Confused

There are times when we all just ‘fumble’…. well, I had that time the other day, so let me explain.

For the past 6-7 months my photography has been concentrating on a ‘project’ that is a soon to be photo book. One of the guidelines I instilled within my self was that I was looking for symbolism, which, meant that I wasn’t looking for any humanity, just objects. To boot….I shot exclusively with a 55mm lens and with my Olympus Om2-SP.

But last night….I went out with a Leica MA plus a Voigtlander VC11 light meter attached to the hot-shoe. Normally not a problem. But given my past 6-7 months I found myself stumbling along just doing mundane street photography in downtown Tucson with nothing explicit to shoot.

Exactly now where did I stumble? To start off the bungling….take the focal length. Instead of 55mm I was now using a 35mm. Not a lot of difference but enough. One thing I have learned is to take out one lens…..only one lens. Concentrate on that focal length so one’s eyes and brain become in sync and what I ‘seek for’ is what I find; all based upon the focal length I go out with. So shooting for months with a 55mm lens kind of spoiled me a bit too much as my mind sought out photos more attuned to a 55, rather than a 35.

To move on…… in my project I purposely selected ‘no humanity’….only objects. But yesterday I became torn between a combination of both people and objects and I feel…looking back at my shots (on film, so I have no idea what they look like), I feel I missed on both accords. Now did I? not sure….

Moving on some more…..I found myself shooting with a Leica MA where I was experimenting with the Voigtlander VC11 light meter for the first time in the field. This particular model of camera doesn’t connect to the light meter so I have several steps here. First….attempt to adjust my camera settings so they come pretty close, based upon the sunny 16 rule. Second….take a reading on the VC11 after setting what I feel is a good aperture. Third, read the reading…..and move my settings on VC11 to my camera lens and camera. Then shoot. …. This is a bit more time consuming than thought considering I need to wear reading glasses.

With my reading glass issue…..I find myself in a process within itself. My glasses are a top my head while I scan looking for a shot. Then I pull my glasses down to take readings on the light meter. I keep them down as I adjust my camera settings. Then I raise my glasses and take a shot. Then…repeat performance. Seemingly now, not all difficult but remember that street photography requires a bit of quickness to not miss a shot and that entire process with my glasses simply slows me up, thus….I fumble and stumble.

How to move forward…? First..get bifocals. The lower half will be my reading cheaters while the upper half will be essentially clear glass as I am not near-sided. Then, practice, practice and practice on the procedure of using the light meter and making sure I properly transfer said readings to the camera…

Sounds easy….is it?

Reading Light

I had someone the other day come up to me and ask, how do I know my images are correctly exposed? Well, this is not difficult. One just has to put in the time and understand light, your light meter, your camera settings (Aperture and Shutter, ISO)….

Now for me….I always shoot 400 speed film as I work mainly in street photography. So given that, my ISO is always 400, right? That is one leg out of the way and now I just have aperture and shutter as variables.

First….trust yourself…. learn to shed those inhibitions or worries of taking the ‘perfect photo’ for yes, we all have our photos which come out a bit under-over exposed. So what? …. It isn’t the end of the world. So get away from the fear factor of imperfect photo’s.

Second…. learn the Sunny 16 rule. As mentioned, I shoot with 400 film so I know part of the tri-leg is ISO. Using the Sunny 16 rule I then try to keep my shutter at 500 since I am using 400 film, so I set my shutter at or near that ISO speed. From that, I look at the weather, the sun, the light…. If a hot day and the sun has sharp shadows, then I go for F16. If a sunny day on somewhat blurred shadows, I go with F11. If a partial cloudy day with shadows someone and going, I shoot F8. If cloudy, I shoot 5.6.

Now…it also depends on what you are attempting to expose. Are you in the open or in the shadows? you have to adjust for that.

Third….practice the Sunny 16 rule. Get a portable light meter and just walk around with it all day. Anytime you see a potential shot, take a reading. But before you take that reading, attempt to guess at what you feel might be the proper settings? Do you want F8 at 500 or perhaps F11 at 200? They are the same. Do you want F5.6 at 500 or F8 at 200? …. The wider or closer you are might vary depending on what you want in focus? More….or less?

Practice….Practice….practice….. just take the meter with you the way to the grocery store, or running an errand and sitting in a car. Eventually it will become second nature to you. Whenever I go outside,….my brain naturally thinks of ‘metering’ the scene. Am I metering under a tree, or in the open?

So it is not a mystery….photographers have been reading the light for over a century and a half…. it isn’t rocket science. But you do need to practice. Today with digital photography and “P” mode’ and automate or AP priority etc…. people really are not ‘thinking’ when they do photography, they merely take a snapshot; knowing the camera will do the rest. Digital has forced laziness upon folks. The light meter inside their camera tells them which way to turn the F-stop. To the left, to the right….stand up, sit down, fight fight fight. But hey, you get it…… I am essentially connecting the dots and waiting for the red dot to light up in the middle to know I have exposure correct, or…..I don’t even do that and just have everyone on “P” mode, the ultimate lazy man’s way. To boot…look at ISO as modern cameras go up to 50,000 or more in ISO compared to my 400 (film speed). Gees….

So…challenge yourself. Find a manual camera film, or even a digital camera that allows you to shoot manually….. Learn photography.