Eugenia Hanganu on street photography, adding life to cityscapes and how to go pro

Follow your passion

Eugenia, originally from Moldova, worked for a short while in an office in Bucharest that featured a saying over each floor’s entrance door. The quote near her desk? ‘If you do something you love, you’ll never work again.’ This struck a chord. And when she later found she wasn’t enjoying her geological engineering PhD in Lisbon, it prompted her to follow her heart.

“I was always the photographer in the family back home in Moldova, where I grew up. When I went to Lisbon to study, I realised my heart just wasn’t in geology,” she says. “Moving city had really stirred up something creative in me. Lisbon is beautiful for cityscapes and the nearby Atlantic coast is simply stunning. I was doing a lot of photography as a hobby back then. It was during a trip to the Azores I invested in a Nikon D3300, and I realised I had to be a photographer.” The Nikon Creator built up a good presence on Instagram by posting at least three times per week and started to work with brands, influencers, travel bloggers and travellers in general.

“The key is to go for quality over quantity,” Eugenia explains. “You need to practise a lot to get some really good pictures and then post regularly. I built up to 18,000 followers quite quickly, but not quickly enough compared to how fast nowadays you can get there with Instagram Reels. I don’t post reels because I don’t just want to chase followers, I want to do photography – that’s where my heart is.”

Be flexible, then specialise

Starting out in photography as a career, rather than a hobby, is a massive step and Eugenia suggests focusing on building up skills before finding your favourite genre. This not only helps to hone your craft, but also provides additional earning opportunities. While she was building up her Instagram following and attracting bookings through it, she was also taking corporate portraiture and product work.

“I tried different types of photography to earn a living in my early pro days, and I now realise it was a very good way of building skills and providing additional earning opportunities. I still have my lights, so I can do studio work if I need to. It’s what got me through lockdown financially.

“I still do portrait photography for local companies in Lisbon as well as people who come to the city who want some professional pictures taken of them during their visit. I have a separate Instagram for that area of my work, with 2,000 followers.”

Understand light, then add some life

“When I’m in a new city, I wake up before sunrise and go out on the streets because that is when you have the best light,” says Eugenia. “Usually, I’ll search the historic city centre trying to understand where the light’s coming from and then look for nice moments where people are going about their daily life, which I like to capture in a creative way.

“If I see a scene I can frame beautifully, I then wait for somebody to walk in and give some life to the image. Without that, for me it would just be a postcard, which isn’t a wrong way to photograph – it’s just that I like to include an element of life.”

Top tip: Don’t use Instagram to see which parts of a city are most photogenic, as this can result in similar-looking photographs. Walk around and take in your surroundings to become inspired.

Elevate your contre-jour and low light atmosphere with the Z 8

Eugenia has developed a trademark style of photographing towards the early morning sun, but she also enjoys the moody lighting of bad weather, or those early hours of twilight when the sky darkens and city lights switch on. These conditions can be tricky for focusing and exposure, which is why she finds her mirrorless Nikon Z 8 an invaluable ally, as is her NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S zoom.

“I love photographing towards the light, but you have to make sure the highlights don’t burn out,” she says. “That’s why I’m always in Manual mode, making sure I’m keeping some detail in the whites. I photograph in RAW and I know I can always lift the shadows later during editing.

“It’s why I love the fact that the Z 8 is mirrorless – I can see what I’m getting in the Electronic Viewfinder. I don’t have to take a photograph and then check the screen. I can see how changing exposure affects the picture live. The eye detection autofocus feature is also essential because it allows me to look off-centre to set focus rather needing me to first get a person sharp and then reframe.

“Low-light performance is also vital for me. I don’t use a tripod, but love to work in low-light situations and so I can easily take the ISO setting on the Z 8 up to 2000 without any problems with grain or noise. That is why I also like to work with lenses that offer a wide aperture. My favourite is the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S or the NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8 S because it allows me to frame people from a distance. I don’t like to interrupt people and ask them to pose. I prefer to get a natural shot of them in their surroundings from a distance. For portraiture, I use my NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8 S the most. It’s just the right framing for a portrait and, if I want to work in low light, it’s really useful to be able to open it up to f/1.8 aperture.”

What I have learned most over the years is…

“You have to be consistent in the beauty of your work. To get there you need to commit to always be learning and always practising,” says Eugenia. “Particularly when you are in the process of finding your favourite style, you need to be out every morning, at noon, in the afternoon and then in the blue light of the evening. You need to constantly look at your work and see how it is getting better and evolving into your style. There is no replacement for hard work and practice.”