How to pose in front of street art

Murals are great to look at, but can be a challenge to photograph

Thanks to Instagram, many of us have rediscovered the urban art scene, not just for viewing, but as a backdrop for our social media photos. However, there’s an art to the art, posing wise, and some things to consider before you go out and give us your best selfie.

For starters, as we explore in the latest #PhotowalksTV episode, from Balmy Alley in San Francisco, many shots are simply way too busy, and suffer from calamities like trees growing out of our heads (see top photo, row 1, middle) or just not taking advantage of the ability to blur the background, something any camera or phone can do. By adding the blur, you emphasize the subject and bring it into the foreground.

BLUR!

Example: I used Portrait Mode on the iPhone 13 Pro Max to get a really nice shot of the podcaster and photographer Ant Pruitt, who joined me on the photowalk. Portrait Mode, a feature in the camera app that’s also readily available on Android phones, lets you blur the background nicely.

Ant Pruitt, photographed in San Francisco’s Balmy Alley on iPhone 13 Pro Max.

One really fun thing about Portrait Mode, is that unlike a traditional camera, since this is computational photography, you can re-adjust the amount of blur after the fact, directly on the phone. See below. Are you looking at Ant or the uniformed guy in the background? The blur (as shown above) makes all the difference in the world.

SATORIAL STYLE

In putting this post together, I read one article that said subjects should dress with the murals in mind, and wear light, contrasting colors. Bright doesn’t hurt either. Ant’s orange orange shirt did a great job of making him stand out against the walls, which are usually darker hues.

I thought the red and black worn by Ant’s son Jacob did a really nice job of making him pop as well. Which brings us to Tip #3:

BACKGROUNDS

I’ve seen way too many people just stand directly in front of a mural for their selfie shot. They end up with images that are way too busy, as noted above, in the tree growing out of the head boo-boo. So what to do?

You’ll notice we moved Jacob to the side of the action, for separation. It’s also good to step back, and have a wide look at your subject within the art.

If you want a close-up, and are lucky enough to be in an alley, use it to your advantage, and get the shot that way, with art on the sides.

Jump into the art

Or just go for it, but do it correctly. In this classic mural of women of multiple generations, I asked Jacob to kneel down, so that he was on the same plane as the bottom row, and to extend his arms, to really hug the women and the art. This put him directly into the mural.

Jacob Pruitt, by Ant Pruitt

Check out today’s post as a Flipboard #Storyboard

The art itself

You have two choices. There’s the straight on shot, to capture the entire mural. Those of you on a smartphone will want to use the ultra wide lens to pick up all of it. Or, you can just zoom in and focus on pieces that pop up really well when telling a story, as in a series of social media posts.

For example, which does your eye focus on here, the wide or the close-up?

Don’t always look at the camera

You’re in a moody arts district. Go with it—like Jacob did for us, at our direction. Your pick? Looking up in the sky or directly at the camera?

Jump shots

They never, ever go out of style, and a nice jump in front of a mural can’t be beat. Or in this case, down the alley. Especially at mid-day, when you can get a great shadow added from our friend Sol. (For tips on how to freeze the action, go to the video at 10:47.)

And those are just a few ideas for how to make your images pop in front of street art. As you may have heard, I’m leading a live photowalk, sponsored by the social magazine Flipboard, on Saturday 1/22 in Balmy Alley, but tickets quickly sold out. However, there’s a waiting list and people may drop out, so be sure to sign up.

I was pretty stunned by the massive response to the San Francisco photowalk. What if we did one in L.A., in the Arts District next month? Interested? Let me know.

Thanks as always for reading, watching and listening!

Jeff