Thanks to all for the advice.
This happens a lot in the early days. It will improve with practise.
Also, don't look to be creating too much separation. IMO reportage is about storytelling. Isolating individuals too much starts to make your images more 'environmental portraits' rather than storytelling ones. It's not necessarily bad per se, just different, but you need to be clear on the style your looking for.
I wanted a little separation. The 18-135mm kit lens is great at zooming in but not so great at bokeh when it's stopped down to f/5.6 because you're at the tele end.
This might be limiting you. With this sort of photography you need to be moving around the room/area, looking for interesting things/people/moments as well as different lighting to give some variation. Being stuck in a location, or tied to a person/people isn't going to help. It could be the reason you're getting backs of heads too. If you're free to roam, move to where you get front of heads
This was a sort of open-ish air restaurant/bar type thing. Most people would be meeting up for drinks, a few would have food. The seating involved long picnic-style benches, packed together closely. Coupled with lots of people, it became very tight to maneouvre around without sitting in someone's lap. For group shots, I ended up standing on a bench to get height.
I do a lot of this type of photography and it's not easy. You have to be discreet and keep moving, once people know there's a guy stood in the corner taking pics they tend to get 'awkward' and start checking their hair and looking over to see if you are still aiming at them.
And yet I'm the kind of guest who becomes self-conscious once a video or stills camera is pointing in his direction!
get used to great shots been ruined by a stray hand or head moving in front of the frame. It's a numbers game i'm afraid and you maybe only use 1 in 5 or worse so give yourself a decent sample to work from.
Yup that's exactly what I found - I think I took about 200 photos in total. Of that, 100 were posed. The other half, were "reportage" style, and I got 3 usable shots. Out of 100.
Try and be 'part' of the event as well - if you appear as the stranger with the camera your results will show that, speak with people and mingle in the group. It amazing how much more relaxed people become once you've had some interaction with them.
Despite being a guest and known to some of the group, I wasn't known to all.
I went to a wedding recently and got some cracking shots in this style. About 20 probably, and about 300 that I binned. I think it comes with that style to be honest. Also don't be fiddling with settings, not sure whether that was an issue for you but I know my camera really well now and was shooting in aperture priority with auto ISO. Worrying about camera settings is a sure way to take terrible photos.
I left it on auto-ISO and Av-mode so I let the camera do most of the work. Except for the times spot-metering didn't work and the camera decided to use the bright windows as a metering point.
You say you're missing the shots by a fraction of a second. That's because you are seeing the shot in the viewfinder and then pressing the shutter button.
If you can see it in the viewfinder you've missed it. It's all about anticipating and predicting the shot...that only comes with practice, and lots of it.
Keep at it, if you can see what's wrong with your pics then you're halfway there.
I know with some of the pics, I'd have preferred to be in a different place. With some, there would be a group chatting away, they laugh and I move to take the photo and they've stopped laughing or raised their hands to their faces and my photo captures after the moment, rather than the moment itself.
You have to be able to anticipate something and be ready before it happens. Sometimes it is easy sometimes totally unpredictable. Watching them over like a surveillance hawk helps.
I did feel like a stalker but a rubbish one.
Other than what’s been mentioned:
You probably do need better lenses, the quality of my candids went up dramatically when I got the 35mm Art (you’ll needwider on a crop).
I was looking at either a Sigma or Tamron 17-50mm as a replacement.
If you’re stood too long waiting for a shot, it’ll never happen, you’ve lost that one so move on.
How long would you wait for a shot? I waited about 15 seconds before moving on.
Don’t stare through the VF be aware of scenes emerging near you and go get them.
I tried to see what was happening, what might look interesting, raise camera up and then miss the shot by a fraction of a second. I guess this is something I need to practice and develop.
Oh, and don’t fall into the trap of sitting and sniping from a distance, those that do it and think they’re doing ok can never understand why other people’s photos just ‘feel’ better.
I started off by doing this and realised quickly that I would be lower so images would look wrong, and that I needed to move around to get better shots. But I had limited ability to move around.