Before going I was thinking about doing an Istanbul photography tour but gave it a miss and in hindsight, this was a good decision. Hopefully here you can get enough on where to get the best photos in Istanbul. Firstly, Istanbul is one of only a few cities I’ve been to where I haven’t had a single person give me the “F off, don’t take my photo-hand-up” pose. Pretty much everybody doesn’t give you a second look and the few that do, signal you to take a photo of them.
The best place to do street photography in Istanbul is anywhere around Sultan Ahmed, particularly around the Grand Bazaar, and up towards Galata Tower. I spend a few hours at each place and could have easily spend the whole day. There’s a lot happening, but not too much that it can get overwhelming, like say in Delhi.
You could easily spend a morning around the harbour, particularly the south-east end of the Galata bridge (where they have all the fish sandwich stalls) and then walking across the Galata bridge which is full of fisherman on both sides. You can get some good shots of people with the mosques and other iconic landmarks of Istanbul in the background. If you take an Istanbul photography tour, they might be able to show you some off the beaten track spots, but really, just walk around the streets away from the main tourist attractions and you’ll be right.
For one of the best views of the city, go up the Galata Tower. A wide angle will be too wide and I found the Fuji 55-220mm to be more useful up there. Go early, because the afternoons you’ll need to queue up to get in and the lift is tiny so it’l take a while. Also don’t bring your massive back pack up there because at the top is very narrow. It’s difficult to get passed anybody even without any bags. You can do two (or more) circuits, but it’s best to just take your time and do one. I went up there when it first opened on a weekday and even though I didn’t wait to get up the top, at the actual top was quite packed.
From there, walk around all the streets surrounding it. There’s some nice graffiti walls and some classic street scenes present themselves if you have the patience to wait for the right moment. Forget about nearby Taksim Square and the main street that leads to Galata Tower. That’s just boring shopping and not a whole lot happening. Walking down from Galata Tower you’ll end up back the northern end of the Galata Bridge. Walk under the subway for some nice inside shots with the Turkish flags.
On The Bosphorous Boat Tour you can get some good shots off the city but make sure to bring a telephoto, probably at least 80mm and longer if you have it. Unfortunately I only went to a tiny part of the Asian side but can see you’d get some good shots back into the European side from there. You should be presented with so many photo opportunities that doing an Istanbul photography tour would be rather a waste.
If you really want to do an Istanbul photography tour, contact me here or send us a message on Twitter.