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...As you may suspect, I am very comfortable crossing the boundaries of other's personal space. Not in a violative way, particularly when you recognize the extremely fleeting encounter that is involved.

 

I welcome anyone to come visit me in NYC to shoot together and share experiences.

 

Adam, those b&w images in the snow and wind are spectacular.

It would be a joy to go shooting with you one day….preferably in a warmer time of the year!

C*

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You are most welcome, Carl.

Perhaps we can set up our own workshop with the primary agenda being "expanding the bounds of personal space"

Think we can get Leica to sponsor us? ;)

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Regarding Henry's earlier question on camera setup for street photography: I wrote a loooong post on my iPhone yesterday, only to lose every word when Tapatalk gave me the pleasure of yet another crash. So here I go again:

 

I'm a learning street photographer, so take everything with a pinch of salt.

 

I invariably use the Summicron 50mm because (a) I'm trying to get very comfortable with the 50mm field of view, having been brought up on 28mm point 'n' shoots throughout my film and digital eras (I've just turned 50 years) and (B) it's a good 5-10 metres away from the subject, as opposed to the 2-4m of a 28mm. Oh, and I do have a 28mm Elmarit, but I'm now a bit puzzled as what I should do with it, as it's too wide for my style of streets, and too narrow for where I want to go with landscapes. (We shall see, but I think a 40mm Hasselblad Xpan is later calling to me for landscapes). But for me 50mm is close enough to capture both subject and surrounding context without telephoto creepyness, but far enough away not to upset the locals - the Swiss being shy creatures, easily startled ("the camera is stealing my soul. Arrgghhh!")

 

I load up with ISO 400 XP2 and set to f8, and let the M6's metering tell me the shutter speed. The 1/1000 speed limit is plenty for a European winter, (although I've been playing with a three stop ND filter on bright, snowy days, although not much "street" up on a ski resort!). Occasionally, a sunny day has pushed me to f11 or more, but f8 is usually plenty. And f8 and 1/125 (ISO 400) is almost always spot on for overcast days, as many people here already know.

 

Camera shake occasionally trips me up, but to be honest getting a little motion blur into the shot is always fun so I'm often on the edge of what's hand holdable - which is why I start snapping at f8 and then drop down even as far as f16 later on. Handheld at 1/30 seems to work, and when warmer weather comes I'm going to see if sitting on a bench can let me play down to 1/15 or even 1/8. I see wonderful motion blur pictures on Flickr with a stationary subject in focus and passersby streaking across the image: but when I check out the exifs on the digital snaps, I see 1/4s or 1/2s. I don't know where I'd start handholding down to such speeds, so I'm guessing they're using tripods and remote shutter release. Seems a bit... cheating... to use a tripod and remote release for street photography. But ok, I'll try it sometime.

 

Focusing is the thing and I continue to play with three alternatives:

 

1. The usual rangefinding focusing, which isn't easy with subjects walking towards or away from me: there it is... oh no, hang on, erm, yes, erm no. Click! Oh dammit...

 

2. Then there's the digital-style "zone focusing" where I focus on something around the same distance as to where I aim to capture the walking subject, and then click the shutter when he or she enters the area - this works, but as the "something" is invariably the ground or lamppost or something else unphotographable, I feel a bit daft, to be honest. But yes, it works quite well. 9 out of 10 are nicely focused (and 8 of the remaining 9 are still terrible compositions of uninteresting subjects).

 

3. Lastly, I've recently started setting the focusing range on the Summicron so that the aperture marker is set to the infinity mark as per book for landscape photography, and simply leave it there. F8 already gives a huge depth of field, and the early experiments show that this approach works. The depth of field scale on the Summicron 50mm isn't the best because the markings are very compressed (owners can have a quick look and confirm) so I don't get that feeling that the infinity mark is *exactly* on the f8. But a couple of reels of 35mm has shown me that it's close enough, and focusing is no longer an issue. Phew.

 

Shall probably continue to focus this way, and concentrate on learning to handhold at low shutter speeds.

 

Everyone here knows that I'm only six months or so into my so called return to film, although the truth is that whilst I'm old enough to have owned 2-3 film cameras before the digital revolution, they were point 'n' shoots with the simplest indoors/outdoors and person/mountains settings. So I continue to learn the balance between aperture and shutter speed (thank god for metering, but already I'm second guessing quite well) and of course ISO, although XP2 leaves that nice and constant. HCB said that your first 10,000 snaps are the worst, and with about 9,700 to go I hope he's right. All the blah blah blah above is all about the basics, and the real world experience of focusing walking subjects at the right depth of field with a handheld camera. I hope that one day all that'll be second nature, and then my editing can concentrate on deleting poor compositions, with badly exposed, shakey or plain out of focus pictures being few and far between.

 

Ric

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In a way I prefer subjects that have an implied movement/energy but actually stand still! :)

IIIg, 5cm Summciron Collapsible, Tri-X, Rodinal. (Not bad for a 1957/1951 camera/lens combination).

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1. The usual rangefinding focusing, which isn't easy with subjects walking towards or away from me: there it is... oh no, hang on, erm, yes, erm no. Click! Oh dammit...

Ric

 

Been there, done that, got lots of t-shirts... ;)

 

Very good write-up of learning the craft, Ric. Not sure what reading material you have but I have found 'Street Photography Now' (Sophie Howarth & Stephen McLaren; Thames & Hudson) and chapter 4 "The Street - Discord & Harmony" in 'Photography Today' (Mark Durdon, Phaidon) to be excellent sources of information on the subject.

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Very interesting review.Thank you

Ric, you're rather to use the 50mm, rather than the 28 too close

For digital and for a picture in normal light conditions, it could still go

but in contre-jour in the street Photo , everything will be under exposed, ie in the dark

without shadow details . This is the film that will better reveal the difference with

superior dynamics.

So goes for the 50 mm :)

Best

Henry

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Macro Photo with Macro Elmar 90

 

Spring seems coming :)

Cherry blossom in contre jour

 

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Fuji Sup.100 Prof.

M7 90ME

 

Best

Henry

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In a way I prefer subjects that have an implied movement/energy but actually stand still! :)

IIIg, 5cm Summciron Collapsible, Tri-X, Rodinal. (Not bad for a 1957/1951 camera/lens combination).

High definition picture and nice composition

Best

Henry

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Very interesting review.Thank you

 

Ric, you're rather to use the 50mm, rather than the 28 too close

 

For digital and for a picture in normal light conditions, it could still go

 

but in contre-jour in the street Photo , everything will be under exposed, ie in the dark

 

without shadow details . This is the film that will better reveal the difference with

 

superior dynamics.

 

So goes for the 50 mm :)

 

Best

 

Henry

 

 

 

Indeed, 50mm and b&w film. :-)

 

Ric

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Regarding Henry's earlier question on camera setup for street photography: I wrote a loooong post on my iPhone yesterday, only to lose every word when Tapatalk gave me the pleasure of yet another crash. So here I go again:

 

I'm a learning street photographer, so take everything with a pinch of salt.

 

I invariably use the Summicron 50mm because (a) I'm trying to get very comfortable with the 50mm field of view, having been brought up on 28mm point 'n' shoots throughout my film and digital eras (I've just turned 50 years) and (B) it's a good 5-10 metres away from the subject, as opposed to the 2-4m of a 28mm. Oh, and I do have a 28mm Elmarit, but I'm now a bit puzzled as what I should do with it, as it's too wide for my style of streets, and too narrow for where I want to go with landscapes. (We shall see, but I think a 40mm Hasselblad Xpan is later calling to me for landscapes). But for me 50mm is close enough to capture both subject and surrounding context without telephoto creepyness, but far enough away not to upset the locals - the Swiss being shy creatures, easily startled ("the camera is stealing my soul. Arrgghhh!")

 

I load up with ISO 400 XP2 and set to f8, and let the M6's metering tell me the shutter speed. The 1/1000 speed limit is plenty for a European winter, (although I've been playing with a three stop ND filter on bright, snowy days, although not much "street" up on a ski resort!). Occasionally, a sunny day has pushed me to f11 or more, but f8 is usually plenty. And f8 and 1/125 (ISO 400) is almost always spot on for overcast days, as many people here already know.

 

Camera shake occasionally trips me up, but to be honest getting a little motion blur into the shot is always fun so I'm often on the edge of what's hand holdable - which is why I start snapping at f8 and then drop down even as far as f16 later on. Handheld at 1/30 seems to work, and when warmer weather comes I'm going to see if sitting on a bench can let me play down to 1/15 or even 1/8. I see wonderful motion blur pictures on Flickr with a stationary subject in focus and passersby streaking across the image: but when I check out the exifs on the digital snaps, I see 1/4s or 1/2s. I don't know where I'd start handholding down to such speeds, so I'm guessing they're using tripods and remote shutter release. Seems a bit... cheating... to use a tripod and remote release for street photography. But ok, I'll try it sometime.

 

Focusing is the thing and I continue to play with three alternatives:

 

1. The usual rangefinding focusing, which isn't easy with subjects walking towards or away from me: there it is... oh no, hang on, erm, yes, erm no. Click! Oh dammit...

 

2. Then there's the digital-style "zone focusing" where I focus on something around the same distance as to where I aim to capture the walking subject, and then click the shutter when he or she enters the area - this works, but as the "something" is invariably the ground or lamppost or something else unphotographable, I feel a bit daft, to be honest. But yes, it works quite well. 9 out of 10 are nicely focused (and 8 of the remaining 9 are still terrible compositions of uninteresting subjects).

 

3. Lastly, I've recently started setting the focusing range on the Summicron so that the aperture marker is set to the infinity mark as per book for landscape photography, and simply leave it there. F8 already gives a huge depth of field, and the early experiments show that this approach works. The depth of field scale on the Summicron 50mm isn't the best because the markings are very compressed (owners can have a quick look and confirm) so I don't get that feeling that the infinity mark is *exactly* on the f8. But a couple of reels of 35mm has shown me that it's close enough, and focusing is no longer an issue. Phew.

 

Shall probably continue to focus this way, and concentrate on learning to handhold at low shutter speeds.

 

Everyone here knows that I'm only six months or so into my so called return to film, although the truth is that whilst I'm old enough to have owned 2-3 film cameras before the digital revolution, they were point 'n' shoots with the simplest indoors/outdoors and person/mountains settings. So I continue to learn the balance between aperture and shutter speed (thank god for metering, but already I'm second guessing quite well) and of course ISO, although XP2 leaves that nice and constant. HCB said that your first 10,000 snaps are the worst, and with about 9,700 to go I hope he's right. All the blah blah blah above is all about the basics, and the real world experience of focusing walking subjects at the right depth of field with a handheld camera. I hope that one day all that'll be second nature, and then my editing can concentrate on deleting poor compositions, with badly exposed, shakey or plain out of focus pictures being few and far between.

 

Ric

If you like street shots with motion blur you will love Alexy Titerenko

 

http://www.alexeytitarenko.com/port_cityshadows.html

Edited by gsgary
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Louis Vuitton Paris - Leica MP/TX400

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I do love Titerenko's work, having seen it on the wonderful Art of Photography Youtube channel. *That* level of blur is beyond me, of course. :-)

 

Ric

If you watch some of his video's it looks like he picks up the tripod before exposure has finished and moves the camera in a circular motion

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For Keith :)

 

Ilford HP5

MP Apo Telyt 135 Asph

In our church XII th century

Gothic style

 

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Best

Henry

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Kodal TriX, Rodinal

 

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Street photo with 28 mm :)

Not great, I am not satisfied but I nevertheless post the photo :o

Student behind the lady (which is thoughtful) with glasses saw me :)

Thanks for your opinion which will be catastrophic ?

 

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Kodak Portra 400

M7 28 Summicron Asph

Henry

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