Street

A fish seller on the corner lifts a tray of ice above his head, and for half a second the low sun turns the meltwater into a sheet of light. A boy on a scooter cuts across in front of him. Your camera hangs at your hip with the monitor tipped up, and there is no time to raise it, pick a focus point or check the exposure.

Whether that frame works was settled before you left the house. If the lens was already parked at the right distance, the aperture already small enough to cover a step either way, and the exposure already biased for the bright water, all that remains is the press of a button. This recipe moves every decision it can to before the moment and keeps the rest under one finger each.

Page numbers in parentheses point to Nikon's Z6III Reference Guide, edition 09, which matches firmware 2.00.

01.What Street Asks of a Camera

Street photography, as this guide uses the term, means unposed pictures of strangers in public places, taken in passing. Three things make it hard. The moments last less than a second. The scene is cluttered, so a camera left to choose may choose a bus or a shop sign. And the photographer wants to be ignored, which rules out a camera held up for long, a loud shutter or a lamp lighting up on the body.

The settings answer those three in turn. Autofocus is told to look for people and nothing else. A focus distance is stored in advance, so the lens can be in the right place with no autofocus at all. Exposure is handed to the camera with a floor under the shutter speed, and the one correction you still make by hand sits on the lens.

The lens is the Nikkor Z 40mm f/2, a prime, meaning a lens with one fixed focal length. Choosing an Autofocus Setup gives a street setup but names no lens, so the choice here is mine. Nikon's product page for the lens lists it at about 170 g and describes a control ring that takes a function chosen from several options. To my eye a small prime draws far less attention than a fast zoom, and because it cannot zoom it sidesteps a weakness of saved focus positions that the zone section explains.

02.Autofocus That Finds the Face

Picture a crowd crossing at a light: a dozen people at different distances with a delivery van behind them. You want the nearest face, and you want it without moving a focus point. Continuous AF keeps adjusting focus as the distance to the subject changes, for as long as focus is engaged, which suits people walking towards you (p. 121). Auto-area AF lets the camera choose the focus point anywhere in the frame, and Nikon describes it as the mode for when there is no time to pick a point yourself and for spur-of-the-moment pictures (p. 125). Subject detection set to People gives humans priority (p. 127). Auto would also consider animals and vehicles (p. 128), and as Subject Detection puts it, the bus should not win.

When the camera finds several people, it marks each with a grey point, and with Auto-area AF you can move to the next face with left or right on the multi selector (p. 128).

Focus starts only when you ask for it. Custom Setting a6 AF activation at AF-ON only means the shutter-release button no longer focuses at a half-press, only the AF-ON button does, and focus holds once the thumb lifts (pp. 135, 637). The sub-option Out-of-focus release at Enable lets the shutter fire whether or not the camera believes the subject is sharp, which Nikon calls release priority (p. 637). a1 AF-C priority selection at Release does the same for Continuous AF (p. 631). Both matter here, because much of the time the camera will not be focusing at all.

a3 Focus tracking with lock-on sets how quickly focus lets go of a subject when something passes in front of it. Its Blocked shot AF response runs from 1, quick, to 5, delayed. With Auto-area AF the camera treats 1 and 2 as 3 (p. 633), so the 3 that Choosing an Autofocus Setup recommends is already the quickest response this area mode allows. a11 Built-in AF-assist illuminator goes to OFF. The lamp lights only when Single AF (AF-S) is the focus mode (p. 643), so under Continuous AF this guards the day you switch modes and forget.

Sometimes the camera picks a face across the road rather than the man in front of you. Holding a control set to AF-area mode + AF-ON switches to a preset area mode and focuses, then restores the previous mode when you let go (p. 705). My base map in Custom Controls puts this on the sub-selector centre with Wide-area AF (L), where the control offers it. That mode gives priority to the closest subject inside its box (p. 124) and still runs subject detection (p. 128), so a held press grabs whoever is nearest in that part of the frame.

03.Zone Focusing

Go back to the fish seller, about 3 m away. Suppose the lens was already focused at 3 m, at f/8, before he lifted the tray. Then anything from about 2 m to about 5.5 m looks sharp, the boy on the scooter a step nearer included, and nothing had to focus at the moment of the picture.

The band has a name. Depth of field is the range of distances in front of and behind the focused distance that still look sharp in the finished picture. A point slightly out of focus records as a small disc, and below some size the eye cannot tell the disc from a point. That size is the circle of confusion, written $c$, and by convention it is 0.03 mm on a full-frame sensor, the same value Choosing an Autofocus Setup uses. Zone focusing is choosing the focus distance and aperture in advance so that the band covers where people are likely to be, then shooting without focusing at all.

How Deep the Zone Is

A useful helper quantity, which also leads to the hyperfocal distance below, is

$$h = \frac{f^2}{N c}$$

where $f$ is the focal length, $N$ the f-number and $c$ the circle of confusion, all lengths in millimetres. For the 40mm lens at f/8:

$$h = \frac{40^2}{8 \times 0.03} = \frac{1600}{0.24} \approx 6667\ \text{mm}$$

With the lens focused at a distance $s$, much greater than $f$, the near and far limits of sharpness are approximately

$$s_{\text{near}} \approx \frac{h\, s}{h + s}, \qquad s_{\text{far}} \approx \frac{h\, s}{h - s}$$

and the far limit runs to infinity once $s$ reaches $h$. At $s = 3000$ mm:

$$s_{\text{near}} \approx \frac{6667 \times 3000}{9667} \approx 2069\ \text{mm}, \qquad s_{\text{far}} \approx \frac{6667 \times 3000}{3667} \approx 5455\ \text{mm}$$

So the zone runs from about 2.07 m to 5.45 m, roughly 3.4 m deep. The exact thin-lens figures, 2.08 m and 5.40 m, differ by a few centimetres. The quick formula in the autofocus chapter, $D \approx 2Nc s^2/f^2$, gives only $2 \times 8 \times 0.03 \times 3000^2 / 40^2 = 2700$ mm here, because it assumes $s$ is small next to $h$, and at 3 m $s$ is nearly half of $h$.

The aperture is what buys the depth. At f/5.6, $h = 1600/0.168 \approx 9524$ mm, and the same 3 m focus covers only about 2.28 m to 4.38 m, a band about 2.1 m deep. One stop smaller, from f/5.6 to f/8, makes the zone about 60 percent deeper. That is the arithmetic behind the f/8 that ISO and Auto ISO sets for street.

Why not focus at $h$ itself, the hyperfocal distance, where the far limit reaches infinity? At f/8 that means focusing at 6.67 m, and the near limit then falls at $h/2 \approx 3.33$ m. Everything beyond is sharp, but the man with the tray, at 3 m, is not. Street pictures mostly happen within a few steps, so the zone belongs where the people are.

To judge 3 m by eye, use the frame. The FX image area is $36 \times 24$ mm (p. 116), so at 3 m the 40mm takes in about $36 \times 3000/40 = 2700$ mm across and $24 \times 3000/40 = 1800$ mm high. An adult who just fits the height of a horizontal frame is about 3 m away, inside the zone.

04.Saving and Recalling the Zone

The camera can hold that distance for you. Before the walk, you press AF-ON on a lamppost about 3 m away and then hold a button until a small icon appears in the display (p. 719). Later you use AF-ON on a face across the road, and one press of another button brings the lens back to 3 m.

Two custom-control roles do this. A control given Save focus position stores the lens's current focus position while you hold it (p. 704). A control given Recall focus position drives the lens back to that stored position (p. 705). Nikon calls that return memory recall. Both roles live in f2.

Nikon's steps run in this order (pp. 718-719). First give one or more controls Recall focus position. Then choose another control, give it Save focus position, and pick Save to all, which lets every recall control return to the same position. The alternative, Save individually, ties a stored position to one particular control (p. 718). One zone needs only Save to all. The setup menu item also called Save focus position is a different feature, covered in Focus Limiter, Saved Positions and Manual Focus, and stays at its default.

Nikon's notes on the stored position shape the routine. A position can be saved in any focus mode, so you need not leave Continuous AF to store it (p. 718). It cannot be saved while the shooting information display is showing, so if the icon never appears, change the display and try again (p. 718). It is cleared when the lens comes off the camera (p. 718). The recalled position may drift with changes in temperature, and changing the zoom after saving tends to move it too (p. 718). The 40mm prime has no zoom to disturb, and the drift is why I save afresh at the start of every walk rather than trusting yesterday's distance.

How recall behaves depends on a6. Holding a recall control switches the camera to manual focus, and a half-press on the shutter-release button does not refocus while that control is held (p. 719). Under the default Shutter/AF-ON (p. 623), the next half-press after you let go would refocus and throw the zone away. Under AF-ON only, the lens stays at the recalled distance until your thumb presses AF-ON (pp. 135, 637), so a quick press of the recall control is enough. Out-of-focus release at Enable then matters, because a lens sitting at a recalled distance has not focused on anything, and the shutter must fire anyway (p. 637).

The roles a control can take vary with the control (p. 704), so each assignment here holds where your menu offers it. Recall focus position goes on the Fn1 button, under the middle finger of the gripping hand, where A Tour of the Body places it. The base map uses Fn1 for white balance, but street keeps white balance on Auto, so nothing is lost for the day. Save focus position goes on the Release mode/protect button, beside the viewfinder on the side away from the grip. Saving overwrites the zone, so it belongs where the gripping hand never brushes, and street stays on Single frame all day, so the button's usual job is not missed. Both are street-day changes to the base map.

05.Exposure Without Looking

ISO and Auto ISO sets this exposure for street. Mode A, where you set the aperture and the camera sets the shutter speed, at f/8. Auto ISO sensitivity control at ON, so the camera changes ISO whenever your chosen value cannot give a correct exposure (p. 161). Maximum sensitivity at ISO 12800 and Minimum shutter speed fixed at 1/250 s (p. 467).

Walk from sunshine into a covered market and the camera first keeps a low ISO and slows the shutter. At 1/250 s the shutter stops slowing and the ISO climbs instead. Only when the ISO reaches 12800 does the shutter drop below 1/250 s, since Nikon notes the minimum gives way once the ceiling is reached (p. 467). The minimum is a floor, and in bright light the camera runs faster on its own.

The meter cannot know what you want, so one correction stays manual. Exposure compensation is a deliberate offset from the exposure the meter proposes, counted in EV, where one EV, also called a stop, is a doubling or halving of the light. In mode A with Auto ISO you hold the aperture, so the camera applies the offset through shutter speed above the floor and through ISO at the floor. For the fish seller's bright water you might take two thirds of a stop off so the sheet of light is not burnt to white.

That correction goes on the lens. The Lens control ring can take Exposure compensation, and turning the ring then adjusts it directly (p. 714). My base map in Custom Controls names this option for street. The 40mm's product page mentions a control ring and no separate focus ring, so with the ring on compensation nothing is left to focus by hand, which costs nothing when focus comes from AF-ON or a recalled position. Matrix metering stays, as Metering advises for street because there is rarely time for anything else, and b3 Easy exposure compensation stays Off, as Exposure Modes recommends, so the command dials never shift exposure on their own.

A ring is easy to knock in a bag, and every frame after that carries the error, so I zero it at the start of each walk.

Will 1/250 s Freeze a Walker

Take someone crossing the frame at 3 m, walking at an illustrative 1.4 m/s, that is, 1400 mm/s. During an exposure of $t$ seconds they move $v t$, where $v$ is their speed. The lens shrinks that movement onto the sensor by the magnification $m = f/(s - f)$, with $f$ and $s$ in millimetres as before. The blur on the sensor is then

$$b = v\, t\, m = 1400 \times \frac{1}{250} \times \frac{40}{3000 - 40} = 5.6 \times 0.0135 \approx 0.076\ \text{mm}$$

That is about $0.076 / 0.03 \approx 2.5$ times the circle of confusion. To hold the blur to one circle of confusion, the exposure would have to be no longer than

$$t \le \frac{c}{v\, m} = \frac{0.03}{1400 \times 0.0135} \approx 0.0016\ \text{s}$$

which is about 1/630 s. So 1/250 s does not fully freeze a walker crossing close in front of you, though one walking towards you moves far less across the frame, and the zone absorbs the change in distance. I keep the ISO chapter's 1/250 s floor. In good light the camera runs faster anyway, and in poor light a 1/630 s floor would cost $\log_2(630/250) \approx 1.3$ stops, about 2.5 times the ISO. The 2.5 circles of blur apply to the whole walking body, and swinging arms and legs move faster still, but most viewers read that softness in a crossing figure as movement rather than as a fault.

06.Shooting Quietly

Most of the time the shutter stays as Shutter Types, Rolling Shutter and Flicker leaves it, d6 at Auto. For the moments when the click itself would end the picture, such as a musician pausing between phrases or someone asleep on a bench, Silent mode sits on the Illuminator button, where offered, as it does in my base map.

Silent mode switches to the electronic shutter whatever d6 says and mutes the beep (p. 846). It is not perfectly silent. Nikon warns that autofocus and aperture movement can both still be heard, the aperture most noticeably at f-numbers above f/5.6 (p. 846), and f/8 is above that. Its costs show on a night street. Fluorescent, mercury vapour or sodium lamps can leave flicker or bands, subjects moving through the frame can be distorted, and flashing signs can leave bright bands (p. 846). So I switch it on for a moment and off again, which is why it lives on a button. Shutter sound, under Camera sounds in the setup menu, is an electronic sound the camera makes when d6 is set to Electronic shutter, and OFF disables it (p. 844), so a quiet stretch with d6 switched stays quiet. The focus beep does not sound in Continuous AF anyway (p. 844).

Nikon's own note on the item is worth repeating: a quieter camera does not reduce what you owe your subjects in privacy and image rights (p. 846). Quiet is for not breaking a moment, not for taking a picture someone would refuse, and the law on photographing people in public differs between countries.

07.Shooting From the Waist

A raised camera changes how people behave. The vari-angle monitor, which What the Z6III Is lists among the body's street strengths, lets you frame from the hip with the monitor tipped up. The trouble is the eye sensor just above the eyepiece, which, as A Tour of the Body warns, cannot tell an eye from a finger, so a hand near it can send the picture to the viewfinder. Automatic monitor display switch added in Firmware 2.00 fixes that. At On (when monitor docked) the monitor stays in use whenever it is swung out, and switching to the viewfinder happens only while it sits in its storage position (p. 820).

From the hip, the touch screen can also fire the camera. With the touch shutter set to Touch shutter/touch AF, touching the display focuses on that point and lifting the finger releases the shutter. With Auto-area AF the camera focuses where you touched, fires, and then tracks that subject (p. 132). Menus and Controls gives the same setting for street. Remember that a touch focuses the lens, so the zone is gone afterwards until you press the recall control.

After dark, Starlight view (photo Lv) on the Video record button, where offered, brightens the shooting display (p. 675) and helps autofocus in low light, in photo mode only (p. 122). The display may stutter a little and the histogram disappears while it is on (p. 675). Autofocus can also struggle with neon signs and other lights that change in brightness (p. 122). A recalled zone does not care about either, which is one more reason to store it.

08.Files for the Same Day

A street frame often goes to someone the same day, so RAW, JPEG, HEIF and Tone Mode sets RAW + JPEG/HEIF fine★ with RAW recording at High efficiency★. Card Slots and File Handling sets Secondary slot function to RAW primary - JPEG secondary, which sends the NEF raw file to the primary card and the JPEG to the secondary when both are recorded (p. 457). It also sets Dual-format recording PB slot to SD card slot, so playback shows the JPEGs you would hand over (p. 790).

The JPEG look is Monochrome, which Picture Controls and Colour chooses for street because the raw file keeps its colour for later. White balance stays on Auto with Keep overall atmosphere, the default that White Balance uses for everyday stills. Release mode is Single frame, because, as Release Modes, Frame Rates and the Buffer argues, each frame in the street is a decision. Image area stays FX, as Image Area and Crop advises, and vibration reduction stays at its default, Normal (Vibration Reduction). The card settings are the ones to put back before a stage night, which My Menu makes quick.

09.The Recipe

The card below gathers every setting in this chapter, grouped as the sections taught them, with a one-line reason for each.

Field recipe · Street

Street

Lens and Exposure

Setting	Set it to	Why
Lens	Nikkor Z 40mm f/2	Small and light, and a prime keeps a saved focus position honest
Mode dial	A	You choose the aperture for the zone and the camera sets the shutter
Aperture	f/8	Focused at 3 m, sharp from about 2 m to 5.5 m with the 40mm
Auto ISO sensitivity controlPhoto shooting menu > ISO sensitivity settings > Auto ISO sensitivity control	ON	The camera raises ISO when the light falls
Maximum sensitivityPhoto shooting menu > ISO sensitivity settings > Maximum sensitivity	12800	Past this the shutter slows instead of noise rising further
Minimum shutter speedPhoto shooting menu > ISO sensitivity settings > Minimum shutter speed	1/250 s	A floor against walking subjects, faster in good light
Vibration reductionPhoto shooting menu > Vibration reduction	Normal	Left at its default for the walk
MeteringPhoto shooting menu > Metering	Matrix metering	No time to choose a metering spot in the street
Easy exposure compensationCustom settings menu > b Metering/exposure > b3 Easy exposure compensation	Off	Compensation lives on the lens ring, not the command dials

Focus

Setting	Set it to	Why
Focus modePhoto shooting menu > Focus mode	Continuous AF	People walk towards you, so focus keeps updating
AF-area modePhoto shooting menu > AF-area mode	Auto-area AF	The camera finds the face anywhere in the frame
AF/MF subject detection optionsPhoto shooting menu > AF/MF subject detection options	People	People get priority, so a bus or a dog is not detected ahead of a face
AF activationCustom settings menu > a Focus > a6 AF activation	AF-ON only (Out-of-focus release: Enable)	Half-press never refocuses, so a recalled zone survives every shot
AF-C priority selectionCustom settings menu > a Focus > a1 AF-C priority selection	Release	The shutter fires at the moment, sharp or not
Blocked shot AF responseCustom settings menu > a Focus > a3 Focus tracking with lock-on > Blocked shot AF response	3	Auto-area AF treats 1 and 2 as 3 anyway
Built-in AF-assist illuminatorCustom settings menu > a Focus > a11 Built-in AF-assist illuminator	OFF	No lamp lights up to announce you
Saved focus position	About 3 m, Save to all	Saved before each walk and recalled with one press of Fn1

Shutter and Sound

Setting	Set it to	Why
Release modePhoto shooting menu > Release mode	Single frame	Each frame in the street is a decision
Shutter typeCustom settings menu > d Shooting/display > d6 Shutter type	Auto	The everyday shutter, with Silent mode a button away
Silent modeSetup menu > Silent mode	OFF	On only for the quiet moment, since street lamps can band
Shutter soundSetup menu > Camera sounds > Shutter sound	OFF	No electronic click if d6 is ever set to Electronic shutter

Files and Look

Setting	Set it to	Why
Image qualityPhoto shooting menu > Image quality settings > Image quality	RAW + JPEG/HEIF fine★	A JPEG to share the same day and a raw file to edit
RAW recordingPhoto shooting menu > RAW recording	High efficiency★	Smaller raw files, as the file formats chapter advises
Secondary slot functionPhoto shooting menu > Secondary slot function	RAW primary - JPEG secondary	Raw files on the CFexpress card, JPEGs on the SD card
Dual-format recording PB slotPlayback menu > Dual-format recording PB slot	SD card slot	Playback shows the JPEGs you would hand over
Choose image areaPhoto shooting menu > Image area > Choose image area	FX (36×24)	The whole sensor, with any crop still possible later
Set Picture ControlPhoto shooting menu > Set Picture Control	Monochrome	Black and white JPEGs while the raw keeps its colour
White balancePhoto shooting menu > White balance	Auto—Keep overall atmosphere	The everyday default, so Fn1 can do another job

Display and Handling

Setting	Set it to	Why
Automatic monitor display switchSetup menu > Automatic monitor display switch	On (when monitor docked)	A swung-out monitor stays on for shooting from the waist
Touch shutter	Touch shutter/touch AF	Touch to focus and lift to fire when the camera is at your hip

The buttons are my base map from Custom Controls with two street-day changes, recall on Fn1 and save on the release mode button, and the lens control ring on exposure compensation.

Button map · Custom setting f2

Street

Custom settings menu > f Controls > f2 Custom controls (shooting)

Point at a highlighted control, or a name in the table, to match the two.

Control	Set to	Factory default	Why
AF-ON button	AF-ON	AF-ON	The only control that starts autofocus under AF-ON only
Sub-selector center	AF-area mode + AF-ON	AE/AF lock	Hold for Wide-area AF (L) to take the nearest person, where offered
Fn1 button	Recall focus position	White balance	One press returns the lens to the saved zone, where offered
Release mode/protect button	Save focus position	Release mode	Hold to store the zone, away from the gripping hand, where offered
Video record button	Starlight view (photo Lv)	Live view info display off	Brighter display and low-light AF after dark, where offered
Illuminator button	Silent mode	LCD illumination	Silence on and off in one press, where offered
Lens control ringNot on the drawing	Exposure compensation	(Varies with lens)	The one manual exposure correction sits under the left hand

10.Beginner Mistakes

• Leaving a6 at Shutter/AF-ON. The zone then survives only while you hold the recall control (p. 719), and the first half-press after you let go refocuses. AF-ON only lets one quick press do.
• Saving with the shooting information display up. Nothing is stored (p. 718). Look for the icon that confirms a save (p. 719).
• Trusting a zone after a lens change. Detaching the lens clears the stored distance (p. 718), so save again after any swap.
• Forgetting the lens ring. Nudged in a bag, it shifts every frame that follows. Zero it at the start of each walk.
• Using Auto subject detection in a crowd. It also looks for animals and vehicles (p. 128), so a dog or a bus can take the focus point. Use People.
• Leaving Silent mode on under street lights. Fluorescent, mercury vapour and sodium lamps can leave flicker or bands (p. 846). Switch it on for the quiet moment, then off.
• Expecting 1/250 s to freeze someone crossing close by. At 3 m with the 40mm lens it leaves about two and a half circles of confusion of blur. Walkers heading towards you fare much better.

11.Related Chapters

• Choosing an Autofocus Setup, the street focus setup and the depth-of-field formula this chapter extends.
• Custom Controls, the base button map these street changes start from.
• ISO and Auto ISO, the Auto ISO floor and ceiling used here.
• Back-Button Focus, why focus lives on the AF-ON button.
• Subject Detection, People against Auto in a crowd.
• Focus Limiter, Saved Positions and Manual Focus, the other way to place focus by hand, and the setup item with the same name.
• Shutter Types, Rolling Shutter and Flicker, the electronic shutter's costs in detail.
• Silent Shooting, Timers and Time-Lapse, Silent mode in a theatre, where it stays on.
• Card Slots and File Handling, the raw and JPEG split across the two cards.