[LRflex] Re: Observations on digital shooting
- From: "Aram Langhans" <leica_r8@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:10:17 -0700
I would disagree with your last statement that going to manual is "stripping
the camera of it's 'magical powers" and bringing it back to" your level. I
would say it is actually bringing it UP to your level, as the magical powers
that both you and I wish to ignore are there mostly because the people using
them do not know what they are doing. They are slaves to their cameras
rather than masters of the photographic tool. In certain situations, the
magical powers are indeed magical, but in most, they are just the ordinary
things that skilled photographers have been doing for years. So, put
yourself up on a pedestal as the master rather than in hole as the slave.
If course, none of this means much if you do not have the talent/skills of
actually composing and taking interesting photos. There is no "auto master
photographer" setting. If you do not have the skills to compose and capture
the instant in time, all a modern camera will give you is a dependable way
to get a well exposed, in-focus (on something, at least) photograph. And it
will do that quite well, in spite of the handler. My biggest struggle with
a modern camera, when I am using a non-Leica lens, it to get the darn thing
to focus on what I want it to. Most of the time, if I am using an AF lens,
it is in a situation where I need to be faster than my eye in the
viewfinders available to me on my DSLR. And the focus point is not that
critical because either I am using a small aperture or because most
everything is in the same plane anyway. But if I want to use a large
aperture and selectively focus on a particular point that is not in the
center, the struggle begins. The camera wants to focus on the brightest
closest spot that lines up with a sensor. I usually want something
different. Oh, to have good eyes and a good viewfinder. R10 anyone????
Aram
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Robert Lilley" <speyerdom@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 3:50 PM
To: <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [LRflex] Re: Observations on digital shooting
> Dr. Ted & Aram
>
> You are probably right - I am not used to such automation and seemingly
> unlimited supply of digital file space. So I think it is a psychological
> rather than a technical issue after all. All this does take me back to
> my army days. "Spray and pray" was a term I picked up then. I went in
> just at the time when the M-14 semi-automatic rife was replaced by the
> smaller, fully automatic M-16. The cyclic rate of fire was so fast that
> by the time you got your finger off the trigger, you could empty a 20
> round magazine (well, 18 actually - because a 20 round load would often
> miss fire due to weak magazine springs in the early days). Marksmanship,
> fire control and discipline went by the wayside and troops would "spray"
> an area and "pray" they hit something, expending huge amounts of ammo in
> the process. I understand that today's weaponry has built in guards to
> limit the rounds fired when the trigger is squeezed.
>
> Thinking about this, I have just checked my camera manual and find that I
> can limit the amount of frames taken per shutter release (can 'release' be
> used in a digital sense?). As Aram says, its going to be a self control
> thing. At my age I react slower than the camera does but I have to
> realize I am am still it's master. I guess my threat of going to manual
> mode is simply stripping the camera of it's 'magical powers' to bring it
> back down to my level. But I gotta' tell you that pausing to put a film
> holder in the back of a large format camera after the picture is set up
> does tend to put you in a different mind frame.
>
> Rob
> On Aug 31, 2010, at 5:23 PM, tedgrant@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
>> Robert Lilley offered:
>> Subject: [LRflex] Observations on digital shooting
>>
>>
>>> I have used film all my life - 35mm through large format. Recently I
>>> held
>>> my nose and dived into the world of digital SLRs. In analog mode my
>>> picture taking was limited to the film on hand and I acted accordingly.
>>> Now my picture taking is limited to the amount of time I want to spend
>>> on
>>> the computer gleaning out bad shots and managing the myriad of others.
>>> I
>>> came to the conclusion I had to override the auto functions and go on
>>> manual to avoid "spray and pray" mode. The camera has a cyclical rate
>>> faster than an M-16. If I had it to do all over again I would buy a
>>> completely manual digital system. More is not better. <<<
>>
>> Hello Robert,
>> Photographing the world about us as a professional published photographer
>> for 60 years I've always used motor drives on my Leica SLR's and Tom
>> Abrahamsson Rapidwinder's on the M cameras.
>>
>> Not because I could "machine gun" a subject, but to quickly advance the
>> film
>> without taking the camera away from my one and only eye that I see with.
>>
>> Digital isn't any different and although the M8 has it's built in wider I
>> don't shoot any more exposures than I did with the M7's. Nor do I shoot
>> more
>> digi images with the Canon SLR's than I did with the film Leica SLR's.
>>
>> I will say with digital at the very beginning of using them, there is a
>> tendency to "shoot more" because we know we don't have 36 frames and have
>> to
>> reload. This does lead us, and I have spoken to many others about how
>> many
>> exposures they made with the switch to digital and nearly everyone
>> "shoots
>> way more than they ever did with film!" But then you get a handle on it
>> and
>> slow down and never think about it being digital and basically return to
>> the
>> same routine you did when using film.
>>
>> I think you are being too hard on yourself and the great value of digital
>> cameras and technique.
>>
>> If in the days of film you shot one or two frames of a subject and that
>> was
>> it. Why can't you use your digital camera in exactly the same fashion?
>> After
>> all, you're the person pressing on the shutter release and if you hold it
>> down then obviously you're blasting away a bunch of useless exposures....
>> But that's your fault not the camera!
>>
>>>> I came to the conclusion I had to override the auto functions and go on
>>>> manual to avoid "spray and pray" mode. <<<<<
>>
>> "Spray and pray?" An interesting description never heard that one before.
>> :-) Hardly necessary because you should be able to set the camera to fire
>> one frame at a time. OR! Take your finger off the motor drive button
>> quicker. It doesn't sound like you're allowing yourself enough time to
>> learn
>> the feeling of the gear therefore becoming discouraged too quickly.
>>
>>>> More is not better."
>> Absolutely! Just because one blasts away doesn't mean they're all great
>> exposures, although over the years and certainly when motor drives came
>> out
>> many photographers thought by holding down and blasting off 5 or 10
>> frames a
>> second they'd never miss the action picture of the year.
>>
>> SURPRISE! :-) In 3.5 seconds at 10 frames per second the 36 exposure roll
>> is
>> gone and the camera quit!! The peak of the action happened as the whiz
>> bang
>> kid with the new "motor driven camera, "how did he do?" He missed the
>> peak
>> action instead of using ones re-action to the action with one click at a
>> time!
>>
>> For what it's worth take a deep breath and relax about the digital camera
>> so
>> negatively! Just think "photography and picture taking in exactly the
>> same
>> fashion you did with film and all will be well. I wouldn't go back to
>> film
>> unless I were paid a very large amount of money for every second I was
>> involved from loading the camera until I'd finished the processing and
>> contact printing of the proof sheets for editing.
>>
>> To put this in a perspective. My book "Women in Medicine. A Celebration
>> of
>> their Work" I shot 500 rolls of film by the time we did the final cut
>> for
>> publication and it surely wasn't machine gunned. It was one frame at a
>> time.
>> On digital? Yep I'd have shot the same number of frames, but much easier
>> looking on the screen than the hours of processing film and contact sheet
>> production and editing..
>> So my on screen friend take it easy, give yourself a bit more time and
>> you'll love the digital stuff just as much as you did film.
>> cheers,
>> Dr. ted
>>
>> tedgrantphoto.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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