Street Photography: 7 Important Camera Settings

Photography Tips  •  Street Photography

Your camera settings often determine how well you are able to capture any given moment. When it comes to street photography, that single moment is everything. Naturally, then, anyone looking to improve their street photography might wonder about what camera settings to use. Thankfully, we have the right video for you: photographer Lukasz Palka from Eyexplore shares his seven favorite settings for street photography, specifically using the Nikon Z6 camera.

We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to remain alert and ready when you’re out shooting on the street. There can be moments when you blink and you miss the photo opportunity. So it’s a good idea to set up your camera in a way that readies it to shoot and deliver results every time, without fail. Some of the tips Palka shares center around this idea.

Palka talks about the back-button focus technique and how you can use it to pre-focus somewhere you know you’ll be shooting, so you don’t waste time trying to lock focus in the moment. On the other hand, if your subject is moving and you want your camera to be continuously tracking the subject’s movement and maintaining focus, Palka shows you exactly how to accomplish this in your camera settings as well.

While using your camera in manual mode is a good thing, remember that it can slow you down. This is where semi-auto modes, such as like aperture priority, can help you out a lot. If you want to have some level of control in the aperture priority mode as well, you can limit the range of the highest ISO and the slowest shutter speed. This comes in handy and increases your efficiency.

Then there are other aspects such as metering, shooting in RAW and picture profiles, which Palka talks about in the video and can help you a lot in street photography. They have mostly to do with the exposure and color details, and provide better versatility when it comes to post-processing your images.

What is your favorite street photography setting? Let us know in the comments.