Street Manual

A field guide for street photographers.

by Luke Carey

Techniques2 hours

Shooting Vertically

Spend a session shooting only vertically. It changes what you look for. Verticals work with tall subjects, narrow spaces, people in doorways, figures against sky. They also work for sequences - a vertical strip reads differently to a horizontal contact sheet.

Watch for: the urge to rotate back to landscape. Resist it for the whole session. Constraint is the point.

Try this: When you find a scene, make the vertical frame first, before you default to landscape. Look for tall context above and below your subject, a towering building, a long cast shadow, a column of sky, and let the format stretch the eye.

The point: most photographers default to horizontal. Shooting vertical all day forces you to see differently.

Camera Settings

Camera rotated to portrait orientation. No exceptions for the session.

The Assignment

One full session, portrait orientation only. No landscape frames.

Free Course