Sharing Photos on Flickr

Flickr is a popular image hosting website for international users to share and embed personal photographs, and a successful online community. Its service is widely used by both amateur and professional photographers as well as photo researchers in order to host images that they embed in blogs, websites and social media. Flickr has a total of almost 100 million registered users who share about one million photos every day. Photos can be accessed from Flickr without the need to register an account but an account must be made to upload content onto their website. I’m an active member of the Flickr online community: Matt Hahnewald - Facing the World.

Until the 31st of December 2018, as shown below, the following Top Ten of my more than 2,000 uploaded international portrait photographs were rated on Flickr as the most interesting ones, according to the views, faves and comments from all my Flickr friends and followers (and Flickr's interestingness algorithm):

Today is December 30, 2018. This is the final blog entry in my photo blog on Blogger/Blogspot. It will be replaced by my regularly updated Flickr account: Matt Hahnewald - Facing the World. Thank you for following, until now and from now on.

Today is January 15, 2025. I have retired from photography. It was a good time. Thank you to everyone who has been interested in my portraits.

I am no longer actively managing the above-mentioned Flickr account Matt Hahnewald - Facing the World.

Doing a Background Check

Three components constitute an interesting street portrait: (a) an intriguing subject, (b) adequate lighting, and, last but not least, (c) the right background. Background matters! One thing that wrecks a street portrait is a cluttered background which will swallow up the subject and distract the viewer’s eye. It will also make the image look flat because the camera can’t capture the depth that the two eyes can. Therefore the photographer has to create sufficient visual depth by means of composition and subject/background separation. Most times, the right background for a strong, compelling image can be produced by slightly changing your perspective or blurring out a background.

There are two different types of background for street portraits, (i) meaningful and (ii) "meaningless" backgrounds.

(i) The meaningful background:

If one wants to photograph the subject in her or his (cultural, natural or work) environment make sure the background is equally as impressive as the subject, is part of the story, and adds value to the image. This is called an environmental portrait; the aperture could be f/5.6 or even higher (up to f/11 and more, depending on circumstances). If there is sky in the image, one want's to make sure the horizon does not cut through the head of the subject. Choosing the right camera position creates sufficient visual separation between the subject and the background which is essential to draw the viewer's eye to the subject.

Examples (i) - Environmental Portraits with Meaningful Background:

(ii) The "Meaningless" Background:

If the street portrait is about an interesting subject, then one can try to fully eliminate the background, making it about the subject and her or his facial features. There are three ways to do this:

• (a) You blur the existing (cluttered) background by opening up to f/3.2 or even more (up to f/1.2 if you have a good lens) thus creating a nice, creamy bokeh.
• (b1) You direct and position your subject in front of a clean, colourful or uniform structure (e.g. a brickwall, a painted wall, a green or flowering shrub, a wooden fence, a roller shutter).
• (b2) You improvise and use any impromptu backdrop (e.g. an umbrella, a curtain, any large piece of clothing).

Examples (iia) - Blurred Background:

Examples (iib1) - Homogeneous Background:

Examples (iib2) - Impromptu Backdrops:

Background matters; an intriguing subject alone is not enough for an interesting street portrait. A piece of advice: find an interesting background and wait patiently for something to happen... Have fun!

High-res portrait photographs with full exif data, precise geotags and technical details in Matt Hahnewald's

Flickr Albums

Photographing Street Photographers

Street photography is photography conducted for art that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. "The (street) photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world picturesque..." (acc. to Susan Sontag). Framing and timing can be key aspects of the craft with the aim of some street photography being to create images at a decisive or poignant moment.

Street photography does focus on people and their behavior in public. This motivation entails having also to navigate or negotiate changing expectations and laws of privacy, security and property. In this respect the street photographer is similar to social documentary photographers or photojournalists who also work in public places, but with the aim of capturing newsworthy events.

There are two different types of street portraits, (i) interactive (aka "posed") street portraits, and (ii) so-called candid (aka "natural") street portraits (read more: Making Decisions in Tamil Nadu). Both types of street portraiture are interesting in my opinion and can produce awesome results. However, I prefer interactive street portraits.

Some ideas for shooting interactive street portraits:

• Find adequate background and good lighting.
• Be selective and be patient.
• Be yourself and be congruent.
• Get involved, build rapport and talk to people.
• Get consent for both (i) the image and (ii) the internet.
• Stay with the subject matter.
• Look for contrasts and contradictions.
• Take simple photographs.
• Vary views and angles.
• Get in closer.
• Make the subject feel comfortable.
• Reduce camera shake and shoot 1/250s or shorter.
• Shoot in aperture-priority mode or in manual mode.
• Use single-point auto focus and aim on the eye which is closest to you.
• Offer your email address and the URL of your website.

Anyway, street photographers who take candid photographs are fair game; candid photographs of them are the exceptions that proves my rule of taking interactive aka posed street portraits...

High-res portrait photographs with complete exif data, geotags and technical details in Matt Hahnewald's

Flickr Album 2016-03a Snapping Street Photographers

Animating Street Portraits with Props

Originally, a prop, fka (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or on screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct from the actors, scenery, and costumes. The term comes from live-performance practice, especially theatrical methods, but its modern use extends to film, television, and photography.

A simple yet highly effective way to animate and spice up an interactive aka posed street portrait is to use impromptu props in the scene. An impromptu prop for interactive street portrait photography would be anything that the subject owns, holds or touches and/or something near the subject that adds to the story and dimension of the image. Utilising props that mean a great deal and are highly personal to the subject, such as below the Buddhist prayer wheel, Mao’s Little Red Book, or the sadhu’s walking stick, can make the street portrait more unique and tell a story about that person.

Using props in portrait photography is a simple way to create a strong point of interest in the image. Props can complement the subject and make the picture more visually appealing. Props help to tell a story, producing a more intriguing photo for the viewer to look at. Cell phones, flowers, umbrellas/parasols, cigarettes/cigars, books/newspapers, food/drinks, musical instruments, cameras and pretty much anything else that the subject can lay her/his hands on will make a good impromptu prop for interactive aka posed street portraits.

Examples of street portraits "propped-up" with cell phones:

Examples of street portraits "propped-up" with flowers:

Examples of street portraits "propped-up" with cigars, cigarettes, vapes, chillums, beedies:

Including a prop will add another level for the eye to the process, therefore it is imperative to clean up everything else as much as possible: a tight frame/crop, a clean background/backdrop, and minimal distractions in general. Any prop should always be used to the advantage of portraying the subject. The objects used in the picture should be very convincing for the viewer in understanding the subject; there has to be a reason for the object to appear in the image. This can be done with the help of (i) person-related props, (ii) context-related props, and (iii) time-related props. Of course, the transition from one prop category to the other is gradual.

(i) Person-related props help the viewer to understand the character, personality, mood, attitude and role of the photographed subject:

(ii) Context-related props help the viewer to learn about the subject’s environment, culture, religion, nationality, and/or occupation:

(iii) Time-related props help the viewer to fantasize about the subject’s past or future:

More blog entries depicting impromptu props for street portrait photographs:

• Food/drinks (Slurping Oodles of Noodles, Munching at Donghuamen Nightmarket),
• Umbrellas/parasols (Dancing with the Thai Chinese),
• Musical instruments (Facing Exotic Northern Borneo),
• Pieces of art (Profiling Coconuts on Sulawesi),
• Books/newspapers (Making Decisions in Tamil Nadu).