P#9 Q2A: How Do I Approach Taking Candid Portraits of Strangers?

Candid Portraits: Treading Where Other Photographers Fear To Go

Brenda Tharp: Whenever we travel, we want to capture the uniqueness of the faces of the people.

The problem is that a lot of us are afraid to approach someone we don't know. We think, "I don't speak the language. They might think I'm intruding if they see me taking a photograph of them."

There are a couple of ways to go about getting shots of strangers. The best way to break it down is to talk about candid portraits first. Candid portraits are taken when the person being photographed is unaware of your being there, for the most part.

Sometimes you get candid moments where people are aware that you're there but they don't really care so they're unaffected by the camera. The candids that we take when we're traveling are slices of life, a picture of a moment in time when two people are talking or there's an exchange. Something is happening, and we want to capture it with our camera.

You have to become an expert at observation when taking candids. When you're wandering around with your camera, you need to be watching everything that's going on. You learn to anticipate moments because the candid moment is really the key, and you need to be able to anticipate when it's going to happen.

That's what candids are all about. Some gesture, some expression, something that suggests and tells a story about what was happening at that point in time.

You also then have to have the courage to point your lens at a stranger.

How to Get Up the Courage to Take Candid Portraits

One of the ways to get that courage is to practice at home. I tell people all the time, "If you're planning to photograph the cheese festival in Holland, get ready for it by photographing a local festival in your own hometown or nearby town."

You could go to the parks and photograph people there. Go to the farmer's market. These are great places to practice capturing candid moments. Not only seeing them, but also being ready with your camera, your focus, your aperture, and all the things that you need to make the picture work.

Audri Lanford: You're exactly right. People are scared. It does take courage to point your camera.

Brenda Tharp: It really does. Yet, a lot of the issue comes down to how we feel about being photographed, or how we think the subject might feel.

We tend to project. Believe me, I can say this only because I've been there.

When I first started doing travel photography, I felt exactly this way. "Oh, my gosh! What if they catch me pointing the lens at them? I don't speak Russian or Greek. How am I going to ask them if I can make a photograph if I wanted one?"

I tried mostly just candids first. I tried to sneak the photograph. People were always saying it's not right to sneak. In truth, perhaps sneaking isn't a bad thing. You really can't get a natural moment if everybody is totally aware of you. They will be someone affected by your presence.

It's best to become a fly on the wall, observe, and stay in one spot long enough so that they kind of ignore you after a while. Then things start happening in front of you. You get more comfortable with getting what many people call "sneak photographs."

Conclusion

Photographing the locals in the places you travel is not about poses and smiles -- it's about real-life candid moments that aren't planned out. While many photographers are afraid to "sneak" photos of their subjects, Brenda Tharp knows that candid portraits are the best way to capture the essence of a culture.