Two's Company
But Better for Candids
How many times have you heard the old saying, "Two's company, three's a crowd." It's a bit off-putting if you happen to be that odd one out... but if you're carrying your camera around and have a keen eye for those candid situations there are few better opportunities for good people pictures.
Why? Because people who have the company of each other are going to pay less attention to you and your photo-snap-happy activities even when those activities are focussed on themselves. So-called "candid" photography is about recording ordinary people going about their daily lives and businesses... so it's of prime importance that the pictures should look spontaneous and the subjects should look natural. In a way it could be said that all candids are portraits... but clearly not all portraits are candid. Sometimes candids can be set-up... but to be successful they shouldn't look posed in the final photograph. It doesn't take long to realise after you've tried it a couple of times that the more a candid situation is manipulated to suit the photographer the less candid the subject is likely to look.
Many photographers, not just shy amateurs, don't like pointing their camera at other people... they probably feel awkward when a camera is pointed at them! Don't allow this to become a mental blockage on your part. If you're out and about scouting for candid pictures and you feel nervous... not only will you look nervous but your subject will become nervous as well if they see you. And if your subject becomes self-conscious, startled, or worse, aggressive, you've lost your picture.
But when the subject is a "two-header" their reactions with each other give you some photographic freedom. The essence of candid photography is to see without being seen. By looking at people unnoticed you observe them without their having any hang-ups. Be seen to be looking and their naturalness is irretrievably altered or completely lost.
Modify your Vision
Of course as photographers we have a unique way of looking at and recording what we seen... we use a camera and can modify our vision by changing lenses. For example by using a short-telephoto lens from a distance we can bring the image of a subject into an isolated close-up as I did with the top image using a Nikon F with a 135mm f/2.8 Nikkor from about 5 meters or 16 feet away... I uess they still heard the loud Nikon shutter even in the bust city street!
Some situations may demand longer lenses... the birds-eye view of two men waiting at a bus stop was taken from a church tower using either a 200mm or 280mm Telyt lens on a Leica M4-2... an unwieldy combination that would have attracted everyone's attention, not just the subjects, at ground level!
Conversely with a wide-angle lens both the subject and environment can be captured on film. Whilst candids can be taken from afar with a long lens a powerful sense of intimacy can just as easily be captured at close range with a wide-angle, if you're careful, without the subject being aware of the camera. The two elderly ladies (photo above) were completely engrossed choosing their library books so didn't hear me taking a couple of shots with my Leica M4-P and 35mm f/2 Summicron. Ilford XP-2 chromogenic film enabled me to use a shutter speed of about 1/60th of a second with the fast lens set between f/2.8 and f/4 and although the turning pages of one book are clearly moving the titles of nearly all the books on the shelves can be read on an 8 x 10 inch print.
The tactics of candid photography have to be experienced to be perfected. You can't just go out into the street with your camera, fire away in the general direction of people and expect to come home with an interesting picture on every frame. The old trick of walking around with a pre-focussed TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) at hip level, checked by an occasional downwards glance at the big square viewfinder has been superseded by the use of 35mm and digital compacts... whip it out of your pocket, a quick snap, tuck it away again and carry on walking... all in a couple of seconds.
Compacts can score...
The sophistication of compact auto-focus and the newer digital cameras has made this technique very easy... some AF compacts even have automatic framing built into the zoom controls to give the photographer the facility of instant composition! Built-in autowinders also eliminate the give-away of having just taken a picture... being seen winding on to the next frame. On the other hand their whirring noise can attract the unsuspecting subject's attention... if you want to specialise in candids check the noise levels of various camera models with your dealer first... out on the street.
The primary advantage taking candids with an SLR is "What You See Is What You Get." A quick look through the viewfinder, focus, shoot, and you know exactly what the picture will look like. There's no confusion of multiple bright-lines in the viewfinder, or any parallax or framing error to contend with. The latest AF and digital cameras with auto-tracking make it very easy to take pictures on the move... and that means you as well as the subject being on the move.
However, rangefinder cameras such as the Leica M and the latest reincarnations of Voigtlander from Japan have other advantages for candid work which may outweigh those enjoyed by SLRs. Their bright viewfinder linked to simple, fast and accurate manual focusing, especially with wide-angle lenses makes photos such as that of the snoozing couple a snap to take from 4 meters (13 feet) with a 35mm lens... another Leica M4-P and 35mm f/2 Summicron shot. Rangefinder cameras are also very discrete and quiet in use... compare the compactness of any Leica M or screw series, or a newer Voigtlander, with Nikon or Canon SLRs fitted with motordrive, grip, flash, etc... for wonderful information on both these systems as well as classic Nikons check out Stephen Gandy's excellent site on Classic Cameras.
Darkroom manipulation
If you've got your own or access to a friend's darkroom you have the advantage of being even more creative with the composition of your candid shots. It's fairly easy for anyone to capture a quick candid using the point-and-shoot method... but darkroom workers can crop and manipulate their own prints for greater impact through better pictorial composition. This isn't exactly following in the footsteps of the late Henri Cartier-Bresson, admittedly, but it is very effective for us mere mortals nonetheless.
Of course auto-everything cameras cannot actually do everything... and the well known Murphy's Law will contrive against you whenever possible to keep you on your toes. Capturing candids does require a certain amount of photographic technique... when your mind and sight are presented with that decisive moment the last thing you want to have to do is fiddle with the controls of your camera.
But which lens?
Probably the best lenses to use on your manual camera is either the standard 50mm or a 35mm slightly wide-standard. Although they make you work closer to your candid subject than longer than standard focal lengths they have better usable depth-of-field. By pre-setting the lens' focus ring at the "hyperfocal distance" you can literally point-and-shoot without having to focus at all.
Pentax M-series wide-angle lenses, for example, have a colour coding which makes it easy to align the orange 10 feet and f/8 aperture markings with the lens's index mark. So on their 28mm lens you set the focus ring at 10 feet and if the film being used in the relevant lighting conditions dictates an exposure of say 1/125 sec at f/8... then your effective depth-of-focus will be from 5 feet to infinity. As long as your candids are within that range they're sharp... it's a simple as that.
Film choice
Apart from paparazzi photography (which many regard as blatant intrusion rather than candid) you cannot really resort to the use of flash to illuminate your subject. Fortunately film technology has recently advanced in leaps and bounds to the point where modern black-and-white films such as Ilford's HP5 Plus, Delta 400 and XP-2 Super combine the advantages of high speed with minimal grain. In fact most of today's ISO 400 emulsions have the fine grain structure of slower ISO 125 films from ten years ago. Apart from being fast they can be exposed at a higher ISO rating and push-processed for more speed if required... and they are extremely sharp with medium to good contrast and give a full range of tones.
If you use Ilford's XP-2 (Kodak and Fuji have chromogenic films too) you can have your film processed and printed within the hour at your local High Street or Mall mini-lab for the same cost as colour film. It's worth trying... candid photography with a black-and-white film in your camera will certainly create some surprises. You can even see the results before you return home... and then present some of the pictures as keepsakes to the candid camera subjects who caught you out photographing them!
8:58:49 PM 
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