Why is street photography with a smartphone better than a DSLR camera?

1. Less Intrusive

One of the biggest fears when starting out in street photography is that you'll be too intrusive. Many people hate the idea of ​​randomly pointing a lens at people's faces. If you'd rather be discreet, a smartphone is more convenient.

The biggest advantage of shooting street photography with a smartphone is that it is much less intrusive than most DSLRs. In addition to immediately drawing attention to the fact that you have a camera, DSLRs are often quite bulky. On the other hand, you can hold a smartphone in your hand without drawing much attention.

2. Less pressure

Another thing that is really nice about shooting street photography on a smartphone is that there is a lot less pressure. When shooting with a camera, people are usually just focused on getting a good photo.

When it comes to smartphone photography, people don't really care about how the photos turn out. In most cases, they're just little Instagram collections. Admittedly, this is probably because many people don't think of their smartphones as dedicated cameras.

If you find yourself worrying too much about how your photos will turn out, the best thing you can do is just put down your camera and use your smartphone for a while. That's one of the reasons why many people give up their cameras for smartphones when they become professional photographers.

3. Get inspired by what you want to shoot with your DSLR

While it's better to take street photos with a smartphone, that doesn't mean you shouldn't use your camera. One of my favorite weekend activities is to pick up my camera and wander the streets, documenting what's going on.

With that in mind, a big advantage of taking photos with your smartphone is that it gives you inspiration for what you might want to shoot with your DSLR later. If you have your camera with you, you can sometimes shoot on the spot. Keep a list of different ideas to use when you're feeling low on motivation or inspiration!

4. Lens with perfect focal length

Trying to figure out the best focal length for street photography can be time consuming and expensive. I've experimented with a lot of lenses and to be honest, I really don't like having a lot of photography gear around because it can quickly get cluttered.

With this minimalist approach, one of the best things about shooting street photography with a smartphone camera is having the perfect focal length lens. It's wide enough to capture everything in the photo, but narrow enough to keep the image in sharp focus.

Another great thing about using smartphone camera lenses is that they are small enough to take street photos in tight spaces.

5. No need to worry about memory cards

There is nothing more painful than realizing that your SD card is corrupted after taking hundreds of photos. While JPEG files can be recovered, RAW files cannot be recovered.

When shooting street photography with your smartphone, you don't need to worry about your memory card dying. Sure, your battery might run out - but having a portable charger can help in that case.

Some smartphones now even have RAW file editing capabilities, which means you might even consider buying one of these phones instead of a DSLR if you're an amateur photographer. You could save yourself a lot of stress.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 29 August 2024