This is the best tip I can give you for street photography

Find a good location. And once you've found one, just wait

If you only take photos while walking, you'll come across lots of beautiful places – but you'll only have a brief moment to capture the right image. Instead, find a beautiful location and then wait for the perfect moment. When you stay in one place, you can focus your attention on the scene and be ready with your camera.

So when you're ‘lying in wait’, so to speak, people come into your personal space and not the other way around. This way, you'll feel more comfortable taking photos (and your subjects will feel more comfortable too).

To take better street photos, you need to look at the scene from many different angles. Don't just take 1-2 photos and move on. Take lots of photos of the scene. Take photos from the front, crouch down and move your feet to photograph the scene from different angles. You can even take a better street photo by standing on your tiptoes and looking down from a slightly higher perspective.

Be like a boxer meeting a ballerina – light on your toes and constantly moving.

In general, avoid taking photos from behind. In most cases, it's more interesting to photograph a person's face than the back of their head. If you can see your subject's face, you can better recognise the emotions on their face and the viewer can empathise with them more easily.

Street photography isn't like your physics class at school. You don't examine your subjects under a microscope. Street photography means experiencing life up close.
When you start out as a street photographer, you may be tempted to use a long zoom (e.g. a 70-200 mm lens) so you can shoot from a distance and feel less uncomfortable. But it's good to pause and think about it.
Firstly, you'll stand out more in public with a monster zoom lens than with a smaller fixed focal length lens. A long lens is noticeable even from a distance.
Secondly, you have to point a telephoto lens directly at someone. This makes the person you're trying to photograph aware of what's going on, as if a gun were pointed at their head.
Instead of a long zoom lens, you should use a lens that is much smaller, less conspicuous and less threatening: a wide-angle lens such as a 28 mm lens or a 35 mm lens, which is the ideal focal length in 90% of all cases.
Such a compact lens is much less intrusive and people often don't even notice you're holding it. What's more, a wide-angle lens allows you to capture your subjects without pointing your camera directly at them. For example, you can position them to the side so that it looks (to your subjects) as if you're photographing a completely different part of the scene.

Pick up your camera and take a photo.

What did you do with your hand? Most photographers lower their arm as soon as they've taken a picture and let the camera dangle. And that's exactly what puts people off; it clearly shows that you've taken their photo.

So try to consciously adjust your behaviour. Don't lower your arm after you've taken a photo. Instead, hold the camera steady until the person leaves the scene. This way, your subject will think that you were just photographing the background and that they were in the way.

This allows you to follow the person and photograph them from a short distance. Just make sure that your camera's shutter sound is not too loud.

In street photography, proximity makes a big difference. So when I say get close, I mean it. Get so close that you can see the sweat dripping from a person's forehead or the texture of their skin.

If you combine this with a wide-angle lens (as described in the previous tip), you'll get a very powerful, engaging perspective. The viewer feels like they are part of the scene, not someone observing it from a distance.

If you get very close to your subject, they won't think anything of it; they'll think you're photographing something behind them, especially if you angle your camera slightly to the side.

A street photo without emotion is dead.

You can take a photo with the most interesting composition in the world, but without emotion, the photo will not touch the heart of the viewer.

I recommend that you keep an open heart when taking photos and try to empathise with the people you are photographing.

The person in this photo was talking loudly to a friend standing next to me on the bridge; they were talking about ‘him’. That's why she didn't notice the photographer.

You can capture more emotion in street photography, for example, by shooting in black and white, capturing shadows, looking for a certain look in your subject's eyes or dynamic hand movements.

If you've been doing street photography for a while, you've probably heard this a million times – but I bet you've also come up with just as many excuses and reasons why you don't have your camera with you.

‘My camera is too heavy,’ you probably think. ’It's frustrating to constantly charge the camera and keep it ready for use.’

And yes, carrying a camera around can be frustrating. But you know what's even more frustrating? Missing the perfect photo opportunity and regretting it for the rest of your life.

Yes, that's a bit dramatic, but it's really true: you never know when the best moment will come. Do you really want to be standing there without your camera when it happens?

But if you make it a habit to always have your camera with you, you'll never miss those ‘Kodak moments’ that always seem to happen without warning.

I've taken great photos in the most unexpected moments – photos I couldn't have taken if I hadn't had my camera with me.

Here's a tip for beginners in street photography:

One of the things you're probably worried about is being seen as a ‘creeper’ or ‘weirdo’ by other people, or simply getting unpleasant comments. But you should learn to ignore these thoughts.

When you're taking photos on the street, you're probably alone. That means that all the judgemental bystanders are people you don't know and will probably never see again. Why let them stop you?

You may feel constrained by social rules, especially when you're just starting out. But remember that social rules are not laws, and in many places there is no law prohibiting photography in public places.

If you really struggle with being judged and overcoming your fear, here's a simple exercise you can try:

Stand somewhere with your camera and observe how many people look at you, glance at you or even look back as they pass by. Do you feel unwanted? Take a photo and put the camera away immediately after you've taken it. Do you see their reaction?

The social world is full of rules that restrict us. If you break them and learn to be at peace with them, street photography will come naturally.

A relaxed photographer is a better photographer

When you're shooting on the street, a smile can go a long way. If you take a photo of someone and they look at you funny, just tap the brim of your cap and show two rows of your pearly whites. Usually, they'll carry on (and maybe smile back).

I use this method all the time and get about a 95 percent response rate, even in Vienna. Even the most unapproachable people smile at me. People trust a street photographer who smiles; they just see you as an amateur photographer and not someone with malicious intentions.

Plus, smiling relaxes you, and a relaxed photographer is a better photographer!

Many purists of street photography say that the only true street photography is unposed. And it's certainly true that sometimes you don't want to ask for permission when you're shooting on the street. Otherwise, you won't be able to capture the unique, spontaneous moments that really define the genre.

However, there is nothing wrong with asking for permission before you start shooting, and street portrait photography is a really interesting area to explore.

So go ahead and approach strangers you want to photograph and ask if you can take their portrait. Most people enjoy being photographed, and as long as you are polite and casual, many people will agree.

Also, try to approach everyday people, such as the waitress in a restaurant, the doorman at a hotel, or even a parking attendant. It is best to avoid photographing police officers and soldiers.

For me, it is the juxtaposition that makes street photography so unique and fascinating compared to other genres. Through the careful use of juxtaposition, street photographs can convey the humour, irony and beauty of everyday life.

Juxtaposition is the art of placing two subjects or elements side by side that contradict each other, form an interesting contrast, or together create a new meaning.

A few quick tips on juxtaposition:

• Look for signs with interesting messages that seem contradictory to the people nearby.
• Look for two people who differ in height, skin colour or even weight
• Look for different people showing different emotions, such as joy, sadness, curiosity, anger, etc.

By the way, a juxtaposition doesn't always have to be logical. Some juxtapositions emphasise a clear message, while others simply highlight the absurdity of life – and that's fine too!

One of the hardest things about street photography is getting into a state of ‘flow’ – when you're not distracted. When you can shoot unimpeded.

One of the biggest distractions in street photography is checking our LCD screens while we're shooting (also known as ‘chimping’ – because we often make chimp-like noises when we look at the photos we like on the LCD screen).

The downside of ‘chimping’ is that as soon as you look at your LCD screen, you are distracted and can no longer concentrate on the next photo.

For example, when I shoot a scene and look at my LCD screen and am satisfied, I get lazy and don't click anymore. The truth is, there may be an even better photo in a street photography scene. But I'll never know if I don't keep shooting.

If you're a real chimp and can't stop looking at your LCD screen when you're shooting on the street, you should switch to film for a few months (which is what I did). When you shoot on film, you can concentrate better when shooting on the street (after all, there's no LCD screen to look at).

This is my last tip, and it's absolutely crucial:

If you want to become a street photographer, you have to get out there and take pictures.

Reading about street photography techniques is useful, but photography isn't something you do behind a computer screen! At some point you have to go out and capture the world, no matter how difficult you find it.
So grab a DSLR, point-and-shoot, smartphone or even a disposable film camera and hit the streets. The beauty of the world is waiting for you, so don't miss out, whether the weather is good or bad, there's always something to discover.