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Author Topic: choosing an angle of view  (Read 2849 times)

petermfiore

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #20 on: June 29, 2019, 02:19:28 pm »

And there you are: zooms, the one thing I no longer own, having only ever had one, and hating it with a vengeance.

They defeat the entire point for the non-assignment situation - for me - because of weight and the inevitable problem of blessed choices which are decidedly not what I want on a walkabout. If I remember the OP correctly, the thing is about finding a focal length that appeals, and using a zoom makes you hop from this to that and make that journey to visual identity so much longer and confusing than it need be.

Remember a time when people bought a Rolleiflex tlr and lived happily ever after?

Enough is enough, and more too much. At least at the beginning.

Photography for joy, I'm a one lens guy...So much better in all respects.

The zoom factor is a working lens for....work. Like I said earlier, these photos are for the making of paintings. To look at my reference photos, you would be hard pressed to find a winer. I mix parts of various images to make a painting.

Peter

faberryman

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #21 on: June 29, 2019, 02:31:10 pm »

...using a zoom makes you hop from this to that and make that journey to visual identity so much longer and confusing than it need be.
Nonsense. Zooms do not make you do anything. They allow you to choose to change a focal length if you want to. You can set them at say 35mm before you leave the house and leave it there. No hopping about unless you choose to do so. Unless of course you have no self-control. You can either turn a zoom ring or change primes, or not. Just depends on how much equipment you feel compared to acquire in the name of purity.
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Alan Klein

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #22 on: June 29, 2019, 03:14:41 pm »


Best thing about 'em: they had no interest in politics at all! Well, neither they nor I ever raised the subject, so conclusions were there to be drawn.

:-)
Just shows you what our lives have become wasting all this time on the forums. :)

Rob C

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #23 on: June 29, 2019, 03:25:38 pm »

Some of you guys are getting mxed up. This is not a discussion about the technical superiority or otherwise of primes or zooms. It is supposedly about something else. Read the OP a second time.

Rob

KLaban

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #24 on: June 29, 2019, 03:32:53 pm »

Just shows you what our lives have become wasting all this time on the forums. :)

Amen.

Rob C

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #25 on: June 29, 2019, 03:41:41 pm »

Just shows you what our lives have become wasting all this time on the forums. :)


We were young then; okay, some were never young at any age. Today, not so young. Some of the girls could be grandmothers now. Not anything wrong with grannies, but you probably know what I mean.

But models aside, had I a normal life these days I wouldn't be spending the time here or anywhere else on the Internet. For example: it's Saturday night in Mallorca; it was hitting 39 degrees C in the car when I started it up after lunch; the evening, now, is gorgeous. In better days we'd be sitting out on the terrace, maybe a candle lit, something cool being sipped, and my soul devouring the beauty in my wife's eyes, her smile, as that low light flickered and my mind wandered here and here. The reality these days is a friggin' iPad in my lap and music in my ears to mask the silence of nothing. Lonely, in the sense of wanting to go out to some bar? Heysoos no! That's the last thing I desire. Not lonely, empty.

It all changes; it always does.

Alan Klein

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #26 on: June 29, 2019, 03:58:22 pm »


We were young then; okay, some were never young at any age. Today, not so young. Some of the girls could be grandmothers now. Not anything wrong with grannies, but you probably know what I mean.

But models aside, had I a normal life these days I wouldn't be spending the time here or anywhere else on the Internet. For example: it's Saturday night in Mallorca; it was hitting 39 degrees C in the car when I started it up after lunch; the evening, now, is gorgeous. In better days we'd be sitting out on the terrace, maybe a candle lit, something cool being sipped, and my soul devouring the beauty in my wife's eyes, her smile, as that low light flickered and my mind wandered here and here. The reality these days is a friggin' iPad in my lap and music in my ears to mask the silence of nothing. Lonely, in the sense of wanting to go out to some bar? Heysoos no! That's the last thing I desire. Not lonely, empty.

It all changes; it always does.

Ah.  The meaning of life.  Mid-life crises.  I had sudden major surgery in April and escaped with my life - for now. The cuts still hurt.  Every day is a good day when your six feet above ground rather than below.  Not to get religious, but a good read of Ecclesiastes might help.  He puts it all in perspective.  He was one of us. 

petermfiore

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #27 on: June 29, 2019, 05:07:19 pm »

One of my favorite quote's, to help keep things in perspective when the world seems to be going insane...



Peter

Rob C

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #28 on: June 30, 2019, 07:16:24 am »

Ah.  The meaning of life.  Mid-life crises.  I had sudden major surgery in April and escaped with my life - for now. The cuts still hurt.  Every day is a good day when your six feet above ground rather than below.  Not to get religious, but a good read of Ecclesiastes might help.  He puts it all in perspective.  He was one of us.


Mid-life crisis? I have enjoyed two of them, the last one about twenty years ago!

Regarding things beyond our ken: I came to terms with my personal version of a god some time ago. That emotional compact has helped a great deal, as did some years in a boarding school, which I detested, but which geared me up to the technique of withdrawing into the self and letting the rest of the aggression roll past, as with terms in hospital, secure in the understanding that nothing is for ever, the bad as the good.

:-)

Lightsmith

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #29 on: July 15, 2019, 06:29:40 pm »

I change the focal length not to change the view angle but to change the perspective and the working distance between the camera and the subject(s). For photographing people a 85mm to 105mm focal length provides both a more flattering perspective and a more comfortable camera to subject working distance.

Often with a landscape I need 85mm or long to not shrink the background perspective and turn mountains into mole hills. For example a photo with flowers in the foreground and Mount Rainer in the background will look the most natural with a 85mm lens and least like the scene one has visualized if using a 24mm focal length lens.

A common problem with photographers is that they do not examine the areas around the subject and include dead areas or distracting elements that they ignored when viewing the scene with their eyes but which the camera does not ignore. I have long believed that the conscious field of view is close to that of a 100mm focal length lens on a 35mm or full frame DSLR camera.
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BJL

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #30 on: July 16, 2019, 02:07:07 am »

Some of you guys are getting mxed up. This is not a discussion about the technical superiority or otherwise of primes or zooms. It is supposedly about something else. Read the OP a second time.

Rob
Indeed we have drifted! So back to that question:
- my suggested way to find one’s  angular FOV preferences is to experiment by using a 4X or 5X standard zoom, and then look for patterns on one’s focal length choices
- for me the favourites turned out to be wide 28 or later 24) and somewhat narrower than normal. 70-100.
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bluekorn

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #31 on: July 16, 2019, 03:41:45 pm »

Thank you all for your many and varied responses. Many of you suggested using a zoom lens to prevent limiting yourself and your choices. I think this option can make good sense. However, I think I’ve discovered that this approach evades the question I was trying to ask.

Without asking the question definitively I think I was trying to suggest that we may be limited by our physiology, by our psychology, by visual habits, regarding the way we see the world most naturally. I think with no camera to my eye I may be seeing the world as if through an inherent focal length 28, 35, 50, etc. If I know that my vision is tailored by God or by serendipity to an angle of view natural to me, then, if I align that angle of view with the angle of view I have on my camera I may be more comfortable and more successful in my photography. Many suggested using the zoom lens for a period of time and then looking back over your shoulder to discover which focal length was most used for the most photos which you deemed successful. I tried this for a while with the Fuji 18-55 and found that most of my “successful” images were right around 40mm. So going forward, I’m committing to the Fuji 27 mm for an extended period of time to see what the constraint will bring to my experience.

Thanks to all for the discussion. Peter
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MattBurt

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #32 on: July 16, 2019, 05:14:18 pm »

I feel like 35mm on full frame best approximates what I see with a casual look but I often want my photo to reflect a different FOV to include or exclude elements as the image calls for. I also go through phases, like shooting lots of 300mm landscapes for a few weeks. Long landscapes can be especially good when the sky is clear and not going to make for an interesting compositional element. But then maybe I'll be more into the UWA if we get a good streak of clouds and sunsets/sunrises. Lately I've been shooting with my 24-70 and I notice I mostly shoot at 24 or 70 and less in between. For me it all seems to go in cycles, sometimes with the cycles of conditions, sometimes with what I'm into looking at the most right then. 
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Petrus

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #33 on: August 05, 2019, 02:11:08 am »

It really is just a matter of composition. What angle of view is needed, that is. If I try to get a pleasing image I just choose a prime which works at the circumstances, or adjust a zoom focal length. Zooms are convenient especially when travelling, and are plenty good enough nowadays and fast enough for travel/landscape stuff. The "way I see things" often connected to normal or 35mm lenses really matters only in context with street/documentary photography, which tries to show things "as they are" and try to convey a feeling of "being there" (large depth of field, etc), avoiding "artsy" technical effects not available to the eye like compressed perspective or shallow DOF. If we look at the world as interesting compositions there are no rules, all angles of view are allowed. Then even wide angle distortions do not matter, and often interesting details can be picked up with narrow angle long focal length lenses.
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armand

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Re: choosing an angle of view
« Reply #34 on: August 05, 2019, 10:18:41 am »

I tried the one prime only for few days in a row in New York some years ago; can't say that I've found the light.
These days I tend to go for zooms when hiking and either zooms (for convenience) or primes (for specific look or experimenting) when traveling. It is a matter of time also though as I'm rarely alone with all the time in the world to prepare shots.

Now going back to the OP, I've found that the decision is mostly personal and most people cannot really explain it. For example I'm drawn more towards the longer FL and I have difficulties using consistently the ultrawides.
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