Lenses that inspire you to take photos

[Stein K S]

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Definition of ¨junk photos¨? Too easy or sloppy use of the term?

Edited May 30, 2021 by Stein K S

[Kim Dahl]

Just now, Steven said:

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hi Steven. All M35 ?

[Kim Dahl]

54 minutes ago, Steven said:

Hi, what do you mean by M35? 

Sorry - I'm wondering if this is a Leica 35mm focal length ? I sometimes do "shots from the hip" but with 24 mm it is a little easier for me.   Nice pictures by the way.

[a.noctilux]

Steven, auto ISO ?

[a.noctilux]

When I was Parisian, I used Negatif Plus with variable results.

At last , I discovered Photo Pyramides, I don't know if they still operate (near Opera ! ).

 

I think that some Pro labs still operate in Paris, so don't bother doing the lab yourself (in peace with Madame ! ).

...

As side note try the Cron 8 element more open f/2 to f/4, those apertures are something else if we care of.

Edited May 31, 2021 by a.noctilux

[cuongdang]

leica M2 , 35mm f2 eight elements Cron does it for me

with Kodak Tri x of course, street shooting surprises too

[Capuccino-Muffin]

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I applaud you for getting out of the “wide open” silliness, a newbie trap.

Of course, the sunny-16 rule isn’t meant for people to use f16 exclusively, it is rather a trick to analyse a scene without a meter, which lets you use any f-stop/speed combo.

But it is nice to shoot freely with the whole range of stops. F5.6-f8 is especially welcome for street photography once you understand that a GOOD shot is about composition, and has NOTHING to do with the quantity of boke whatsoever.

 

Your examples are refreshing, and the presence of the background (as opposed to blobs of boke) is quite welcome.

[Dennis]

Sunny 16 is a basic rule, but the trick (a common word lately) is to play with it. What they have in common the following (random) exposures? Please correct my english, but I guess they are equivalent.

SS  -  Aperture  -  ISO

• 1/125  -  16  -  100 (starting here) 

Then you start to play. If you use a faster SS (two stops) 

• 1/500  -  8  -  100
• 1/2000  -  8  -  400

• 1/4000  -  8  -   800

• 1/4000  -  2.8  -  100

• 1/4000  -  4  -  200

and many many more.

You will have different DoF, noise, motion effects etc... Different results yes, but same "amount" of light. Your exposure (if no changes happening) should look absolutely the same.

The last one, is my daily Sunny 16. Once I'm doing street photography for example, (in sunny condition) I always put these values, and pre-focus at 2mt... Even before to see something worthy of a shot. My mindset ir ready, and so my M10!

 

@Steven You could identify your favorite aperture, and start to memorize or write down a few combinations on a paper. Find your own Sunny 16 killer combination and I guarantee you it will make you happy, for all your life. 🙂 It's beautiful to have your own sunny 16! 🤷‍♂️

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Dennis

[evikne]

2 hours ago, Dennis said:

The last one, is my daily Sunny 16. Once I'm doing street photography for example, (in sunny condition) I always put these values, and pre-focus at 2mt... Even before to see something worthy of a shot. My mindset ir ready, and so my M10!

I do the same thing, except that in my country I can expose one stop higher. So my starting point is ISO 200, 1/4000 and f/2.8 in sunlight, then I count up or down from there as I wish. Any Auto settings or looking at the light meter indicator is cheating! 😜😄

[Dennis]

4 minutes ago, evikne said:

I do the same thing, except that in my country I can expose one stop higher. So my starting point is ISO 200, 1/4000 and f/2.8 in sunlight, then I count up or down from there as I wish. Any Auto settings or looking at the light meter indicator is cheating! 😜😄

That's why I felt in love with my M10. Because I started to not looking at the light meter value/arrows/whatever years ago with my Nikon D5. And I never looked back. Well, inside 😆 I don't use the exposimeter. Can you imagine when I found Leica M, working fully in manual since I remember... Love first sight.

M10+S16= .... ? Pure power

 

[Steve Ash]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb evikne:

I do the same thing, except that in my country I can expose one stop higher. So my starting point is ISO 200, 1/4000 and f/2.8 in sunlight, then I count up or down from there as I wish. Any Auto settings or looking at the light meter indicator is cheating! 😜😄

As an engineer it is easier to remember the sunny 16 as follows:

Iso n    F5.6    shutter 1/(10*n) 

e.g.

Iso 200  F5.6  shutter 1/2000 

or 

Iso 400 F5.6 shutter 1/4000

I go from there to any other Fstops and shutter settings

[ianman]

23 hours ago, Steven said:

For this set, yes

🤨  how do you practice sunny-16 with auto iso?

[Capuccino-Muffin]

32 minutes ago, Steven said:

Thank you for your message. 

While I really enjoy shooting with my lens closed down, something I had never really tried before, I do not adhere at all to your statement that shooting wide open is "silly" and a "newbie trap". At least, after 15 years of shooting photos (and films) wide open, I do not consider myself silly or a newbie. 

You don't need to close down your lens to demonstrate composition skills. Not every shot you take wide open is a portrait with a 135mm wide open. Not every shot is bokeh porn, when wide open. 

I encourage you to take a look at my instagram page, in my signature, and particularly the "story highlights" instead of the regular feed. There, you'll find my more candid/street photography style.. Every single shot you will see is wide open. I do not think that you will find extra use of bokeh, or easy compositions. I am not saying that you will see anything extraordinary in my photography, but just that It is possible to tell the whole story wide open. 

The reason why I shoot wide open, or one of the reason, because there are many, is that I think lenses are meant to be used wide open. This is where they differentiate each other. This is where they have their unique signature. If I shoot with a 35 pre asph and a 35 fle, at F5.6, you won't know which is which. At F1.4, they are two very different lens, with a different expression,  a different voice, and therefore can tell a different story. One is dreamy, the other is not. 

It's great to shoot with the lens closed down, and I'm discovering it right now with a lot of passion, but I thought that your statement on shooting wide open was little insulting to those who like it. I am sure that you didn't mean it in any bad way, or with a bad intention, and i'm sure you shoot wide open sometimes yourself. Hope you dont take my message personal. 

Cheers 

Steven 

The only thing that will render a photographer’s work unique is his eye and talent. Not  how a lens renders. 
Shooting a scene for what it is, and not “shooting a lens’ rendition of a scene” is what I call to be a mature photographer.

i don’t want to insult you but frankly, siunds to me that you are at least 14 years late in your progression to become a true photographer.
 

Your mentality of making every shot a tribute to the lens used, instead of a tribute to your vision, is working against your progression to become a better pgotographer, which should be the goal. You are still at the newbie stage and it’s been lasting for 15 years.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Capuccino-Muffin

[ianman]

31 minutes ago, Steven said:

it's a lot of fun shooting from the hip without the need to focus.

If you says so. I don't see the point myself. You may as well set the camera up on a tripod or brick or whatever, go and have a drink at a terrace and wait for a fly to land on the shutter release button to take a photo.

[ianman]

4 minutes ago, Steven said:

Not sure how to respond to that either... I'll let someone, if they wish, explain the benefits of hip shooting at F16... 

Then you didn't understand. I'm well aware of the effects of closing down the aperture... it's the "fun" procured by the complete randomness of hip shooting that I am questioning. But if it's fun for you, it's fine.

As an aside, you are aware that sunny 16 doesn't mean you have to glue the aperture at F16 right?

[a.noctilux]

"Tendance" = nothing wrong for me 😏

Hipster shoot from the hip.

New trend of  "street photog." again nothing wrong !

[pippy]

5 minutes ago, Steven said:

...I'll let someone, if they wish, explain the benefits of hip shooting at F16... 

I'm certainly not the best-qualified person to do so - it's not a technique I tend to use - but I can definitely see some of the appeal; there's a lovely mixture of knowing roughly what will be in the shot but also an interesting edge to not being fully in control of the situation - and as my daily work is all about being in complete control the 'shooting from the hip' style can be very refreshing.

By way of illustration; not a great photograph in the slightest (and that's an understatement!) but there's something I find quite 'joyous' about the image below. I was in the park with the camera over my shoulder when the chap centre-stage called out "Hey! Wanna take my photo?". As I reached around to push the button he quickly assumed the position and I tripped the shutter. The whole situation from 'call' to 'click' was around two seconds. Snapped with the M-D (+ 28 Elmarit asph 1/180 f11) so processed-out but, conversion apart, is pretty much sooc;

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As I say; hardly a great snap () - and I doubt I'll ever do any post-prod on it - but, nonetheless, it always conjures up a slight smile when I see it. 'Happy Memories' and all that I suppose?

Philip.

[Guest Nowhereman]

"Shooting from the hip": Daido Moriyama calls shots of this type "no finder shots", which is a more correct description.  Street photographers usually want to avoid having people pose for them, which can happen instantaneously when the subject notices you're about to take their picture. But taking no finder shots, unless you edit out what you shoot carefully, can lead to a lot of meaningless street photography with no emotional content.

Most of the shots below were taken with the camera held at chest level. In the first one, of the Thai university student in uniform, was wondering if I was taking a photo of her, as she told me when I asked her why she looked so puzzled. She was nineteen and, as I spoke with her I took a few more pictures, all meaningless, with her looking like a little girl, with braces on her teeth — because she was surprised that I spoke Thai and she had never spoke with a farang (Westerner) before.

The first B&W picture below, with the woman placing her hand on her face, was at a restaurant near Montparnasse cemetery in Paris. I had been turned around completely, taking a picture out of the window behind me; and, as I was swinging around to the left to face my table, I pressed the shutter while holding the camera with my right hand, when I saw the configuration that is in this image.

Leica-M cameras are okay for this type of no finder shots, but the small Ricoh digital cameras — I use the GRIII — are better for one-handed shooting. BTW, none of these pictures were inspired by the lenses used, which include 21, 28 and 50 mm.

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________________________
Frog Leaping photobook

[Capuccino-Muffin]

1 hour ago, Steven said:

At first I was shocked by your message, then I realised you must be trolling ... 

If you wish to broaden your knowledge of the world of photography beyond the closed aquarium of the Leica product catalogue, that we somehow mistake for “photography” (also called Fetish), you should soon understand thay the aperture ring has its use.

Instagram, for example, once you start following the real masters, you see that they almost never shoot wide open, except out of NECESSITY.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[astrostl]

I love 21mm at f/8 as a landscape point-and-shoot using an OVF with practically everything in focus. f/11 is my tolerance limit on full frame though, not going further than that because of diffraction.