Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/20
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> Beaumant Newhall describes (in his autobiography, 'Focus') a lovely cafe
> scene where he was with H.C-B and without looking at his camera the
> exposure and focus were set for a portrait of someone across the tables. In
> an instant the scene was recorded because H.C-B knew what the exposure
> would need to be and he knew how to prefocus his camera, these are the
> techniques of a craft which are sadly not learnt by a modern generation of
> photographers.
This is not such a pipe dream, actually. If I was shooting with an M I would
automatically set it for the ballpark exposure when I went into a new
lighting situation eg the cafe. It would then be easy to focus according to
scale ("without looking at the camera" is IMHO perhaps a slight
exagerration). I have some very nice pictures taken in exactly this way.
Important to be using a 35mm or wider lens, as the framing is pretty hit and
miss.
- --
Johnny Deadman
"Even the best writers talk too much" - Vauvenargues