- While it can be easier for those who enjoy interacting with people, it's really not that bad for those who don't.
- Experiences vary, probably at least partly with the place you live or where you're trying it. In a touristy place, you might not get a second glance. In some places, people can be suspicious.
- In my experience, making eye contact after the photo, and giving people a smile, makes them much less worried about what you're up to.
- 'Fishing' is a great technique. Find somewhere with a good 'setup' for a photo, that just needs a person to happen to walk through the right spot, and wait. People who end up in shot are more likely to think they accidentally spoiled your shot, because you obviously weren't trying to photograph them, they just got in the way.
- The down side of that is that sometimes the very person who was about to make the photo by stepping into just the right place, notices you and stops to wait for you to take the shot, meaning you don't have a shot to take any more.
- Street photography is not demanding on the camera. Image quality matters surprisingly little, focal lengths don't usually need to be extremely long or wide, and a small sensor is fine. A faster camera can help. Your phone may be fine, but people might then think you're setting up to mock them on the Internet. Cute compacts like the Ricoh GRiii and Fujifilm X100 series are popular, but cheaper compacts can do fine too.
- Camera settings can be very much a matter of taste and your style. Personally I use the same settings I do for everything else - aperture priority with auto ISO. Some street photographers use shutter priority so they know they're freezing the action, or can quickly adjust to add a bit of motion blur. Some go fully manual - once they've got the settings they want, they don't have to do anything unless the light changes.
- A couple of button settings I do find useful, which may or may not be available on your camera:
- I have a button set to override most of the settings with fully auto, with the highest speed 'drive'. Hold that button, and the camera takes over and does its best to get the shot. Useful if I've been changing settings and something interesting happens - I don't have to fiddle with the camera to change things back, just push that button and go for it.
- I have a button set to 'spot meter toggle'. It exposes based on a small point at the centre of the frame, and locks it until I press the button again. Point at a bright beam of light, hit the button, and only the bright bits are exposed for. Great for those 'person stepping through a sunbeam' shots.