Working With Layers In Street Photography

Apr 10

When you are getting into street photography further or later you will come across the concept of layering. To me, this one of the most important skills that you should try to master together with being able to get close to your subject. Why I think it is important is that when you don’t want your photos to be just one dimensional, working with layers in your photos will help you with that. The photos you take will get more complex and that can make them more interesting to the viewer. Since it isn’t easy to achieve, it can be very rewarding when you manage pull off a shot that contains multiple layers of interest.

When I was in Acapulco, I filmed a video shooting the Fuji XE-4 to demonstrate how you can practice to get more layers into your photos. The beach is a great to learn that skill and I think in the video you can clearly see why.

Mounted to the camera was the Voigtländer 21/1.8 Ultron which is an M-Mount lens and on the Fuji that roughly translates to 32mm. To me, the sweetspot for layering is a focal length somewhere between 28 and 35mm (full-frame) but it can of course also be done with other lenses.

For eding the photos I used my Lightroom Presets/Color Profiles and you’ll find them in my shop in case you are interested.