Photographing in a Crowd – does it sound something abnormal ? No. It is quite normal but infrequent situation where we actually need to shoot in the crowd. Taking the photograph of your nearest and dearest one in a place of interest or taking a picture of your kid’s first public performance are such example situations where we need to do this photographing in a crowd.
Photographing in a Crowd : Basic Problems
Photographing in a Crowd can be quite difficult for a newbie just because of a kind of sense of being aware of the fact, people looks at bigger sized DSLRs. While carrying a small sized point and shoot is becoming a norm, DSLR, specially with bigger sized lenses are still eye grabber. Professional photographers, photo journalists, however works within the crowd. If you notice them carefully, you will notice they actually do not care about who is looking at them. This is a psychological issue and only practice can make it to go away.
Other points for Photographing in a Crowd is fully related to photography and are discussed below.
Tips for Photographing in a Crowd
There are three situations from the perspective of composition.
Photographing in a Crowd in a place of interest
Your sweet wife can become a part of disturbing element if the object is quite small. Your wife is actually your ‘assistant’, so you need to explain her beforehand, how to make a better chance, if possible, to get a clear view in front. Depending upon the situation, location, culture and type of peoples present there; plus the size of the object, you can use either a lens with long focal length to avoid the physical rush. Foreground in this case will be blurred away.
However, it does not work for medium sized objects with lot of peoples moving there hands or taking photos. Additionally, many uses Flashes, that adds an extra headache. So, you actually you need to find a rush free day.
Photographing in a place of interest of someone of you keeping the crowd as background
Photographing in a place of interest of someone of you keeping the crowd as background is actually a good method of composition. Make sure you have a clean undisturbed front to your subject and look for an interesting background to shoot against. Lens like 50mm works great in these situations as the background creates a nice blurred effect, sometimes bokeh.
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Photographing in a crowd targeting one person within the crowd
Go ahead and fill the frame to focus on a face of the crowd for a dramatic shot. This is quite difficult situation and usual for the photo journalists. Quite obviously a faster lens and lower time for exposure increases the chance for a sharp image. Obviously, it demands quite good practice.
