Shooting from the hip

It was a rare sunny day in Glasgow so I went out for a brief walk around the city centre in order to keep my shutter finger in practise. I used the NEX-7 with the 18-55mm kit lens and the 16mm/2.8 pancake. I played around with the settings, deciding to try something different from my usual practice. Instead of using aperture priority mode, I decided on Shutter priority 1/400th or 1/200th later on when the light grew dimmer, and put the camera on auto ISO.

For street photos, a bit of extra noise isn’t too much of a problem so I wasn’t concerned with using the lowest ISOs. Shooting handheld and in moderate light, I don’t expect razor sharp photos from choosing an optimum aperture. But I wanted to keep the shutter speed high to reduce the possibility of motion blur, either from my quickly grabbed shots or subject movement. I also put the camera into “Black and White” mode, this helped surprisingly well to frame shots without distracting colour.

I also shot most photos from the hip, either “blind” or using the flip up LCD screen. Only occasionally would I be able to raise the camera to the eye without “spooking” my subject. Putting the camera on multi-focus worked out reasonably well in fact, especially with face-detect. A lot of shots were taken in passing, without the opportunity to frame and focus with any great care.

To get even some usable shots is quite fortunate. Using a wide angle lens helps but one really needs to get in close to make the most of the frame. Below are a selection of the least worst shots. All but one are uncropped.