Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Ted >>Unless I require a deep depth of field, I work with the highest possible shutter speed and the widest possible aperture, in this way you soften distracting backgrounds....<< Funny you should mention this. This simple bit of wisdom continually escapes me. My photographs are way to cluttered. I don't do a good job of "knowing" my subject. I don't do a good job of "isolating" my subject. Sometimes I think we make photography sound too complex. It's really comes down to a few basic things. I don't mean to say easy things; just basic. Learning; understanding; actually putting the basics into practice is very difficult. I'm a walking example. After looking at countless photographs and thinking, "these would be much better without all the distracting background", I go out and shoot everything at f8 just because I can and still maintain adequate shutter speeds. I should opened up to f2.8 or f4 more, and move in closer to (and further isolate) main subjects. Rather than say that I need to stop down to improve lens performance, I should conentrate more on using the widest possible aperture. After all, isn't yet another basic that Leica lenses actually excel at wide apertures? There's no compelling reason to stop down. David