With street photography’s rise in popularity, it can become harder to get your work seen. Though I believe you should mainly do it for the love of the art and the satisfaction of getting good to even great frames, it can be fun and nice to get some views and likes on your photos, too.
Posting on social media is a good way to get eyes on your photos and also a nice way to get feedback on your work. Asking others for their opinions can improve your work (though be careful with people’s advice; it’s not always good either).
What are Hashtags?
Let’s start with the basics first. Obviously, you can skip this part if you know what hashtags are. But for those who aren’t too familiar with it yet, I like to explain it again. Hashtags are keywords with a # pound sign in front of them. This way, platforms like Twitter and Instagram know this is an important keyword for your post.
They can then show that work to people interested in said keyword—for example, #Streetphotography. People following the hashtags might get your post in their feed. Others looking for the hashtag will see your photo in the hashtag-specific feed.
In short, hashtags are there to improve your social media SEO.
Essential Hashtags for Street Photography
Though there are too many hashtags to sum up, there are, of course, some more general street photography hashtags that you can use. They work for every type of street photo, whether it’s a portrait, more of a cityscape, or an abstract street scene.
Instagram Street photography hashtags with over 10.000.000 posts
#capturestreets #cityphotography #creativephotography #streetphotographer #streetphotographers #streetphotography #streets_storytelling #urbanphotography
Instagram Street photography hashtags with over 1.000.000 posts
#capturethemoment #cityviews #everybodystreet #fromstreetswithlove #lensculturestreets #street_avengers #streetfinder #streetgrammers #streethunters #streetizm #streetleaks #streetmoment #streetphotographyinternational #streetportrait #streets_unseen #streets_vision #streetscene #streetshared #streetphotographerscommunity #streetphotographersmagazine #streetmobs #storyofthestreet #streetmagazine #citygrammers #streettogether #street_photography #streetphotographyworldwide #wearethestreet #thestreetphotographyhub
Twitter Street photography hashtags
#streetphotography #streetsnap #streetsnaps #streetmagazine #street_avengers #streetphotographer
Of course, these hashtags are fairly generic in the street photography niche. It might be good to use these sparsely and add more specific hashtags based on the niche, location, and even gear you used for your photo.
I’ve added some more specific ones further down below this post.
Tips for Effective Hashtag Usage
Unfortunately, using hashtags goes deeper than finding a set of high-performing hashtags and pasting them under your photos. It’s all about finding the right hashtags and matching them with your photo and message.
Adding black-and-white related hashtags to your color photo, for example, won’t work for you. It might even work against you.
First, find relevant hashtags. Create a list of hashtags for topics you photograph often, like the city you’re in. For me, that’s #Antwerpen on most platforms. Sometimes, there are more specific hashtags for neighborhoods or even particular places, like the #antwerpencentraal for our beloved train station. Some cities are big enough for a street photography-specific hashtag, for example, #londonstreetphotography.
Next, find some specific hashtags. They should be smaller but highly relevant to your photo. For example, you can use hashtags for your technique, like #ICMphotography, or for your camera and lens brand, like #Nikon.
In addition to those, you can explore even more niches and mention things like #bwstreetphotography or #abstractstreetphotography.
Hashtag Research Tools
You can find plenty of hashtag research tools online. I don’t really use any at the moment, as I find them too expensive for non-brands. Anyhow, they do exist, and I’m sure they are worth their price if you are monetizing your social media in some way.
For me, it’s manually seeing what other photographers use and putting those in a spreadsheet list. I added data like the size of the hashtags and what category I think they fall under. Then, I can filter for what I need in my posts, and voila.
Of course, these tools can do that for you. They also monitor your use and results, telling you what hashtags you should use more often or perhaps less.
Essential Hashtags for Street Photography
General Street Photography Hashtags
#capturestreets #cityphotography #creativephotography #streetphotographer #streetphotographers #streetphotography #streets_storytelling #urbanphotography #street #streetlife #capturethemoment #cityviews #everybodystreet #fromstreetswithlove #lensculturestreets #street_avengers #streetfinder #streetgrammers #streethunters #streetizm #streetleaks #streetmoment #streetphotographyinternational #streetportrait #streets_unseen #streets_vision #streetscene #streetshared #streetphotographerscommunity #streetphotographersmagazine #streetmobs #storyofthestreet #streetmagazine #citygrammers #streettogether #street_photography #streetphotographyworldwide #wearethestreet #thestreetphotographyhub #dreaminstreets #street_focus_on #street_photo_club #street_vision #streetvision #streetview #street_storytelling #streetgrammer #timeless_streets #streetlife_award #urbanstreetphotogallery #rsa_streetview
Black and white Street Photography Hashtags
#bnw_captures #bnwmood #streetphotography_bw #bnw_demand #bwphotography #bwphoto #bnw_city #bw_lover #bw_society #bw_photooftheday #incredible_bnw #masters_in_bnw #bw_addiction #bnwsouls #bw_captures #bwstyles_gf #zwartwitfotografie #street_macadam
What hashtags do you use that I missed? Let me know in the comments below!