Spyro P. Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Ok I was thinking about it last night and I have a few minutes, so I might as well put down my thoughts. These things are applicable to me, YMMV:
- I'm a street tog, not a studio or sports tog. These guys already have very interesting subjects, models, athletes, whatever, they dont really expect much or need much from a lens. As long as its sharp, free of distortions/aberrations and focusing quickly, they're usually happy. I dont have interesting subjects, most times I try to make something interesting out of something uninteresting, using anything I can: Light, lens, my inagination. The lens is very important for me because, unlike the camera, it leaves a recognisable signature on very photo, the more recognisable the better. I have noticed that most primes have a certain sweet spot, a distance from subject & certain f stop that they produce something unique. Its not that hard to find it, all it takes is some experimentation. And I'm not talking get a superfast prime and start shooting wide open all the time, yeah its cool, but lets face it, most people do exactly that the moment they get their hands on an L prime. Cool, but it gets old pretty quick. For my fisheye its f8 and focus to hyperfocal distance for example. In this setting it produces images with tremendous resolution, the type of images that you discover new details everytime you look at them. Also it draws street lights very nicely. I like to find these sweet spots and stick to them, even plan my shooting around them. Zooms have sweet spots as well, just not so pronounced and more difficult to find because they change as focal length changes. Again, I'm not talking about shallow dof, it can be something as simple as a beautiful flare. Maybe when I grow as a photographer I will learn not to depend on lenses, but at the moment I enjoy using them as painting tools.
- I believe there are good photos everywhere, if I learn to see them. Everywhere around me there are things that can look good, suitable for every focal length, its actually so many it gets chaotic. The spectators can be as interesting as the game, the fingers can be as interesting as the face, the garden can be as interesting as the flower. I never felt I was restricted by a focal length and if I came back with no keepers it was my fault, not the lens's. I bought a couple of zooms and tried to love them, but all I was doing was zooming into the obvious. I prefer to let the lens recommend things around me rather than me forcing the camera to photograph what I think will look good. Maybe I'm just not good enough for a zoom, and I dont mean that in a sarcastic way.
Just my thoughts.
Spyro
Edited by Spyro P. on Aug 29, 2008 at 04:02 AM GMT
Edited by Spyro P. on Aug 29, 2008 at 04:03 AM GMT
Edited on Aug 28, 2008 at 11:03 PM
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