Street photography - manual + Auto ISO?

[Philip Freedman]

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I read somewhere (or maybe deduced from the text) that a neat trick for very rapid street photography is to set a fairly small aperture, to focus hyperfocally to give good depth of field, to set the shutter fast enough to stop normal movement, and to use Auto ISO to choose the ISO speed (within sensible limits). I tried it on my M9 for a few test shots and it seems to work. Might be useful for shooting from waist level. Anyone know of any problems? Please don't tell me that it is no good if you want to isolate the subject, that is obvious!

 

Thanks, Philip

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[afhyde]

Hi Phillip,

I've used your technique, and it works, but I've come not to trust the auto iso function; and I suppose I fundamentally don't like it-- I don't want to lose control over the iso. Also, for most of my waist-level street shooting I find it unnecessarily complicated. I'm usually shooting with my 28 summicron. I set it to f8 - f10 - f11, set the camera at A(perture Priority) and take a few test shots to see what shutter speed the camera is selecting. In most daytime street settings this will easily stop normal action. And, of course, with that lens and those f stops almost everything is in focus.

Anthony

[yanidel]

For the last month, I have gone fully manual with the M9 for my street photography. No more aperture priority and auto-Iso. And I feel that my exposures have improved significantly. I still screw up a picture every once in a while but they are overall more consistent.

 

To me Auto-ISO had the following issues :

- you could not set a max speed higher than 1/125. Not enough to freeze movement in all instances

- lack of homogeinity within a series. Having a ISO160 picture next to a ISO1000 would give a different feel to a series.

 

As for aperture priority, I had these issues :

- when shooting people in the street, there was a very fine line between picking up the sky or the ground exposure. Resulting often in over or underexposed pictures as you don't always have time to adjust for it. Shooting from the waist was even more problematic as you don't really know exactly whether you point more to the sky or the ground in all cases.

- exposure compensation was complicated. I liked nor the wheel, nor the half press lock method (the R-D1 still rules in that regard). Going all manual solves that problem.

 

So basically, I taped a sunny 16 table on top of my M9 for a few weeks and learnt the various ISO, aperture, speed combination of different EV levels. It is a bit frustrating at the beginning but it forces you to pay more attention to light. And after a while, it slowly becomes second nature. It is so satisfying when your perception of light results in a perfectly exposed picture. Give it a try !

[gib_robinson]

It's also acceptable to use an incident light meter :-).

 

I carry a Gossen Digisix which is very small. It's an easy way to gather information about scenes where, for instance, there are deep shadows and guessing exposures doesn't work so well. Once I get a couple of readings I can shoot manually without watching the in-camera metering jump around.

 

--Gib

[Jamie Roberts]

An incident meter is totally acceptable, and even recommended, IMO. Auto ISO is ok when it's totally required, but I usually don't use it.

 

When is it required? When I move from a dark interior to full sun within seconds (think a bride walking out of a church in summertime). Then I just want the shot, and I'll deal with ISO things in post. That's the only time I've ever used it.

 

Normally, the light doesn't change orders of magnitude within moments, so normally, I'm just set to manual. I find the M9's ISO very easy to change quickly anyway.

 

I've mentioned this before, but one nice way to take advantage of the M9's DR is to manually meter off the significant / meaningful highlights and then adjust your exposure quickly to correspond with the highlight detail. On my M9, that's an adjustment of between +1 to +2 stops. If the light falling on the subject doesn't change, then you simply don't have to pay attention to the meter.

 

This way you place the detail you want in the right exposure quadrant. Highlights you don't care about will blow out; shadows should fall where you "see them..."

 

But conversely, if you want your darkest shadows dark, and don't care so much about highlights, meter the shadows and underexpose -1 to -2 stops (and of course if you want your shadows light, follow the meter, which will generally raise them, since it thinks it's looking at grey).

 

Works very well, very consistently and, with a little practice, very quickly... just watch the meter and turn the aperture or shutter dial.

[bill]

Interesting and encouraging thread. This is why the simplicity of the M9 has such enduring appeal. Turning off the electronic aids on a DSLR still leaves you with a shedload of electronics between your eyeball and your subject. I shoot regularly with Sunny-16 (actually Sunny-12 for the most part in the UK... ) with a range of cameras and obtain more than passable results 90% of the time. I have a Digisix, but frankly only use it once in a blue moon (which is of course about 1/60 @ f2.0) The point is that you are taking control, making your own decisions and your own mistakes, and learning more from doing so than by sitting back and letting the onboard processors do your thinking for you. Philip, you have had some really good advice here. I can only add one thing - keep doing it!

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[menos I M6]

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I tried the Auto ISO feature on the M8.2 for a few times, but (correct me, if I am wrong) you cannot lock exposure with Auto ISO enabled.

 

Even with locked exposure, the camera will change the ISO speed in order to get a spot on exposure, which is not workable for the reasons, Yanidel explained above.

 

Full manual is the best working (although more demanding in the beginning).

I use AE a lot and switch to manual speeds, when I am in a certain constant lighting.

 

With full manual speeds, I use the meter in the camera form time to time, to reevaluate my exposure.

In quick shooting, I don't use the display, which is shut off for the "auto review"

I hate, the LCD going on into my right eye, after every shot.

I hate even more, to miss out a shot, because I chimped ;-)

[jaapv]

On the M9 the "hold button"option for review is very practical.

[ndjambrose]

I find some mileage in auto iso, but I use it a bit differently.

 

I shoot my M8 like my MP -- fully manually, no LCD. I've learned to judge light fairly well and can pick up my MP and dial in a workable exposure without looking at the meter. Sometimes I'm out by half or 1 stop, more often I'm bang-on target.

 

I've found auto exposure is quite useful as it evens out the few occasions when I either guess wrong, or the light changes are rapid and intermittent, or I suddenly see a shot and need to take it before I can correct the exposure.

 

I set the shutter speed I want manually. To me that's more important than DOF, and it stays fixed at that speed for as long as is workable. I adjust the aperture to allow for exposure changes. I let auto iso take care of the misses.

 

YMMV, but I find it's near perfect for street photography. The net result is the largest part of shots are made at the base ISO I'm using, with only a few that are raised to higher values. I find this a nice compromise.

[Fotomiguel]

I shoot my M8 like my MP -- fully manually, no LCD. I've learned to judge light fairly well and can pick up my MP and dial in a workable exposure without looking at the meter. Sometimes I'm out by half or 1 stop, more often I'm bang-on target.

.

 

I like your way and I use it many times. It's the best way to learn how different lights work. To memorize different kind of light and see the difference is very useful. Guessing the exposure and aperture works and makes photography very interesting. It needs to be concentrated. After a while the result are suprisingly goods.

[Guest]

What is sunny 16?

A small chart stating f: / t combinations at various ISO settings for different EV?

In that case it would make former Hassi C/M lens shooters nostalgic.

[giordano]

What is sunny 16?

A small chart stating f: / t combinations at various ISO settings for different EV?

In that case it would make former Hassi C/M lens shooters nostalgic.

 

On a clear sunny day across most of the world, if you set the aperture to f/16 and the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the exposure index (e.g. 1/100 sec for ISO 100) you'll get a good exposure of an average scene. Using that as a starting point you can with a little practice estimate the correct (or at least near-enough) exposure in many other situations - and the practice comes much easier and cheaper with digital than it did with film.

 

This may help: Exposure value - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Guest]

Interesting and encouraging thread. This is why the simplicity of the M9 has such enduring appeal... I shoot regularly with Sunny-16 (actually Sunny-12 for the most part in the UK... )

... Philip, you have had some really good advice here. I can only add one thing - keep doing it!

 

Regards,

 

Bill

 

Thank you, Giordano!

 

Cheer up Bill, nice weather everywhere for the week-end!

We've been soaked here too for days.

 

:)

[gjames9142]

Entirely irrelevant to an M9 thread, but for waistlevel shooting there is nothing to beat a TLR. I have been working in Cuba recently, and the two Rollei's have been great -- a normal and a wide-angle. They are even quieter than the Leica, and people seem entirely comfortable with my presence. They assume they are Russian knockoffs.

 

Geoffrey James

[Guest]

Entirely irrelevant to an M9 thread, but for waistlevel shooting there is nothing to beat a TLR. I have been working in Cuba recently, and the two Rollei's have been great -- a normal and a wide-angle. They are even quieter than the Leica, and people seem entirely comfortable with my presence. They assume they are Russian knockoffs.

 

Geoffrey James

 

How's focussing with the wide?

Zone focussing mostly, isn't it?

 

Why not get a SWC?

I have a film holder 4,5X6 custom changed in Göteborg for me, better said ordered as such, back in the late eighties.

The window is not in the middle of the 56x56mm, but on the lower, so that the 14mm strip cut out of the full square is always the foreground. Got the idea from the Linhof 6x12, which had a 65mm Super Angulon with a permanent tilt UP = less foreground. Cam's gone, might sell it, too.

 

Anyway, focussing a wide-angle f:4.0 on the ground glass is not that easy...

But I bet you took great shots with the old monsters in the street. For me they're supreme beauties: don't tell anyone: more so than any of "les Elles".

Haven't ever taken my Rolleiflexes out for "walking the dog" but I think I should give it a try, though people here are more knowledgeable about "Russian knockoffs"

 

Cheers!

 

PS No yelling outside = no goals so far. Wanna see good foot-ball? Go see an amateur league game. Great audience!

[gjames9142]

Tri,

 

You can focus fairly easily just looking down and seeming to fiddle, although usually without benefit of the flipup magnifier. The SWC seems way too clunky for me, and you still have to put it to your eye to look through the viewfinder. Granted it is one of the best lenses ever made. I was also working with a Noblex on a tripod. Once you have set up, people start to count you as part of the scenery and only one in a hundred has a clue that the camera is taking in 145 degrees. I will post some images if I can figure out how to do it -- I am something of a primitive in this domain. The book should be out at the end of next year. I was also working with a Mamiya 6 and a 50 mm lens (the same as the new wide-angle rollei), and it is vastly superior optically -- a ten element biogon, which was the view camera formula.