This summer, I experimented with some street photography of passersby in the beautiful city of Bordeaux. I was looking for interesting backdrops that were lit by slices of light from the early evening sun. These slices of sunlight were shaped by the spaces between buildings and were actually quite hard to find, especially in combination with a compelling background. Moreover, capturing an interesting subject walking right into the light was a bit of a hit-and-miss exercise. It could easily take ten minutes before someone walked in and I was able to release the shutter at the right moment (for some reason, I did not use the burst mode of my camera, which definitely would have been a good idea). Indeed, I missed many opportunities because I became impatient, started looking around at the wrong moments, got distracted by other people passing by, or got concerned about my camera settings.
I am aware that this slice-of-light approach is a bit of an overused technique in street photography, inspired by popular photographers on the web, like Sean Tucker, but it’s just great fun when you get the hang of it. Here are three of my favorite shots.
Three of my favorites. I especially like the first shot, which was perfectly timed: the guy was trying to find his way and just noticed the name of the street on a sign. All shots were taken with the Fuji X-Pro3 and Fujinon XF35mm F2 lens. Obviously, I exposed for the highlights, using medium-sized apertures (F5.6 to F8) for an optimal depth of field, which also enabled a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the subject.
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