Henri-Cartier Bresson, the founder of Magnum Photos was big with Street Photography. He would carry a rangefinder and document the activities he sees around him. This was probably a very relaxing way to enjoy photography too. His tool, a rangefinder camera, was the best option at that time as SLRs weren’t really portable. Well, they still aren’t if you carry a bag full of lenses.

Street Scene, Macau

I have to say that street photography is fun, and at times very rewarding. Having used both the Pen and the Panny Lumix, it is no doubt in my mind that the Lumix GH-1 and G1 makes a better Street camera than the Pen. The tiltable LCD is what makes the difference, if Henri had that, he’d ditch the Leica!

But this is not to say that the Pen can’t be used.

To get around the short comings of the digital Pen, you need to do the following:-

Use a Fixed focus lens like the Panny 20mm or the Olympus 17mm but you can also use the Kit lens if you so desire.

Set the Mode Dial to Aperture Priority and choose f/2.8—for the fixed focus lens lens, as for the kit lens…use f/3.5.

Set your ISO at ISO400

Ensure you have RAW file selected along with JPEG.

Fire at Will!

The rational for shooting at f/2.8 is really to capture the subject you want without having the background interfere with the picture. Using f/2.8 is about just right as you need to control the subject to background focus whereas ISO400 will help you shoot at a higher shutter speed. If you use a Panny 20mm f/1.7 then use f2.8 as well. It gives sufficient DOF for people shots once they are in focus. Using a wide open aperture is possible but you tend to fuzz up the DOF.

What is DOF? Well, DOF is Depth of Field, and you can see this happen when the fore subject is focused but the background appears a little blurry. Your eyes work in the same way too except that its constantly accommodating its focus on a subject so you seldom notice the blurry background.

You need to have a faster SDHC card if you are going to shoot and save with RAW and JPEG file formats.

If you are a newbie, you can set your camera to the automatic setting until you get a hang of it. Once you learn to judge a photo opportunity, you can move on to the Aperture Priority setting or if feeling more courageous, set it to Program or P mode.

Shooting street is all about taking advantage of a photo opportunity once is presents itself in available light.

Next. So what makes for a good photograph? This is rather simple. You can pick everyday objects you see in the street or shoot people around you.

I find shooting people to be rewarding experience as you document the life around you. They could be working, chatting or simply enjoying themselves. I find shooting old people to be a lovely way of documenting life as they go about their daily routine.

Frozen in time, it becomes a timeless memory

For digital Pen users, you have to get around the AF locking problems by anticipating the movement of the subject. The EP-2 has a tracking feature which will be very useful but the EP-1 will continue to suffer the AF locking problems until the firmware is sorted out.

Lastly, the Pen also suffers from a slight shutter lag, which is part of the Live View shortcomings. Live View has to be disengaged the moment the camera is ready to capture the image, so you will always suffer from shutter lag regardless of what you aim your camera at. This also affects the performance of the Pen when using any of the creative filter mode. The LCD will go into slow-mo and if you swing it about too fast, the video will have to play catch up.