The making of “Gate Keeper”

The Idea.

I took this scene in The Grand Bazar Istanbul, Turkey. Actually I was on holiday, but as a street photographer I can not stop myself from capturing some street action from that place. I know in this bazar I can capture a lot of action or good opportunitiesfor street photos. The bazar itself has many attractions and is so alive. I was here around 16:00 in the afternoon. The sun is in the right spot of the west wing of the bazar. I chose the west wing because of the light, as I explained above and I didn’t have that much time to stay in this area. I know the situation in this area, I have studied this bazar from some pictures and tutorials and I received advice from a colleague. Almost all street photos are not planned and this “Gate Keeper” idea came on the spot.

I was walking up and down on this west wing’s side. Until I saw this moment, I took quite some time to observe the area. When Iarrived, the bazar was too crowded and there was too much happening. So I waited for a while and enjoyed the surroundings.Especially the back lights, and the detail of the bazar. Until this moment, I was quite lucky with the guard in the middle, because of him I could create the story. So I just waited until he was standing alone and there were enough people walking between the gate.

• With street photography it’s not easy to plan the moment. We have to find the moment itself.
• But I know I will get something special here.Because the basic surroundings and the lighting are excellent!
• Planning here is just a matter of timing, waiting until you get a good set up provided by the place and the people.

I don’t get much time to prepare, the moment passes if I play with my setting. As a street photographer I have to be aware of mysurroundings. Maybe what is important here, is make your self invisible. Don’t make them aware that you taking a picture of them. I know this is hard but with practice you can do it. I took a max of 3 shots in every moment. But I always try to do it with one shot only, because more than one can be annoying for them.

• Most of the time with my street photo I set my camera between f4 and f8.
• I use Canon 5D mk2 and Canon L17-40mm / f4.
• Right here I’m using Aperture Value mode in f5.0 – 1/640 speed and on 500 iso. No flash.
• I took 3 photos with different apertures, just to get different results.
• Timing set up on this picture: I just waited until I could get as many people passing through in the back ground (outside the gate) as possible, just to get more details to get the mood on the story.

Post-processing.

Black and white processing is via Silver Efex Pro 4, plugin in my Photoshop5. I add harsh structure on the picture just to get the detail stronger.How I put the processing is very simple, I open the picture with my Photoshop CS5. Add new layer is the next step. I do my black and white processing with color efex pro4. I choose the one with high structure. You can do it in 2 ways. First one by clicking the ready set up on this plugin. The second one, you can do it manually by dragging the “structure” button into the level that you like. Get high structure as you wish. Right here I use “high structure harsh” chanel on silver efex pro4

I am happy with the end result, actually I did not expect it to turn out like that. But after adding the strong structure on the picture, it looked more powerful. The title came after the picture done. I like to have titles on my picture because I believe titles make the picture stronger! With this kind of photography, you should be patient to find a moment. Because you only have split second to capture the moment, you should be quick into the action. Blending with your surrounding makes yourself invisible. It’s a lot easier if the peopleignore you when you walk around with your camera(which is almost impossible). What I used to do is try to blend in with people in the area. I always dream that I can be a part of the community where I took the picture. Can you imagine how nice if people can except you, when you walking around with your camera among them :),  but this is to good to be true !

Anyway, my next step after I found my place is start to thinking about the composition. In this case I like to stand behind the gate and start to imagine how the light is going to affect my photo composition.

Hope the information good enough, and happy street hunting 🙂