Taking the picture in the street without drawing attention helps you get more natural results which is important at street photography. Easiest way to be not noticeable, is being one of the people in the street,for example dressing like the people in the city or region you are photographing. Also walking with a huge camera bag and tripod or any other photographic equipment will make you more visible. So take a normal backpack and put your equipment in it instead of a camera bag, also you can put your camera bag in your backpack if it is small enough.

When you ask people for permission to take their pictures they’ll know you will take their picture and act or behave unnaturally. To make them forget about the picture and you, after talking to them a while, look through your viewfinder often even you don’t take the shots and keep talking to them. As the subject see you photographing him/her and environment at first he/she may be nervous but after a while they’ll get used to the the camera and you then they’ll start to act natural again.

After this point you are almost invisible to them, and you can start taking pictures.

Some photographers use a piece of cloth to cover their cameras in order to be “invisible” in the public, i actually don’t know how it works. I didn’t see anybody doing that around me. And i’m pretty sure i get suspicious if i see somebody pointing something covered with a piece of cloth to the people in the street. But the main point is some photographers want public to be totally unaware of them when they are doing their job. If you are one of these photographers, and you say “i’m not going to walk in streets with a cloth covered camera, than i advice you to take the shots from first or second store of a building, hiding behind curtains etc. Of course you’ll need a tele lens to be able to shoot from distance. Some other photographers use wide lenses and most people don’t notice they are included in the frame. Also there are some special lenses that bend and shoot to the side, not in front of the camera directly. Again people won’t understand, they are being subject to a picture if you use these kind of lenses.

As always i want to remind you that taking pictures of people without their permission is not ethical or legal.