Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/05/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]1/15th is my borderline between reasonable and risky. "Stand still, will ya". Subjects are not always as steady as photographers. One of the reasons stabilised lenses are not magic. Stabilised subjects would be good, sometimes. But I must say, some of my favorite shots have come with speeds around 1/8th and 1/15th. One still child in the middle of a bunch of blurred friends can make a lovely portrait. And I like to see the movement of hands or feet in shots. 1/15th is ideal for this. I recently used an R8 for some campsite shots at dusk. At 1/4, on a tripod. Lovely blurry fire and spark trails in all the shots. But in 5 of the 6 at least one of the subjects had that mashed face look, like in the old days. oh well. Rick. On 28/05/2004, at 4:13 PM, Ted Grant wrote: > Doug Herr offered:: >> I have found that with longer lenses a shoulder stock combined with a >> monopod make a decent camera support for lenses as large as the 280 >> f/4 APO and 400mm f/6.8. I've run a few tests of the slow-shutter > capability >> and I've found that 1/15 sec is viable with the 280 and this setup >> when > I'm >> leaning against something solid.> > > > Rick Dykstra responded: > >> You must be made of concrete Doug! Well done. :-)<< > > Hi Rick, > I'm sure photographer's like Doug and myself who use long lenses quite > a > bit, that the "practice of this" allows us the, if you will, luxury to > shoot > at slower shutter speeds hand held. Certainly where others may fear to > go. > > It does make a difference what you get away with depending on how much > you > work with certain lenses and under what conditions that governs the > ratio of > keepers to garbage. > > Where we get away with a 1/15th shutter speed is dependent on > basically how > many hours, days or whatever amount of time we do it allowing us to > automatically go into "shooting slower speed mode" when it's > necessary. It's > a kind of taking the body position, holding camera, the leaning on > whatever > else we do, we do without thought purely from doing it so often. It > happens > by rote without any firm thought process. > > When I have no choice but to use slow speeds I never think about it, > as my > complete concentration is on capturing the subject at peak action and > not > worrying about the shutter speed. Simply because if you do think > about it, > "gee I'm shooting at 1/15th I better be very careful here." Do that > and the > action is over, then it's "Oh sh...t! Damn!" :-) Its like, just do it! > Don't think about it! ;-) > > ted > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >