shooting leica glass wide open one trick pony?

[M'Ate]

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let's not forget that photography should never be about the cool toys

 

important Smiley, Riccis. you know, no shooter has had more toys in the last 5 years than you, for sure man. everytime you tweet theres another box to open

 

how many bodies & formats? dozens ? like a trip which do you remember best of all

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[mardag]

May we see examples of your wide-open Noctilux photography?

 

Here´s a link to my blog where I posted some pictures from a wedding I shot:

LEICA M9 NOCTILUX-M 50mm F/0.95 ASPH – DESTINATION WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

[colonel]

 

shots look great at .95 and 1.4 but maybe a little cheap or predicable. kinda of like easy when the background is blurred. just saying sometimes i feel like maybe its too easy to shoot at these wide apertures and make on otherwise boring shot more dramatic.

.

 

its all about control over where you put the focus. I take plenty of pictures at f11 as well

 

the Leica advantage is both sharpness and corner sharness wide open so you get the choice

[Lord Fluff]

How would you consider your money better spent: £4-5K on a used f.1 or £7k on a new f.0.95?

 

I'd venture that £700 on a used Nokton 1.1 would be better still....

[Lord Fluff]

[quote=Riccis;1843667 let's not forget that photography should never be about the cool toys

 

Photography may not be, but the photographic equipment business most definitely is. If not, Leica would have gone bust quite some time ago....

[Riccis]

important Smiley' date=' Riccis. you know, no shooter has had more toys in the last 5 years than you, for sure man. everytime you tweet theres another box to open

 

how many bodies & formats? dozens ? like a trip which do you remember best of all[/quote']

 

Hahaha... But I use them all... 35mm, MF, LF, panoramic, iPhone, wide open, stopped down, available light, direct flash, etc... I just want to ensure I have whatever tools I need to support my artistic vision based on the project at hand.

 

Cheers!

[MarkP]

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I find the aim and challenge in many situations where I still want subject isolation is to keep all of the subject (for example the head in a portrait) in proper focus rather than just the eye, nose, black hairy mole or whatever. So I'm therefore I may not be using the Summilux or Noctilux wide open. After all this is what we see and process in real life, but (to state the bleeding obvious) often in a photograph the use of selective DOF assists the observer to concentrate on the subject without distraction or allows artistic use of an out of focus background.

 

This usually requires keeping away from maximum aperture and working at f2-2.8, and the aim in this situation (as also discussed and demonstrated by others before me, especially the photograph of the bubble blowing) is to achieve accurate and complete selective subject focus to hold the observers attention but with appropriate out of focus areas. By this I mean subject isolation to hold the eye of the observer, and the degree of background OOF depending on whether I still want the background somewhat identifiable for context, or an unidentifiable non-distracting painted backdrop.

 

I fully understand why many photographers therefore don't want or need anything faster than a Summicron or Elmarit which is more than adequate to selectively isolate in most situations. That's not to say I want to give up my fast lenses as regardless I like the way they render and I do use them at maximum aperture for a variety of reasons (low light and shallow DOF).

 

By no means is non-existent DOF the only "trick", but it does let me to "keep all of my tricks in one bag".

 

 

Mark

[d.keljikian]

Quality images attainable at all f stops are the strength of Leica glass. If my f 1.4 Anylux was no good at smaller f stops, I would choose another system. Similarly, I would never proclaim the superiority of using a solitary shutter speed for all of my work. Look, think, then use whatever combination of tools and techniques that will work to create the picture you want to make.

 

Giacomelli used few cameras (primarily one stripped down and modified Kobell with a single, normalish focal length lens) and understood their strengths and limitations to create a lifetime of evocative images. It is always possible that some of us can have similar success in realizing our work by using several formats and 50 lenses, or maybe just one box Brownie.

 

Best,

 

Doug

[gjames9142]

[

Giacomelli used few cameras (primarily one stripped down and modified Kobell with a single, normalish focal length lens) and understood their strengths and limitations to create a lifetime of evocative images. It is always possible that some of us can have similar success in realizing our work by using several formats and 50 lenses, or maybe just one box Brownie.

 

Best,

 

Doug

 

Interesting. I have always wondered about Giacomelli, because his work always has a certain look, although I would have thought he was using a longer focal length. When I got serious about photography, I was using a Kodak Panoram modified with a Berlin Dagor lens. I had to cut the 10 3/4 by 3 3/4 film from 11x14 in sheets (until Kodak made a special order for me). The camera had to be loaded in a changing bag, and there was a fixed speed and aperture. Agains all odds, I managed to do three books with that camera, get a Guggenheim and even MOMA bought a couple of the prints. I wouldn't dream of working that way now, but it had a kind of magic and innocence.