Smartphones these days – especially flagship models – are great for a wide variety of different genres. The quality is easily good enough for subjects such as landscapes, portraits and even macro. However, with street photography, perhaps the key benefit to using your smartphone is its discreet nature. With so many people out and about using smartphones, you’re unlikely to stand out while using yours.
This allows you to capture natural moments and be undisturbed by those who may otherwise notice you – that’s not to say you shouldn’t pay attention to ethics even if you are using your smartphone (see our feature on page 36), but it certainly helps in documenting the unfolding action in front of you without influencing the outcome.
Most modern smartphones employ a number of different lenses. Flagship models usually include three or four. This means you can choose to include a lot of the scene, or isolate certain sections or characters. You can even shoot ultrawide if you want quite a different approach. Most smartphones usually also have a variety of shooting modes, including things like black & white which have classic applications for street photography.
Several of the smartphones that are now on the market allow you to take greater control of settings – for example, choosing shutter speeds or adjusting exposure compensation. This gives you a good degree of creative control to adjust the look of your street photos – with perhaps some stylistic choices being quite easy and quick to create in camera (for example, emphasing bold shadows). You will also find plenty of editing options available in most smartphones, which range from quite extensive adjustments to simply adding a quick filter for a specific effect.
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