Some do say that limitations are needed for creativity

Cholentpot · May 24, 2017

I tend to see this over and over. One lens, body, film, developer, process.

Am I the only one who is comfortable with just about any camera or lens that I get my hands on? Granted it can take a few rolls to get used to the quirks of a film or developer but never more than 3-4 rolls. This whole notion of getting to 'know' a lens is a bit oddball to me. Yes, I have a few wacky lenses that are cheap that I've learned what to do and not to do to get a good image. But any relatively modern lens from a known company is consistent in all ways.

Photography for me is KISS. Once you have the basics of the triangle down you load, look for something interesting, dial in the settings or go full auto and hit the shutter. Yay. Seems intuitive to me and overthought. Not that I ever stop reading about how to take a good photo mind you...

removed account4 · May 24, 2017

Mainecoonmaniac said:
I still have to do some slogging. Sounds strange, but I think the key is finding creativity not getting caught up in the gear, but getting into a space in your head where you're creative and make great images.

no!! not strange but the reality of making "stuff" .. yeah i like that word slogging its the real-deal.
creativity is like a sine ( or cosine) curve sometimes you are riding the wave and sometimes you are paddling ,,
paddling, while it is a slog ( schlep ? ) has its own fun too ...
i couldn't agree more about not getting caught up in gear .. that's an EXPENSIVE slog ..

Chan Tran · May 24, 2017

I do sometimes restrict myself to certain equipment but I don't see it improve my creativity.

Dali · May 25, 2017

Chan Tran said:
I do sometimes restrict myself to certain equipment but I don't see it improve my creativity.

Normal, as you ask yourself the wrong question. Again, creativity is in your brain, not in your Domke bag.

removed account4 · May 25, 2017

Dali said:
Normal, as you ask yourself the wrong question. Again, creativity is in your brain, not in your Domke bag.

BUT sometimes it is in the bag ... lets say it is a broken camera with a lens that always gives a specific look or situation or you have to creatively "work around" the problems
the equipment presents ... it makes me wonder how many cameras and lenses miroslav tichy had ...

Sirius Glass · May 25, 2017

Mainecoonmaniac said:
So why not just limit yourself to just one lens?

https://petapixel.com/2017/05/23/use-one-lens/

Some will say anything. People have been successful for thousands of years without limitations. I see the author as one who is very limited in any imagination and probably never has nor never will have an original idea. So sad.

michr · May 25, 2017

Helinophoto said:
The only reason why the writer is using 1 lens, is the fact that it says "Leica", most people cannot afford more than one of those!

Even if I had a Leica M, I probably wouldn't cart it around everywhere for that reason. I can't afford to replace the nicer cameras I own, so I end up using them less than my cheapies. Limiting oneself to one lens is a great exercise, but I wouldn't want to be committed to it. Yesterday I took quite a few photos with a 30mm, but as I was driving back home, I spotted a sunset behind some wind turbines, which made for a nice composition. I'm very glad I had a 300mm lens with me, because anything shorter wouldn't have done it justice.

That said, there are plenty of people, especially street photographers who appear to work with only one focal length. It can make sense, if you want all of your work to have the same look, and force yourself to be creative within those constraints. Swapping out lenses can be a huge distraction as well, but I'd personally go with a wider lens. You can always crop.

Sirius Glass · May 25, 2017

I prefer to use the right lens for the composition, but sometimes I am not carrying the lens that I prefer using so I make what I have work. I am finishing a trip to Greece this week. I took my normal lens, 80mm, a wide angle 50m lens and at the last minute took the 38mm camera, SWC. My experience in Europe is that a wide angle lens is more useful than a normal lens, but the normal lens needs to be available. I was surprised to find that I ended up using the SWC most of the time.

removed account4 · May 25, 2017

michr said:
Even if I had a Leica M, I probably wouldn't cart it around everywhere for that reason. I can't afford to replace the nicer cameras I own, so I end up using them less than my cheapies. Limiting oneself to one lens is a great exercise, but I wouldn't want to be committed to it. Yesterday I took quite a few photos with a 30mm, but as I was driving back home, I spotted a sunset behind some wind turbines, which made for a nice composition. I'm very glad I had a 300mm lens with me, because anything shorter wouldn't have done it justice.

That said, there are plenty of people, especially street photographers who appear to work with only one focal length. It can make sense, if you want all of your work to have the same look, and force yourself to be creative within those constraints. Swapping out lenses can be a huge distraction as well, but I'd personally go with a wider lens. You can always crop.

hi michr

i know what you mean, BUT ... if you didn't have a 300mm lens and only had a 50mm or whatever the "one lens" was you were using
i am sure you would have found a way to make the photograph a different way. i am guessing maybe you would have driven to a different spot
and framed/composed differently and maybe it would have also done the scene justice. i think having 1 lens to use, whether it is a 300mm or a 30mm .. might
have you solve the problem of imagemaking a different way that you might not have thought of if you took the " easy way out " and had a 30-300mm zoom
i could be wrong though ...

Chan Tran · May 25, 2017

Dali said:
Normal, as you ask yourself the wrong question. Again, creativity is in your brain, not in your Domke bag.

Did I said it's otherwise? I said it doesn't affect my creativity. The reason I limit myself to certain equipment because
1. That's all I have either that's all I have or that's all I have at the moment.
2. I want to do it for the fun of it. Not only that I limit myself to one lens there were times that I limit myself to 1 aperture and 1 shutter speed.
I don't see in any way help me make better or more creative pictures.

Dali · May 25, 2017

Chan Tran said:
Did I said it's otherwise? I said it doesn't affect my creativity. The reason I limit myself to certain equipment because
1. That's all I have either that's all I have or that's all I have at the moment.
2. I want to do it for the fun of it. Not only that I limit myself to one lens there were times that I limit myself to 1 aperture and 1 shutter speed.
I don't see in any way help me make better or more creative pictures.

Again, I don't see how it could be different as your causal link (gear - creativity) you describe in your original sentence is IMO not valid, exactly what you experienced.

LAG · May 25, 2017

Dali said:
Creativity has nothing to do with lenses but with the photographer. Pretty easy to understand.

Dali said:
... creativity is in your brain, not in your Domke bag.

Both what you have in your brain and what you have in your bag (not necessarily in the same quantity & quality), are mere tools that can be activated or not in the Creative Process, and as a general rule "Not" is a closed door.

Dali · May 25, 2017

LAG said:
Both what you have in your brain and what you have in your bag (not necessarily in the same quantity & quality), are mere tools that can be activated or not in the Creative Process, and as a general rule "Not" is a closed door.

We drift here...

TheRook · May 25, 2017

For a beginner, I do think it is a good idea to start with one lens and really get to know it. And preferably a fixed focal length lens, as this encourages one to move around and explore different angles, rather than simply staying in one position and zooming in and out.

Chan Tran · May 25, 2017

Dali said:
Again, I don't see how it could be different as your causal link (gear - creativity) you describe in your original sentence is IMO not valid, exactly what you experienced.

What don't you understand????? I said gear and creativity has nothing to do with each other. But do I restrict myself to certain gear? Yes. Do I get certain gear needed or not? Yes. But doing so is not for creativity. I did so just for the fun of it. What don't you understand?
In fact I don't care about creativity whatever. I do most things for fun except work and my work doesn't involve photography.

Dali · May 25, 2017

If you read again what I wrote, you will notice that it is not a question of understanding but of agreement. See the difference or do I need to develop further?

Soeren · May 26, 2017

Helinophoto said:
The only reason why the writer is using 1 lens, is the fact that it says "Leica", most people cannot afford more than one of those!

Anyhou.....

No, one lens isn't good for creativity IMO, it's limiting and constricts your view. Rangefinders in particular are limiting in the fact that they rarely have zooms and cannot focus closer than 0.75-1 meter. This rules out macro, closeups, tele-shots (for compression or other stuff), extreme wide angles, fisheye etc.

If you only run around with a 50, it's difficult to do the 35mm or 24mm "environmental" portraits of people and situations, you can do portraits yes, but you will never get the perspective no matter how creative you think you are.

Sure, if that's all you got, you can be creative and make do and create the stuff you want, as best as you can, but it's not "good for creativity". Creativity is about mixing things up and try to make something completely different, then you need a few strings to play on, and break.

To me it sounds like the writer did just that, he had a bunch of stuff and tried a lot of things (creativity) before settling down on one lens, that he preferred, it's not a starting point, but more of a resting point.

Well, using only one lens forces you to find a way to make that shot interesting, fit in the people and get just enough invironment in your frame to tell the story resulting in shots you'll never come up with automatically changing to the 24mm and taking the obvious invironmental portrait.

LAG · May 26, 2017

Dali said:
We drift here...

Very creative answer to avoid mined roads!

removed account4 · May 26, 2017

Mainecoonmaniac said:
So why not just limit yourself to just one lens?

https://petapixel.com/2017/05/23/use-one-lens/

after reading the article again ( for the 3rd time )
i couldn't agree more with what the author said.
using 1 lens not only gives you the opportunity to learn the limitations of the FL but
your own limitations and hang ups about using the FL. knowing these 2 things
and learning how to express oneself by over-riding these limitations
( as he put it, thinking outside the box ) leads to creative thinking.
its like learning to use 1 light source or 1 film, or paper negatives, wet plate, hand coated
albumen/salt/SG/cyanotype/VDB &c paper or whatever. as soon as one
puts themselves in a situation where they have to think and exploit both the materials
and one's knowledge / experience and (maybe ) new ideas on how these things can be used
creative thinking starts. using thesame 3 or 4 of 5 lenses to make thesame handful or dozens
or 200 rolls of 120 or 35mm spools or 3 boxes of 4x5 film is just that, the same photographs over and over and over again.
isn't the point of it all NOT to take the same old boring photographs and actually learn from our mistakes and from the limitations
we put on ourselves or the equipment puts on us? using a rolleicord/yashica 120 camera ...
which has 1 lens ... or a yashika T4 or oly stylus or box camera or holga or home made pinhole camera ..
the idea that one can only "be creative" if they have 4 different bodies, and 5 different lenses for each body
or 7 different emulsions and exotic ( or not so exotic ) locations &c to me, is relying of one's gear after they might take these boring photographs
so they can say, yeah it is a boring scene but i used xyz body, and abc lens and lmn film, and fgh developer
.. so the images presented become all about the gear and not about anything else ..

Dali · May 26, 2017

LAG said:
Very creative answer to avoid mined roads!

I would be curious to see any creativity coming from a Domke bag... Maybe you have a example to share?

michr · May 26, 2017

jnanian said:
hi michr

i know what you mean, BUT ... if you didn't have a 300mm lens and only had a 50mm or whatever the "one lens" was you were using
i am sure you would have found a way to make the photograph a different way. i am guessing maybe you would have driven to a different spot
and framed/composed differently and maybe it would have also done the scene justice. i think having 1 lens to use, whether it is a 300mm or a 30mm .. might
have you solve the problem of imagemaking a different way that you might not have thought of if you took the " easy way out " and had a 30-300mm zoom
i could be wrong though ...

I will have to disagree with you on this. The scene I was describing is a good example of one where a shorter focal length would not do. The way the wind turbines and electrical towers fit together was best photographed from the position I took the photo. Had I used a 30mm lens, I would have ended up with very little detail once I cropped out the extraneous portion of the photograph. If I'd had gotten close enough to use the 30mm lens effectively, the proportion of objects in the scene would have been vastly different. If I'd been much closer, the objects in the foreground would have dominated, the sky would have diminished in importance. Where you stand matters. That's not to say a good photograph wasn't possible with the 30mm lens, but why not take the photograph from a distance with the long lens, and when you arrive, use the wider lens? And if I'd skipped this opportunity and tried to get closer with a wide lens maybe I would have missed it altogether. The sun was setting.

I've experimented with a variety of constraints to explore photography more creatively. If you take it too far, you end up in happy accident territory, where the best you can hope for is a lucky shot. Sometimes the best tool for the job really is the conventional one. I've driven nails with wrenches and unscrewed bolts with pliers and it's an unglamorous way to get the job done. My photo example above was of the most conventional variety, but I'm happy with how it looked in the viewfinder. I know I wouldn't be satisfied if I'd been forced to pass it up, and since it was so conventional, I don't see anything wrong in using a conventional method to take the photo.

LAG · May 26, 2017

Dali said:
I would be curious to see any creativity coming from a Domke bag... Maybe you have a example to share?

bdial said:
Camera case with a watch dog

Jim Jones · May 26, 2017

Sometimes we need a variety of photo equipment to make the most of whatever opportunities we encounter. I've carried three cameras with three different types of film and a wide range of lenses for this purpose. The one camera, one lens, one film approach is valid in only some circumstances.

faberryman · May 26, 2017

michr said:
Sometimes the best tool for the job really is the conventional one. I've driven nails with wrenches and unscrewed bolts with pliers and it's an unglamorous way to get the job done.

I'm guessing you didn't feel more creative doing so either.

MattKing · May 26, 2017

The exercise of restricting yourself to a single lens is one that you can learn things from - about how you see, and how you can adjust to obtain the photographs you want.
Any time you learn things, you enhance creativity.

Some do say that limitations are needed for creativity

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