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Street Photography Tutorial: How Street Photographer Jonathan Higbee Works a Scene

Chris Gampat
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04/19/2017
2 Mins read
Jonathan Higbee The Phoblographer Hasselblad X1D review street photography

Last Updated on 04/20/2017 by Chris Gampat

Recently, we teamed up with photographer Jonathan Higbee for a free, one hour Facebook Live Street Photography Tutorial on how he works a scene when it comes to street photography. During the session, we answered questions live and Jon also talked about the way he specifically works vs what many other photographers do most of the time.

A big thanks to Zeiss for sponsoring this video by loaning us the lenses

You see, Jon does something that he likes to call a Photo Wait in this Street Photography Tutorial. That means finding something really cool in a scene and waiting for people to pass by in order to interact with the scene in some way or another. There are a variety of factors involved such as:

  • Colors
  • Composition
  • Lighting
  • The people who pass by

And a number of others. Jonathan talks about how some scenes are often better than others and why. But after a while, you start to see how Jon really works a few specific scenes and comes home with lots of photos to play with in post.

Here’s the itinerary for this Street Photography Tutorial

1.) Walk around the city for a few minutes “scouting” for my next shot. All while discussing other photographers known for their photo-waiting and the impact it has on their work.

Answer live questions about scouting — what I look for when I’m hunting for my next scene, etc.

2.) At the location, “Working the Scene”

We’ll include things like:

– What I look for once I’ve found a location
⁃ My instinctual and immediate sense of what’s possible, how to “see a scene”, how to build these instincts
⁃ Obtaining the ideal mindset to get what you want
– What I like about my work that’s made in this manner
⁃ It’s all about context, environment and narrative; characters are less prioritized
⁃ Getting a clean image — attention to background and dimension is key
⁃ Technical aspects to getting the shot and working the scene in as flexible a way as possible
⁃ Camera angles — the sky’s the limit and it’s important to play with a variety
⁃ What’s in my bag
⁃ Being as present as possible to remain open to anything and thinking quickly
⁃ Intention is important, vision is important, but be ready to throw it all to the wind when something unimaginable begins to unfold before your eyes
⁃ Dealing with shyness, anxiety and insecurity when it’s obvious I’m photographing strangers
⁃ How do you know if you’ve got the shot?
⁃ What specific details to note for coming back and photographing the same spot again
⁃ Ensuring the shoot and image fits into your body of work or a specific series
– Continue shooting even if you think you already got the shot!

Check out the video at this link.

imagery Jonathan Higbee photo wait Photography Street Photography Tutorial video zeiss
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.