Almost all street photography is shot from eye level. It is the easiest level to shoot from. It is also the least interesting angle, because it is the angle that most closely matches how we already see the world. The photograph shows us what we could have seen if we had been standing there. That is a low bar.

Shooting low — camera at knee height, or ground level, or pointing upward — changes the visual relationship between your subject and their environment. The street becomes a ceiling. Buildings become vertiginous. A person walking toward you becomes larger than the city behind them. A puddle becomes a second sky.

Practical approaches:

Knee height. Camera at knee level, shooting upward at roughly 30 degrees. Works well for street portraits: the slight upward angle is flattering and makes the subject look present rather than observed. Often combined with a tilt screen for discreet framing.

Ground level. Camera on or near the pavement, shooting at shallow angle across the surface. Used for puddle reflections, for isolating feet and lower bodies, for making the ground itself a compositional element.

Upward. Pointed up at buildings, signage, bridges, the sky through gaps in architecture. The human figure from below. This angle makes familiar urban geometry strange.

Watch for: geometry and convergence. Lines that are parallel at eye level converge dramatically when you point the camera up. This is either a problem or a tool depending on how you manage it.

The point: changing your physical position in space is one of the fastest ways to find a new way of seeing. Most photographers never get their camera below waist height. Get on the ground.