The Human condition #2: Candid photography

Concept and planning

Candid portrait photography is about taking informal pictures of people, often without their knowledge. This allows the photographer to capture life as it is, warts and all. It focuses on spontaneity rather than technique.

It is best described as “un-posed and unplanned, immediate and unobtrusive.....Candid photography's setup includes a photographer who is there with the "subjects" to be photographed... The events documented are often private, they involve people in close relation to something they do, or they involve people's relation to each other”. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candid_photography)

One of the great candid photographers was Weegee:

Henri Cartier-Bresson defined the instant at which the shutter should be pressed as the “Decisive Moment”

The decisive moment is what the candid photographer should be trying to capture.  Alfred Eisenstaedt certainly achieved it in his famous picture taken on VJ day in Times Square:

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whilst Robert Doisneau was found to have 'cheated' in using two models to create this classic candid shot of young lovers in Paris:

Many contemporary photographers carry on the tradition of candid street photography. The images below are examples of work by Jesse Marlow (http://www.jessemarlow.com/about/) :

 

Whilst there are many examples of candid photography by great photographers, I didn’t approach this assignment with any preconceived ideas about who or what I was going to take pictures of. The aim was to take images in a variety of settings, light and weather conditions. There was no real advance planning – I just looked for opportunities when I was out and about to take the camera with me and see what I could get.

I used one of two cameras; a Canon EOS 50D with an 18-200mm lens (so I could stay further away and use the zoom) or a compact Ricoh Capilo R2 (which was small and unobtrusive). Details of the cameras and lenses used are given by selected images below.

Outcomes

1) The Great British Picnic
I took this series of pictures on Barbecue Day at Cartmel Races before I started this course.  I recently came across these images from his series We English by Simon Roberts in Ag Magazine –

- and they immediately put me in mind of the pictures I had taken at Cartmel so I decided to include my pictures here. They were taken on a day when it was largely overcast, so the light was a bit flat.  I used the Canon 50D which I had just bought and so was using on fully automatic setting.

A selection of images from the day are included on these contact sheets:

These are some of the selected images from the above sheets – showing the Great British picnic in all its eccentric glory  The first version of each is my original. 

Canon 50D 120mm 1/250 f/6.3 ISO400

(Post production editing = exposure reduced and colour saturation increased)

Canon 50D 170mm 1/250 f/6.3 ISO400

(Post production editing = exposure reduced and colour saturation increased)

Canon 50D 60mm 1/100 f/5.0 ISO160

(Post production editing = exposure reduced and colour saturation increased).

Andy Farrinton suggested they would be more effective if cropped more closely, so here are cropped versions:

I think some of Martin Parr’s (http://www.martinparr.com/) work also fits in neatly here, not that I'm suggesting my work is like Martin Parr's, but his images from This is England also show the English at play...

2) Parbold Hill
In January I went to Parbold Hill to take some snowy landscape pictures in the Fairy Glen. 

This father and son had the hill to themselves and were having a really fun time, so I took a few snaps of them as well:

 The above images were all taken with a Canon 50D at 200mm 1/320 f/5.6 ISO200.

3) Banff, Alberta
I was on holiday here in February and thought it was a good opportunity to try some candid photography. I still feel self-conscious about taking photographs of people without their knowledge and find it easier in a holiday environment where lots of people are taking photographs, so you don’t stand out.  Pictures were taken indoors and outdoors on different days, so I was dealing with different light conditions.

Here is a contact sheet with a selection of images:

The selected images below illustrate some of the difficulties in candid photography.  For example, people turn away just as you photograph them -

or you suffer camera shake caused by either trying to photograph quickly or by using a slow shutter speed trying to photograph in low light without a flash

The images below were more successful:

Canon 50D 200mm 1/400 f/5.6 ISO100

(Post production editing = some cropping and, as the image was taken into the sun, the use of some fill light was needed)

Canon 50D 200mm 1/250 f/5.6 ISO100

(Post production editing = some cropping and a slight adjustment to the exposure to reduce black clipping)

Canon 50D 200mm 1/100 f/11 ISO 200

(Post production editing - cropping)

Ricoh Capilo R2 18.6mm 1/90 f/4.6 ISO 400

(Post production editing = cropping and, as the photograph was taken indoors without a flash, the exposure was increased and some fill light added).

I also took some action shots at the terrain park - I am not sure that these really class as portrait shots but I have included them because they do capture the decisive moment. (See also contact sheet under 4) below).

Canon 50D 200mm 1/1000 f/7.1 ISO 100

(Post production editing = cropping and adjusting the exposure and colour saturation to compensate for the fact that this was shot into bright sunlight)

Canon 50D 110mm 1/1000 f/5.6 ISO100

(Post production editing = cropping)

Canon 50D 110mm 1/1000 f/5.6 ISO100

(Post production editing = cropping and adjusting the exposure and colour saturation to compensate for the fact that this was shot into bright sunlight)

4) Focus on Imaging, Birmingham

On 7 March I visited the Focus on Imaging event at the NEC in Birmingham and took some candid shots using my compact camera. This was an indoor event where lots of people were wandering around with cameras so it was quite easy to take pictures and if people realised they didn’t seem to mind. A selection of the photos I took are included on the contact sheet below:

Here are some of what I thought would be the best shots but some of which are out of focus, again due to camera shake on slow shutter speeds as I didn't want to use flash:

and some more successful images

I think the above three images have good composition due to the backgrounds they were shot against which give them a strong narrative.

5) Blackburn Town centre
On Monday 8 March a group of us - Emma, Mark, Colin, Kat and me - decided to take a walk round Blackburn town centre to take some candid portraits. I felt more self-conscious and found this more difficult than at the events above because we stood out much more.  I think we were all concerned about people objecting to us taking their photographs without permission but the fact that there were 5 of us and we could support each other if we were confronted made us all feel more confident. I also used my 18-200mm lens to allow me to zoom in from a distance (unlike Mark who has the bottle to stand right in front of people and take their picture).  It was a very bright day and in the sun the light was very harsh but there were also lots of areas of shadow.  This meant having to constantly and quickly change camera settings to try to get the exposure right for different shots.  I again found that some of my images came out blurred – this time due to rushing in an attempt to take the picture without the subject noticing. For example, this wider angle shot looks okay but when I tried to zoom in on the lady on the bench I panicked and ended up with a totally out of focus result:

It was clear when taking some shots that the subject had observed me and didn’t mind having their picture taken. At other times the subject just didn’t notice me.  So one thing I have learnt and need to put into practice is that you can afford to take a little more time in order to get a better quality picture.  A selection of images is included on the contact sheet under 4) above and here are some of my favourites:

50mm 1/8 f/16.0 ISO 200

Post production editing = exposure reduced and fill light used as the person was largely in shadow.

200mm 1/60 f/9.0 ISO 200

Both the images above have been cropped.  I tried cropping the last one down further, just to show the two men on the bench

 

but didn't feel this worked as well as the version above.  It looks better with the wider context and also, in the second version, it looks odd with the cropped person in the background.  The first image only just works though - the tree almost growing out of the man's head is not good compositionally! and something I need to observe and take more care over.

110mm 1/60 f/9.0 ISO200

This is my favourite of these three images as it is more dynamic, although the first one perhaps has more narrative.

I also tried converting these images to black and white as that is more my style:

Overall I am most pleased with the photographs I took at Cartmel as, although they may not be technically accomplished, they have a clear theme.  When I saw the various families and groups having their picnics I knew what story I wanted to capture and the fact that they speak about human nature and British eccentricity.  Whilst I am pleased with some of the other images individually, I am most satisfied with the concept of the Cartmel images.