[Leica] Help with Nocti

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

"Selective Focus" was the term used  in decades past to describe those rare
cases when you'd set your lens wide open to only get a very narrow area in
focus. With the bulk of the area of your shot being thrown very out of
focus. It was thought of as an effect. A thing you could do on rare
occasions like if you subject happened to be standing in front of an
practically ugly chain fence. With little rusted gargoyles on it.

The LUG rumor says that in the 90's ALL photojournalists shot wide open all
the time with only the big fat babies stopping down for any reason at all.
But by the 90's photojournalism was dominated by wide angle zooms starting
with  21mm?35mm and then expanding with the technology and market demands.
And if you shot those wide open you'd NOT get that "selective focus" effect.
You'd get PLENTY in focus. You'd get MOST of the shot in focus with very
little bokeh to look at.
NOW if you do an internet picture search for PHOTOJOURNALISM with Google or
Bing or "picture of the day" you see nothing but "deep focus".
That's a term perhaps gotten from cinematographers (citizen Kane, etc) which
means EVERYTHING is in focus from front to back. You're not going to be able
to do a bokeh expos? becuae there is no bokeh. On most street photography
nowadays.

The only place I've been able to find this odd wide open or nothing fetish
is on the LUG.
The rest of the world is aware of the fact that more than a hairline of
information needs to be clear in a photograph.


-- 
Mark R.
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/winterdays/


> From: Geoff Hopkinson <hopsternew at gmail.com>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:12:28 +1000
> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Help with Nocti
> 
> John, I have a different angle on this that maybe is worth a thought as
> well. I don't subscribe to the MUST use wide open school.
> 
> Because you may have the Noctilux as your 50 and value what it can do for
> you but may not always need to shoot wide open?
> Because its performance increases (resolution, vignetting etc) when you
> stop it down and/or you may prefer to have more DoF for some subjects? But
> that last I think is more about how you prefer the 'look' of the out of
> focus areas and the transitions.
> 
> For my two cents I have the Summilux 50 ASPH and I value its strengths. I
> checked and found just 4% of my shots with it over the last 3 years were
> shot at f/1.4
> 
> 
> YSPAMV ;-)
> 
> (Your Subjects, Preferences and Apertures May Vary)
> 
> Mit freundlichen Gruessen
> Geoff
> http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman
> 
> 
> 
> On 23 January 2012 11:50, John McMaster <john at chiaroscuro.co.nz> wrote:
> 
>> Who said anything about follow focus? Why buy a Noctilux and stop down??
>> 
>> john
>> 
>> 
> 
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