Re: [Leica] ........ disadvantage of a Leica .......

[Ted Grant <tedgrant@islandnet.com>]

TM wrote:
<<<<<>After the cropping and the composition and the attached brochures
etc.....
>my wife took one look and said, geeeee ...... they don't look like photos
>they look like cut-out postcards!!The colours and the sharpness are so
>crisp.>>

Hi TM,

Is this because you were stopped way down rather than using wider apertures
and isolating scenes and sections to capture the mood of the scene?

I've always found shooting holiday stuff, that if you shoot everything
around the proverbial and recommended "f 8 - 11 and be there" you'll end up
with an awful lot of "postcard images without feeling"  Sharp as hell and
correctly exposed. But dead and dull and boring postcard images.

Or you shoot by personal feelings illustrating your re-actions of the
loction and not the post card shooters idea of "a perfect post card" photo.

You know what some techies say,  "To get the maximum sharpness for your
lens be sure to stop down to 8 or 11". With this method you have the
potential of killing the mood and feeling of the location. Besides we're
using Leica, so what's the big deal about not shooting wide open?

Don't get me wrong, there are times you need to be stopped down to f22 for
max. depth of field for a particular scene. However, I work as much in the
same method as I do on paying assignments, "Using the widest possible
aperture and highest possible shutter speed!"  Everywhere that I do not
require a great depth of field for a given situation.

If you haven't tried this, why not give it a go.  A few frames around the
home town. Be sure to shoot both stopped down and as wide as possible on
the same subject for comparison, then see how you capture a different mood.
Besides, soft out of focus backrounds can be far more pleasing than the
raggedy assed "everything must be sharp" which shows all the clutter in
perfect sharpness!

ted


Ted Grant
This is Our Work. The Legacy of Sir William Osler.
http://www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant