Candid is the new eyecandy
As you might have already noticed, candid styles of photography are becoming immensely popular. Be it general day-to-day photography or professional photography, candid is essentially becoming the eye candy for a lot of people and an inevitable choice for a lot of occasions, these days.
Wait, but why? Let me tell you that candid stills reveal a story and bring about a definite dimension of depth in the photographs. And as everyone's super-crazy (like me :p) about telling their story to the world, candid photography has been a fully blown out ,massively epic trend of the day.So If you too love candid shots and are excited about taking lovely candid pictures, here's how you play your cards right !
1. Take your Camera Everywhere
What can be the best way to click spontaneous photographs of anything and everything on the go? Yes! You guessed that right! The secret behind such marvelous art is to never leave your camera behind! That way, you can be ever- ready to take beautiful candid shots as and when you feel like capturing your moments. Also, I find that my friends and family are more relaxed and natural when I click their photos, as they are accustomed to me. That way, they do not feel like specifically posing for me to celebrate the special moments and the shots are natural.
2. Go for a Long Zoom
If you feel that the subject is getting conscious, then try to get farther and farther from your subject because obviously, the further you are away , the less likely they will be to know that you are photographing them and the more natural and relaxed they’ll act. I would recommend a telephoto lens or a long zoom as it enables you to shoot from outside their personal space, still keeping the feeling of intimacy in the shot you’re taking, intact.
3. Screw the flash
Imagine you are sitting under a tree, painting butterflies and I come up to you with a camera to capture your delicate moment. Awesome, isn't? But then I astonish you with a horrible, horrible thing. I suddenly point a blinding flash of light into your eyes and kill the moment! The photo clicked is obviously not as natural as it could have been. So, If possible (and it’s not always) attempt to photograph without the flash if you’re-aiming for candid shots. When in lower light situations, increase your ISO setting, use a faster lens, open up your aperture or if your camera has a ‘natural light mode’ turn it on. Follow one or more of these combined, and you will soon be clicking beautiful candid shots very effortlessly.
4. Shoot continuous shots
You don’t know what you can discover unless you let yourself go. It's quite similar the case in photography. When you shoot multiple images of a person in intervals of seconds you can sometimes get shots that are so awe-inspiring, shots that you’d have never gotten if you had shot just one. So next time you pick up your camera, switch it to continuous shooting mode and get ready to get bedazzled by a sudden bursts of images that will exponentially increase your chances of landing that perfect candid shot.
5. Strategic positioning is the key
While Candid Photography is all about capturing the spontaneity of a moment, you can capture its essence perfectly only if you strategize it well beforehand. I know, how insane we go about getting that perfect shot at the right split second of time but I find that if you think ahead and anticipate what is about to unfold in front of you, you are definitely doing yourself a favour. And perhaps that is also how you get lucky with amazing shots. So, for example, in a wedding get to the venue early (or even go to the preparations) and think about what will happen during the ceremony and where will be the best for you to stand to capture each moment. Which way will people be facing? What will they be doing? What will the light be like? Thinking through these issues will save you the hassle of having to run around repositioning yourself when you should be shooting images – it’ll also mean you dont end up shooting the back of people’s heads!