I thought of heading this post 'KISS'- until I checked the definitions online and went off that idea posthastepronto...
https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/KISS
What I mean by this is, what and how do you do it to keep your photography to its simplest? By "simple/r/st" I don't mean shooting on AutoEverything set at ISO 800 and letting your gear do your thinking for you, but the tips and tricks many of us have learned in our time as photographers, to keep things nicely simple and let us concentrate on the images.
Alas for me, I'm not known to be a simple thinker. So the above is the best I can do to explain the basic concept of what I'm getting at here. Now for some of my ideas.
I learned to use hyperfocal distance focusing early in my shooting life, in the 1960s. As a young student I loved to do landscape work with my Yashica D, but as a poor student I couldn't afford to waste film (yes, that ancient product, film) and I had to make the best of every exposure. Today's digiheads no longer have this problem, You might say it was an Eastman-era connundrum.
Oddly to me, most digital shooters have little or no idea what hyperfocal focusing is - not so surprising,as most AF lenses made today don't have distance markings anyway, most of my circa 2000 D series Nikon lenses do, but not so the later G lens series. All of which makes trying to explain all this to a young 2019 photographer about as easy as writing a manual to crank-start a Model A Ford and how that darn crank actually fired up the engine.
Easier to just say to them, if you own G series lenses then just trot off happily to the rest of this thread. But then by now you've read through all this anyway, haven't you? Ha!
Basically, it sums up like,if you are using an old(er) camera with distance markings either on the lens (most pre-1990s 35mm SLRs) or the focusing knob (my Rolleiflexes and Rolleicord), by setting the lens at say f/8, and then the distance on the lens/knob on infinity on one side on the f/8 mark and whatever distance falls on the f/8 mark on the other side, then everything between the two f/8 marks will be in reasonable if not entirely rock-sharp focus.
If close to engraving-ike definition is how you want your negatives or slides, then set your preferred distance (infinity or whatever) on the dead-center mark of the ens, and work from there. Follow the distance markings down to the f/8 or f/11 or f/16 mark and see what distance mark lies thereon. Everything will be in focus between the two marks, infinity and the other.
By now I've probably confused just about everyone. Go and Google "hyperfocal distance in photography definition" and some anonymous scribe will explain it to you far better than I have or ever will.
Somewhat easier to do are a few of my other trips/tricks.
Recently I wasted a little time pondering my photo technique(s) and worked out that I shoot about 80% of my images at f/5.6 and the last 20% at f/9. Between these two settings, I've lived happily for the past five decades. I can't remember when I last shot anything at f/1.4 or even f/2, so it's safe to say I could survive well with a collection of f/5.6 lenses. Not wildly exciting, but it's the end result that matters, isn't it?
For almost all my shooting, I keep my digital Nikons set on A (Aperture). In my film time I kept my Nikkormat ELs and my Contax G1 on fixed apertures (the aforesame f/5.6 and f/9 for the most part) and let the shutter speeds look out for themselves.
When I bought my first 35mm SLR in the '70s I consideed my needs and decided I wasn't a standard 50 type. I got a 28 (for newspaper shooting) and later added a 55 micro Nikkor (for product shots) and finally an 85 (for portraits and wedding work). I still use this combo.
Nowadays I do most shooting in digital with a 28 Nikon D prime. I'm not a one camera one lens guy 'tho the notion does appeal. Three lenses are enough optics for me to cart around. I also have an elderly battle-scarred Nikon 28-85 zoom lens from the first series so early 1990s I think, and this piece of ancient glass produces images fully 95% as good as my primes.
When I shoot with an 85, a 135 or a 180 lens, I adjust my exposure to -0.3 for bright everyday situations or -0.7 in midday tropical sunlight. This has never failed me. Now and then I forget to reset the camera to 0, but don't we all?
Many of my fellow shooters enjoy endlessly debating the advantages and virtues of FX against DX. Now and then I smugly remind them that since 2009 I've provided almost all the color images for four high-quality books with a Nikon D90 and the two kit lenses. In my time I've also sold black-and-white stock images taken with a Retina i and an Agfa Optima. These weren't blown up to billboard size, but as one- and two-column inserts in books and magazines, these two very basic cameras delivered the goods.
The basic tip in the above is to never mind the name but just go and shoot with what you've got and learn to use it to its best.
Almost everyone I know (including me) shoots exclusively RAW - but every stock photo agency I've researched wants only JPEGs. Go figure.
I hope all this makes sense, especially the part about hyperfocal distance.
Many of you out there must have similar tips you use to simplify your technique and allow you to just get out and about and create images. This is your space to share them with us.
https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/KISS
What I mean by this is, what and how do you do it to keep your photography to its simplest? By "simple/r/st" I don't mean shooting on AutoEverything set at ISO 800 and letting your gear do your thinking for you, but the tips and tricks many of us have learned in our time as photographers, to keep things nicely simple and let us concentrate on the images.
Alas for me, I'm not known to be a simple thinker. So the above is the best I can do to explain the basic concept of what I'm getting at here. Now for some of my ideas.
I learned to use hyperfocal distance focusing early in my shooting life, in the 1960s. As a young student I loved to do landscape work with my Yashica D, but as a poor student I couldn't afford to waste film (yes, that ancient product, film) and I had to make the best of every exposure. Today's digiheads no longer have this problem, You might say it was an Eastman-era connundrum.
Oddly to me, most digital shooters have little or no idea what hyperfocal focusing is - not so surprising,as most AF lenses made today don't have distance markings anyway, most of my circa 2000 D series Nikon lenses do, but not so the later G lens series. All of which makes trying to explain all this to a young 2019 photographer about as easy as writing a manual to crank-start a Model A Ford and how that darn crank actually fired up the engine.
Easier to just say to them, if you own G series lenses then just trot off happily to the rest of this thread. But then by now you've read through all this anyway, haven't you? Ha!
Basically, it sums up like,if you are using an old(er) camera with distance markings either on the lens (most pre-1990s 35mm SLRs) or the focusing knob (my Rolleiflexes and Rolleicord), by setting the lens at say f/8, and then the distance on the lens/knob on infinity on one side on the f/8 mark and whatever distance falls on the f/8 mark on the other side, then everything between the two f/8 marks will be in reasonable if not entirely rock-sharp focus.
If close to engraving-ike definition is how you want your negatives or slides, then set your preferred distance (infinity or whatever) on the dead-center mark of the ens, and work from there. Follow the distance markings down to the f/8 or f/11 or f/16 mark and see what distance mark lies thereon. Everything will be in focus between the two marks, infinity and the other.
By now I've probably confused just about everyone. Go and Google "hyperfocal distance in photography definition" and some anonymous scribe will explain it to you far better than I have or ever will.
Somewhat easier to do are a few of my other trips/tricks.
Recently I wasted a little time pondering my photo technique(s) and worked out that I shoot about 80% of my images at f/5.6 and the last 20% at f/9. Between these two settings, I've lived happily for the past five decades. I can't remember when I last shot anything at f/1.4 or even f/2, so it's safe to say I could survive well with a collection of f/5.6 lenses. Not wildly exciting, but it's the end result that matters, isn't it?
For almost all my shooting, I keep my digital Nikons set on A (Aperture). In my film time I kept my Nikkormat ELs and my Contax G1 on fixed apertures (the aforesame f/5.6 and f/9 for the most part) and let the shutter speeds look out for themselves.
When I bought my first 35mm SLR in the '70s I consideed my needs and decided I wasn't a standard 50 type. I got a 28 (for newspaper shooting) and later added a 55 micro Nikkor (for product shots) and finally an 85 (for portraits and wedding work). I still use this combo.
Nowadays I do most shooting in digital with a 28 Nikon D prime. I'm not a one camera one lens guy 'tho the notion does appeal. Three lenses are enough optics for me to cart around. I also have an elderly battle-scarred Nikon 28-85 zoom lens from the first series so early 1990s I think, and this piece of ancient glass produces images fully 95% as good as my primes.
When I shoot with an 85, a 135 or a 180 lens, I adjust my exposure to -0.3 for bright everyday situations or -0.7 in midday tropical sunlight. This has never failed me. Now and then I forget to reset the camera to 0, but don't we all?
Many of my fellow shooters enjoy endlessly debating the advantages and virtues of FX against DX. Now and then I smugly remind them that since 2009 I've provided almost all the color images for four high-quality books with a Nikon D90 and the two kit lenses. In my time I've also sold black-and-white stock images taken with a Retina i and an Agfa Optima. These weren't blown up to billboard size, but as one- and two-column inserts in books and magazines, these two very basic cameras delivered the goods.
The basic tip in the above is to never mind the name but just go and shoot with what you've got and learn to use it to its best.
Almost everyone I know (including me) shoots exclusively RAW - but every stock photo agency I've researched wants only JPEGs. Go figure.
I hope all this makes sense, especially the part about hyperfocal distance.
Many of you out there must have similar tips you use to simplify your technique and allow you to just get out and about and create images. This is your space to share them with us.
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