Change your perspective & lens - now you're a real photographer ;)

JonMcGuffin

Guys, This is probably one of the best threads on here for quite a while............

I'm glad you think so.

@WestEndFoto - Thank you for the complete response. I will say though that having never shot with a film camera, maybe I'm missing something; actually I'm sure that I am. However, like anything with time and sincere effort, I don't think any of today's technology would really limit me.

WestEndFoto

Guys, This is probably one of the best threads on here for quite a while............

I'm glad you think so.

@WestEndFoto - Thank you for the complete response. I will say though that having never shot with a film camera, maybe I'm missing something; actually I'm sure that I am. However, like anything with time and sincere effort, I don't think any of today's technology would really limit me.

You are welcome!

I think that people like you and I and many of the active contributors on this forum are an exception - highly motivated and resourceful. Therefore, my comments are not completely applicable. Even myself, while I shot film, my darkroom experience is extremely limited - as an occasional assistant - but enough to appreciate what is involved and that there is value in it.

KnockKnock

Being borderline old fart, I'll wax on about the good old days. Not only are things in the world changing, but they're changing at a faster rate than say, when I was learning photography in the mid-70's. So the amount of time we had to ponder the basics (of photography per se) was great compared to the amount of time we actually got to take and view our pictures. So in order to be a competent photographer you pretty much were forced to understand all aspects of exposure. Composition got a lot more time, because the consequences of being sloppy was a lot of wasted time, chemicals, paper etc. We also lived with our gear a lot longer and it was simpler, so we got to know it pretty deeply. I don't think though that I learned much about perspective then. I had a 28mm and a 50mm lens and only thought about what fit in the frame.

Fast forward, I will say that the immediate feedback you get with digital photography is hugely educational, provided you're one who learns from their mistakes. Whenever I get new gear, I can take 200 shots of a particular indoor environment, jot down all the adjustments/settings (P-mode and auto-WB doesn't get everything). That would have taken weeks of costly work back when. I got motivated to really learn the various AF modes and shot birds swooping to my neighbor's bird feeder (swallows are tough!), probably rattled off 100 in 30 minutes. Again, great learning experience.

Then again, I see too many examples (look at your friends' photo libraries) of more not being better. This isn't news to anyone around here, but it seems to fit with the direction of this conversation. We give Ken Rockwell a good knock in the other thread, but he hammers one message pretty loud and clear in his early writing, and I couldn't agree more. Slowing down and thinking before taking the picture improves ones photography more than clicking away and buying new gear. So, I'll sit here with my 2009 Mac Mini and load up some D810 36mp 14 bit raw files... that should teach me something. Rambling now....

sevencrossing

I started to learnt my profession, not with film, but with 5x4 glass plates. 50 years on, I am retired, but still learning

Yes there is something to said for plotting your own d log e curves and making physical unsharp masks but you can learn a lot quicker in the digital age . You no longer have to wait for film to dry, the prints to wash or for the Kodachrome to come back from Box14. You can experiment with lots of different settings, without blowing your year's materials budget, in a single day

In the digital age, I can spend a lot more time on composition
I still spent a long time on post production but what might have taken me days, in the age of film. I can now accomplish in hours

If I had to go to back to the darkroom, I would give up photography completely

Mods. Yes this is a very interesting thread by nothing to with perspective & lens

tektrader

I started with a 8x10 view camera back in the dark ages. Loading the film in the cassette, developing, printing, dodging and burning the print etc.

To be honest, It was all a lot of trouble and akin to the black arts. But it was something few people knew how to do then and even fewer now. I like that....

The only thing about having lived through that era is, I feel people who have just had exposure to the Digital age have missed out quite seriously.

In some ways, the knowledge from using the view camera sticks in my mind and has a use even now. As much as I would like a tilt/shift lens for my D800. I fear I would never be able to replicate the feeling. Yes, I get nostalgic, do I want the old back again? Sometimes.

Life was a lot simpler back then.........

Msmoto

@tektrader

Love it.....yes, in the 1960's I shot up to 11" x 14" Ektachrome, requires a bit of thought before doing the there shot bracket....and this in controlled conditions.

So, maybe we need a thread where the requirement to post is a birthday before 1950....LOL?

spraynpray

I like that number Tommie, it makes me feel young (ish)...

Msmoto

Here it is..... more LOL

http://forum.nikonrumors.com/discussion/4592/thread-for-the-over-the-hill-gang#Item_1

spraynpray

Feeling left out now... (

sevencrossing

Life was a lot simpler back then.........

You are kidding

Today you don't need film or even a camera
everything you need to take a photo and share it with your friends is a phone
What is more, it does movies and is the size of a cigarette packet

JonMcGuffin

Life was a lot simpler back then.........

You are kidding

Today you don't need film or even a camera
everything you need to take a photo and share it with your friends is a phone
What is more, it does movies and is the size of a cigarette packet

Yeah, I think simpler can be defined in many different ways. Yes, it's insanely more "simple" to take a picture now. Yes, because of such complexity and options in the world, it's no longer as simple as a camera, a roll of film, and darkroom. You have so much to choose from and options, etc. Oh, and now you have message boards where people like us can have discussions that wasn't at all possible "back then..." More complex, less simple...

I'm born in 1973 so I guess I'm not quite in the old fart club yet, but thank you guys for the insight. I think this all ties into the original point though in that "getting the picture" has so much more to do with gear than anybody realizes.

My D750 arrives tomorrow.... I'm excited for that.

tektrader

I like that number Tommie, it makes me feel young (ish)...

Me too, Thank God............... +1

TriShooter

This is a wonderful article for reinforcing the value of using all of our lenses, not just our very convenient, light, and zoom lenses which most of us carry every time we shoot like the 16-35mm VR (or the 12-24mm), 24-70mm, and the 70-200. This article is timely because \Nikon's new lineup of lighter telephoto lenses in their E /FL telephoto lens series. These new lenses are changing what I will shoot going forward significantly.

For example, I have loved the Nikon 300 & 400mm for decades, and was never totally enamoured of Nikon's 600mm lens although it is an excellent lens for its kind. I truly disliked my TC-17EII which was less of a quality combination than the Tamron 200-500mm. Nikon's new AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR has changed my opinion completely about the 600mm focal length, and the TC-17EII.

The AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens is absolutely amazing in sharpness, contrast, and is resolution capability. I can grab this new lens with one hand with complete confidence, and effortlessly place it on my Wimberley gimbal mount where it feels like a feather as easily as my 400mm lens. I've made shots at extreme distances with the 600mm E FL now that are mind blowing to me, with, and without, the TC-17EII mounted that would have been impossible for me in previous years. I am now much more inclined to carry these big lenses into the field.

Toward this goal a LowePro Pro Trekker 650 AW is coming in tomorrow from BHPhoto with the hope that it will encourage me to reach for my longer focal length lenses more often. I am now looking into a system to communicate in a natural voice to my subjects over a longer distance because the new E FL lenses are so easy to pull out, and setup.

I figured out in my early fifties, admittedly with the help of a close friend, that that 95 percent of my short putts never went into the hole. Using the same logic it occurred to me that 95 percent of the time I never shoot with the lenses I am not carrying with me at the time. LOL. Living a long time has some advantages !!!

sevencrossing

Toward this goal a LowePro Pro Trekker 650 AW is coming in tomorrow from BHPhoto

I think Joe McNally has a very big truck to carry his lenses and cameras, a second truck for lighting and a third for his assistances

TriShooter

LOL. @sevencrossings that is a valid, and very wise observation. )

It turns out I will need two of these 650 AW cases. One for portrait, and another for wildlife. Nice bag btw.

FreezeAction

So, maybe we need a thread where the requirement to post is a birthday before 1950....LOL?

First of all I qualify. Now about perspective and what was beat into my brain decades ago in college photography. We could for one class only use a 35mm body with a 50mm lens and not even TMax but the older B&W film I don't remember. Then we were told to get rid of the 5'6" syndrome. Study the subject and check with the view from down low to over your head. A note that one B&W view camera shooter still says at lectures is to view your shot with one eye only. His normal perspective is about 20mm in 35mm terms.

vtc2002

I think perspective is alot like the rules of composition in that I do not think there should be any or that they should be quidelines and not rules. To say that a photo has good composition or perspective by following some rule such rule of thirds is like saying every good dish must have garlic or onions. They both may be good in pasta but they would they would be horrible in ice cream or a cake. I think one of the things that helped with perspective was learning to shoot photos with a 8 x 10 view camera. With the image on the ground glass being upside down and backwards. It forced me to visualize the photo that I wanted to take and make adjustments so that the ground glass image match what I wanted. I think this art has been lost or at best digital photography has made it more difficult to learn. Today I still shoot with a 4 x5, 8 x 10, medium format film cameras. I may take only 10 photos using film a week but may take several hundred digital images. I use my D810 when scouting locations and fun stuff but I still use techniques that I learned from shooting film. Don't get wrong I am not trashing digital photography. I think there is value in slowing down and being purposeful in taking photos whether it is film or digital.