely nothing wrong with that and it can be great for building confidence as a beginner, but I think it can be a mistake to replicate the same idea over and over in our work and leave it at that without at least exploring different ways of shooting.

I’m a big advocate for experimenting in street photography, try shooting wide, try shooting more narrow, try abstraction, layering, filling the frame. Basically what I’m saying here is experimentation can really go a long way to upping your street photography game, it definitely has for me. So if you find that you’ve taken a lot of similar shots recently, try changing it up. You never know how that might take your work in new and exciting directions.

5. Not Going Out in all Weathers and at Night

Now this one is a mistake I made for ages. I just didn’t go out to shoot on days when the weather wasn’t great. If you don’t go out for street photography when it’s raining, or cold, or grey or even at night you’re missing out on valuable street photography time so this is a big mistake.

If you only go out on sunny days then all of your portfolio will be of sunny day pictures, you’re not really documenting life if you’re only focusing on one type of weather.

Shooting in all conditions will add diversification to your work, for example in the rain or cold you have foggy windows and umbrellas to work with, in midday sun you have harsh shadows, and on grey flat days you can look for abstraction and framing.

Photographing at night can add a whole new dimension to your portfolio but it can be tricky to get the hang of, so check out this article next for my number one tip for amazing photographs at night.