How do you...?

[kaxdd]

Good day! Just thought of starting a new thread for newbies like me to post questions regarding anything about RF, compact and P&S. Experts and professionals, please feel free to post some pictures and share your tips and tricks.

How do you use zone focusing and yet still able to set the shutter accurately when shooting from the hip? I tried a roll doing this, but 90% of my shots are either under- or over-exposed. Do you use Aperture Priority? I am using a R4M, so I do not have this function. Hope to learn more and shoot more!

 

[Royale With Cheese]

Hi

you dont need aperture priority to zone focus. You need to get your metering right.

I wouldnt recommend shooting from the hip. I may sound a bit harsh but shooting from the hip yields no result, its hit & run, I wouldnt even say 50-50 to get a picture but why waste your time shooting from the hip?

Unless you are taking shots in geylang lorongs, I dont see the need to shoot from the hip. Always take the camera up to your face, bend down if you want lower shots, compose yourself.

& when you shoot from the hip, you cant see your meter in the VF, that is why all the shots are exposed wrongly. Unless you got your sunny 16 rolls dialed in or a hand held meter, I dont see you would be getting the shots exposed right.

That is my opinion on hip shooting la, might differ for indviduals. Just take it with a pinch of salt.

 

[virtualme78]

I have to say I'm also guilty of shooting from hip sometimes and most of the time the shot isn't worth keeping. If you really have to, have your aperture and shutter speed ready, set the distance for focus, "aim" and shoot then forget about it...

 

[Yoricko]

Shooting from the hip is like playing roulette.

IF you still want to shoot from your sexy hips ...
Raise the camera and find an average value to meter, meter it, and change settings appropriately.
All you have to do is focus from your sexy hips and shoot!
Rinse and repeat every single time (every single time!) you enter a new light zone. If you see a subtle change in value, it is probably half-stop over or under.

Metering wise, I know my hands are of a certain brightness and I just stick my hand about 20 cm from the lens and make sure the main source of light (sun, lamp, whatever) illuminates it, then I adjust accordingly.

 

[raytoei]

Okay,

you mentioned 3 things here:

a. Holding steady and framing from the hip

b. aperture / shutter speed

c. general Street shooting.

----------------------------------

a. If you do not have a steady hand, then don't shoot from the hip. Or get a film camera with a hip viewfinder eg. Yashica T4. or even the Horizon 202 panoramic camera.

b. Aperture and shutter speed. Either an aperture priority camera like Olympus XA. But you know, learning Sunny 16 isn't that hard. Or come to the worst, pick up a lightmeter off ebay. Selenium types are like <25 usd.

c. But if you want to shoot street, the above a. and b. while important isn't that critical, what defines street shooting with a rangefinder from all the other SLR wannabees...is how to focus without raising the camera to the eye level....

here's how you do it...

See attached picture. This a typical rangefinder lens.

See the top ring from the right, that's the aperture ring, assuming a bright sunny-16 day, you would use an aperture of f/16.

See the triangle on the ring from the left, this isn't really a ring but it has several DEPTH OF FIELD markings identical on the lens on either side, 16 11 8 5.6 4 2V2 4 5.6 8 11 16.

The next ring is the focusing ring, there is Metres and Feet.

Modern cameras do not have the DOF markings on the modern lenses, even prime ones too.

Here I am going to make several assumptions:

Assumption#1 You shoot Street, subjects are around 3 to 10 or more metres,

Assumption#2 Assuming you are using F16, in this example

Move the focusing ring so that the Infinity marking rests on the DOF marking of the same number as the Aperture setting. ie. Move the Infinity symbol ontop of the 16.

Find the Distance markings that rests on the other side of the DOF ring. In this example, at f/16, it sits somewhere between 2 - 3 metres, eg. 2.5m.

This means, if you are on f/16, then by moving the focus ring to rest the infinity on the f16 on the DOF ring, THEN anywhere between 2.5m to Infinity, it will be focused. Of course, different lens is different. But the method is the same.

With this method, you solve focusing on moving objects, you are also able to conceal it without raising the camera to your eyes.

This is the gist of Hyperfocus distancing.

hope this helps.

raytoei

 

[sweat100]

The secret recipe that modern SLR lens can't do, is HYPERFOCAL DISTANCE FOCUSING.

raytoei

Actually that is not true. If you have a SLR prime lens you can do that. The markings are there. The problem is most SLR lenses are usually zoom lens, which results in no DOF scale.

I suggest you meter somewhere about the same lighting condition (usually I use the reflected light from the floor). Dial the settings in shutter and aperture and set the hyperfocal distance. Try to use a wider lens like 35mm or wider to get more DOF and area of coverage.

If you find that you still don't like the method, use a TLR. I do my "fake" hip shooting using TLR. Works very well and usually people don't notice it.

 

[raytoei]

sweat100,

my bad...my modern canon 1.8 AF does not have DOF markings. Only older SLR Lens comes with DOF markings.

 

[sweat100]

sweat100,

my bad...my modern canon 1.8 AF does not have DOF markings. Only older SLR Lens comes with DOF markings.

Yeah, I guess that Canon just omitted the DOF scales conveniently as they think feel a lot of people would rather AF. They only have it on the prime lenses with focusing scale window.

 

[Yoricko]

Actually, a lot of non-autofocus SLR lenses have DOF markings.

 

[bayusuputra]

Actually, a lot of non-autofocus SLR lenses have DOF markings.

yes, and a lot of AF lenses do not have that.. not only canon lenses.. technology kills some skills.. ;(

 

[virtualme78]

imho, its always good to learn things like zone focus, hyperfocusing and sunny 16.... who knows it may be useful someday

 

[newghost]

I think those green bubble level attached to the hotshoe will be a good aid if you really must shoot from the hip...

 

[bayusuputra]

imho, its always good to learn things like zone focus, hyperfocusing and sunny 16.... who knows it may be useful someday

yes, rather than to rely solely on technology, it is better to know these things..

 

[kaxdd]

Thanks guys for all the tips! I do know how to zone focus, just not very good at estimating the shutter speed. My 21mm Color Skopar and 50mm Nokton do have the DOF markings, so I'm making use of that.

Just to side-track, what filters do you guys use for your lenses? I'm thinking of getting UV filters for my both lenses...

 

[Yoricko]

Thanks guys for all the tips! I do know how to zone focus, just not very good at estimating the shutter speed. My 21mm Color Skopar and 50mm Nokton do have the DOF markings, so I'm making use of that.

Just to side-track, what filters do you guys use for your lenses? I'm thinking of getting UV filters for my both lenses...

You don't need to estimate shutter speed.

Raise your camera and point at something relatively grey or average, meter, and set!

If you fear that raising the camera will 'break' the scene, meter some random average object every single time you enter a new 'light-zone'. So if you were to photograph anyone in the similar 'light-zone' you've metered, it would be almost spot-on.

Either that or, you can actually keep the camera raised almost all the time so that most people around you will get used to that camera sticking out of your face.

--

Filters:

Hoya or B+W multi-coated UV works well for protection. For B&W work, you can try to experiment with yellow filters, it darkens the sky just a tiny little bit and some other stuff.

No matter how expensive or good a filter is, any piece of glass you put in front of the lens will definitely 'degrade' image quality. Most multi-coated filters don't actually degrade image quality but just makes the lens more prone to veiling flare. Multi-coated filters are a lot less likely to be affected by flare compared to their non-coated counterparts.

 

[kaxdd]

Alright! Thanks Yoricko-san for the tips! I'll try it when I have the time and chance!

 

[osocan]

I do know how to zone focus, just not very good at estimating the shutter speed.

One quick and dirty method I like to use is to point my camera and meter the road surface or pavement beneath me when I am shooting street. May not be the most accurate but good enough for me. Just have to make sure that the road wasnt freshly paved.

 

[sim4nee]

Sorry am I missing something? You mentioned you're newbie but you want to do zone focusing? And worst you can't get the meter right yet. Please practice how to frame/compose, how to meter, when to click the shutter and all the basic stuff first.

There is no short cut in photography, you master 1 technique by 1 technique, maybe 2 at the same time if you're really good. Photography is not about looking cool neither, what may seems to be cool thing other photographer does may not be the right thing to learn. Always remember it's the basic that get you far. Picaso's abstract work came from years of practice in realism painting, he wasn't suka suka just want to do abstract, he only started when he think he got his classic stuff right.

 

[sim4nee]

No matter how expensive or good a filter is, any piece of glass you put in front of the lens will definitely 'degrade' image quality. Most multi-coated filters don't actually degrade image quality but just makes the lens more prone to veiling flare. Multi-coated filters are a lot less likely to be affected by flare compared to their non-coated counterparts.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[kaxdd]

Newbie can't do zone focusing? I didn't know that... Guess newbies are not welcomed to find out more information to become better...

I'm not saying I am doing a short cut in RF. I am just finding out more information on some of the know-hows and tips of what you guys are good at, just as a sharing session. I am not trying to be a Picasso or Da Vinci. I am just trying to learn more and practise more.