Aperture Priority can be an amazing feature for street photography. It lets you choose the aperture for your shot, press the shutter, and voila—a great photo, right? Well, the reality is a bit more nuanced.
In this video, I’ll share common mistakes I made using Aperture Priority, and tell you how to avoid them to make the best use of this really fantastic setting for Street Photography.
So that you don’t end like me – the mistakes I made led me to abandon Aperture Priority altogether for a few years.
But to be fair, along the way, I discovered that aperture isn’t the most crucial factor on the street for capturing great street photos.
But more on that later.
First, let’s explore common pitfalls of Aperture Priority and how to avoid them.
1. Ignoring movements
Street photography is all about capturing life as it happens—people walking, cars driving by, dogs running, and you, the photographer, constantly on the move. If you set your aperture to f/11 on a cloudy day, you’ll end up with blurry photos.
At least, very often.
But – Why? Because you’re using the what I would call the “basic mode” of Aperture Priority.
In this mode, your camera determines everything but the aperture for you. If the lighting conditions are poor, the camera might choose a slower shutter speed, like 1/125 or longer.
This can cause motion blur, especially with fast-moving subjects.
The same issue arises when you enter a building with poorer lighting conditions—the camera might set an exposure time of 1/16, making handheld shots impossible without blur.
Blurring can be an exciting compositional element, but most of the time, we want crisp, sharp images. To avoid this, consider setting a minimum exposure time.
To be specific, I use a minimum shutter speed of 1/250, or on sunny days, 1/500. This ensures sharp photos while letting the camera adjust the aperture and ISO.
On my Fuji camera, I’m comfortable going up to ISO 12800, even though it introduces some noise. It’s always a trade-off between noise, exposure time, and aperture, but one worth considering to achieve sharp images.
2. Over-Reliance on Autofocus
Aperture Priority can make street photography easier, but it can also make you complacent with other settings, particularly autofocus.
Autofocus is useful in low-light situations or when you need precise focus with a shallow depth of field, such as for portraits or minimalistic compositions.
However, for everyday street photography, I rely on zone focus.
And i think this could also be a good choice for you.
Autofocus can be too slow or miss the mark entirely.
For zone focusing, I set the distance to 1.5 to 2 meters in manual mode, with an aperture of f/8 to f/16. This ensures that everything behind this mark is in focus.
For many street photographers, being able to control what’s in focus is crucial.
While choosing the right aperture is important, depth of field isn’t the only important thing—composition, light, and timing are equally or even more vital to your photography.
That’s why I prefer using a Voigtländer manual lens for zone focusing or range focusing how it’s also sometimes called.
It brings me back to the basics of photography, making it pure fun.
And much easier.
It’s also up to you what’s in focus and what’s not by changing the aperture.
After some time you will be abled to estimate the distance of your subjects to your lens and get exactly the photo you want.
You don’t need a manual lens to use zone focus; an autofocus lens set to manual mode works just fine.
Or a beautiful vintage lens with an adapter if you want that certain look for a fair price tag.
Zone focusing allows you to concentrate on composition rather than worrying about focus.
Try combining zone focus during daylight and autofocus in low-light situations for the best results. This way you enjoy the best of two worlds.
3. Only using aperture to adapt to the light
A common mistake is adjusting the aperture only based on lighting conditions, not composition needs.
For instance, if you want to separate the foreground and background under bright midday sunlight, you should use a wide-open aperture.
However, this often leads to overexposure, even with a fast shutter speed like 1/4000.
So- what’s the solution?
Use your camera’s built-in ND filter or carry an external one.
This allows you to open the aperture wide even in bright light, maintaining a shallow depth of field if needed.
In street photography, you generally want a deeper depth of field to capture all details.
But if you have a distracting background and want to isolate a subject, a shallow depth of field can be beneficial.
So- Aperture Priority can be a powerful tool in street photography, but it’s essential to understand its limitations and know when to switch to other modes or techniques.