Street Photography in New York

Midtown has the most light after dark, so it is the best area for night work. After sunset, find a bright shop window or sign and wait for someone to walk into it. Maher walks on the inside of the sidewalk so he stands between the light and his subject and catches the lit side of the face. By day, stand at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, one of the busiest corners in town, and fill the frame edge to edge with walkers. Caution: costumed characters in Times Square often ask for money if you pose them, and December crowds can make it hard to move.

Chinatown is gritty and friendly to cameras. Start in Columbus Park, where older men play Chinese chess and cards, with music on warm weekend afternoons. Then walk two blocks to the curved Doyers Street. Stand at the bend and let people appear from around the corner. Matej Sefcik likes the streets under the Manhattan Bridge, such as East Broadway and Division, plus the small market by Forsyth Plaza. The Lower East Side next door is empty on weekday mornings but fills up on warm weekends and evenings. Caution: watch the card games for a while before you raise the camera, and bring cash for food.

FiDi is the place for people in business clothes and for clean, graphic frames. Narrow streets and tall towers turn harsh midday sun into thin slices of light with deep shade around them. Expose for the bright patch and wait for a walker to step into it. You get a lit figure on a black background. In summer, Sefcik recommends 4 to 6 pm, when office workers pour out. Look for steam vents on cold mornings and use them as a backdrop. Caution: police presence is heavy around Wall Street, and the district goes quiet on weekends, so come on a weekday.

The ferry is free and runs 24 hours a day. The crossing from Whitehall Terminal to St. George takes about 25 minutes. Sefcik rides it on clear days, one to two hours before sunset, when the light is low and still above the skyline. Weekday commuters sit inside the cabin. Tourists crowd the outside decks. Loop the decks until you find a railing in good light, then wait there for people to enter the frame. Try a passenger in silhouette at the rail with the harbor behind. He prefers 35mm here but says a zoom helps. Caution: everyone must get off at St. George, so walk back through the terminal for the return boat.

Just north of Domino Park, a few piers face Manhattan across the East River. At golden hour the sun sits behind the skyline and throws long shadows of people toward you. Expose for the sky and treat people as silhouettes against the water. Summer evenings are busiest, but snow days work too. If you arrive on the J or M train, spend a few minutes on the elevated Marcy Avenue platform, which looks down onto the street. Caution: South Williamsburg is home to a large Hasidic community. Sefcik notes that people there do not love being photographed, so keep your distance and never push.

The High Line is a park on an old elevated rail line on the west side, running from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street. It puts people at third floor height with buildings around them. Go early on a weekday for space, or late afternoon when the sun drops toward New Jersey and sidelights walkers heading north. Use the old tracks as leading lines and place one figure where they converge. The stepped seating over 10th Avenue lets you frame people against the traffic below. Caution: the path is narrow and packed on weekends. Stand to the side, and check opening hours, which change by season.

SoHo is the fashion district. Stylish locals and shoppers walk past cast-iron facades and designer windows, so your backgrounds change every few steps. Maher's favorite people-watching corner is Broadway and Prince Street. He calls Greene Street one of the most beautiful architectural stretches in the city. Come in the afternoon when both are busy, or early morning for long shadows and empty streets. Try shooting through a shop window so the reflection of the street overlaps the people inside. Caution: Broadway sidewalks are packed on weekends, so stand against a wall instead of stopping mid-stream.

This stretch of 34th Street is commuter land. Trains from New Jersey and Long Island empty into Penn Station, and the crowds flow east past Macy's to Herald Square. Come for the morning rush. Stand near a subway stair and let the stream of people walk toward you. Early and late in the day the sun runs along 34th Street, so faces get raking light against darker buildings. The small plazas at Herald Square are good for quieter frames of people waiting. Caution: MTA rules allow photography in the subway but ban tripods and lights, so stay handheld.