Shooting in black and white using natural light.. The natural light can make any portrait posed or a street portrait look very flattering and attractive. Natural daytime light can produce high contrast light with compelling black areas in the portrait. Black and White portraits don't just mean taking away the colour, I am finding that in order to produce a beautiful image you have to play around with the camera settings and experiment with shutter speeds and apertures. Being able to predict how the lighting affects the image is something that I am still learning. When I first went out on the streets taking photos I would never have stopped someone in the street that was wearing a cool outfit or who I thought would make a stunning portrait shot. Having now gone to a lot of photography meet ups in different cities I have learnt that actually people really don't mind if you ask, and if they do not want their picture taken all they have to do is say no. I always offer to send them the image and share previous pictures with them. people are not scary and often it give someone a real confidence boost. The picture on this post was taken in the Southbank area of London, the guy is a street performer who saw me with my camera and posed for the shot, it was very much a case of being in the right place at the right time with good natural light. I shot this on my Canon 5d Mark1V with my Samyang 85mm lens in monochrome. I love how the subject stands out from the background and the whole focus is on the subject with a blurred out background. This is one of my favourite street photos to date.
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