Have you ever tried taking pictures of strangers in public places?

Question

Is it weird or cool? Does it suck?

Why do you come to this conclusion?

Answer 1

It will depend on your goal....you will get varied attitudes I'm sure from sweet old women smiling to street bums wanting to cut your throat so they can pawn your camera for another days existence,and everything in between plus I'm not positive but in our litigious society you might even be a candidate for a jail term for invasion of privacy.....
For safety's sake please don't attempt this without some sort of back up, some people just don't like their picture taken....something about stealing their soul, or some such rubbish.....but, i can see the appeal, people watching is a pastime shared my many people, the element of surprise being a certain amount of the payoff to artistic excellence in your photos it would make signing a waiver impossible until after the act, and what fun is that lol.
I came to this conclusion...mostly in concern for your safety, I truly believe you might be at risk in some situations and with your vision trained on your camera you can't watch out for yourself, I'm just afraid you would be taking alot of risk and rarely attaining what you are shooting for.....sorry.

Answer 2

It's fun trying to take pictures without people noticing. If you do get caught you're usually busted bad but I can usually get away with the fact of the quality of my photos and that I just give the shots that I took OF the people back to them as memorbillia.
Usually you aim for a piece of obvious scenery with the person in it. Like a tree or a building. Then you press the button.
I hardly ever use flash unless I really need to.
I have come to this conclusion as I have made a fair bit of money framing the photos for the people and such but be careful that you don't get careless and just point the camera at people.

Answer 3

No it's not being such a weird or sucking like stuff. it depends on the subject of ur photography if u r taking it 4 a purpose but if u r only clicking as it is ur hobby only,then u can randomly click it from anywhere as u will get lots of stuff for urself as this world is incredible.
So best of luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 4

I like to take pics in public places because it gives scale to the buildings and landscape while it humanizes the same places. I don't take close-ups of people. That requires the individuals permission. I've only been turned down once, most people don't mind.
Most of my photos are taken at a distance, rendering most people unrecognizable. They don't often even notice me. How you take your photos will determine how you feel about others' reactions to your photography.

Answer 5

I think that when you take pictures of people in public areas you should never ask them to pose. When you see something out of the ordinary, take a picture. I think that it's better to take those kind of pictures with black and white film.

Answer 6

I always ask when I can ...and it is fun. Here's a gallery I took in Europe during the World Cup. Lots of strangers who didn't speak the same langauge as me, yet I still managed to engage some of them and take their photos:

http://www.olphoto.net/gallery/1619796

This one was fun...these guys were quite toasted..

http://www.olphoto.net/photos/78876431-L.jpg

Here's another example from a football game:

http://www.olphoto.net/photos/36171681-L.jpg

Just be confident and friendly. People love to have their photos taken (and if they don't and say no - don't be rude).

Answer 7

The best pictures to take are the ones where the subject has no idea that you are taking the picture. I take pictures of random people all the time.

Answer 8

You might feel weird.. lol but if you're in the right spot it will deff not suck... i love doing crazy pictures like that just walk through a crowd of people snapping shots like its nothing...

Answer 9

it cool