"F/8 and be there" - Why I shoot most of my Street Photography at f/8
- 28mmStreet
- Jun 15
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 15
June 2026 - Blog# 28
If you had asked me a few years ago what aperture I preferred, the answer would have been simple: as wide open as possible.
Like many street photographers, I loved the look of shallow depth of field. I shot mostly at f/1.4, f/2, and f/2.8 whenever I could - often at night.
The subject separation, the background blur, and the ability to isolate a person from their surroundings felt like the mark of a strong photograph. For a long time, that was how I approached street photography.
Today, the opposite is mostly true.
Most of my street photography is shot at f/8.
Not because I suddenly stopped appreciating shallow depth of field, but because over time I realised that the photographs I wanted to make depended more on timing, context, and consistency than on background blur - however dreamy and cinematic it might be,
The transition wasn't immediate. It happened gradually, over thousands of photographs, several years many different cameras and a complete shift from digital to film.
Looking back, f/8 became less of a setting and more of a way of working for me.
When I first started with F8
The first time I started using f/8 regularly was in 2023 when I bought a Fuji X100V.
Around the same time, I became interested in zone focusing. It wasn't true rangefinder zone focusing, but it introduced me to the idea of relying on depth of field rather than precise autofocus for every frame.
At first, it felt a bit strange.
I was used to auto focus and relied on it heavily and loved shooting wide open whenever possible. Suddenly I was working with much deeper depth of field and wanting more of the scene to be sharp and part of the story.
The more I used it, the more natural it became.
Instead of worrying about whether a subject's eye was perfectly sharp, I started paying more attention to what was actually around the subjects I was trying to capture.
The camera became slightly less important.
The street became slightly more important.
That small shift ended up changing far more than I expected.
The "F/8 and be there" philosophy
Years ago I came across the famous phrase: "f/8 and be there". Never fully understood it or appreciated it.
The philosophy isn't really about f/8. It's about being ready.
Many "classic" street and documentary photographers embraced this mindset because moments don't wait for perfect settings. The priority was being present, seeing what was unfolding, and reacting quickly enough to capture it.
The technical side still mattered, but it wasn't the main focus.
The more street photography I did, the more I understood why this philosophy had endured for so long.
A technically perfect photograph of nothing interesting will never be as memorable as a slightly imperfect photograph of a meaningful moment.
That doesn't mean technical quality doesn't matter. It simply means that the moment comes first for some photographers.
For me, f/8 became one of the tools that helped make that possible.
Why F/8 works well for Street Photography
One of the biggest reasons I keep returning to f/8 is reliability.
Street photography is fast and unpredictable.
People move unexpectedly. Light changes. Situations appear and disappear within seconds.
At f/8, I have room to react.
The increased depth of field gives me flexibility that I simply don't have when shooting wide open. Focus becomes less critical, and that allows me to work more instinctively.
This became especially important as I spent more time shooting with a 28mm lens.
The wider field of view naturally includes more of the environment, and f/8 complements that way of seeing.
Instead of isolating a single subject, I can show the relationship between people and the spaces they move through.
That's often what interests me most about street photography.
Not just the person, but the scene around them.
The context. The atmosphere. The small details that help tell the story.
Over time, I found that f/8 consistently supported the kind of photographs I wanted to make and have been making since 2023.
Leica rangefinder entered the chat..
When I bought my Leica M6 reissue in 2024 and started shooting 35mm film more seriously, and this critical setting (F/8) came with me.
What started as an experiment on the Fuji x100v had become a habit.
With the Leica, it felt even more natural.
The rangefinder encouraged a slower and more deliberate approach, while the lens distance scale made zone focusing a practical part of my workflow rather than just a concept.
Then in 2026, I bought the Leica 28mm Summicron. By that point, I wasn't searching for a new focal length or a different way of seeing.
I already knew that 28mm worked for me. The Summicron simply completed a setup that had been evolving for years.
Today, that combination of a Leica M6, a 28mm lens, and f/8 feels like home.
It's the setup I trust most.
Not because it's perfect, but because it gets out of the way.
Comments