Crazy Idea For Daylight Street Shooting With Fixed or Single Lens Cameras

R

ruben

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Till now I have been using two cameras, one with ISO 200 film for daylight and the other with ISO 1600 for night shooting.

The problem during daylight street shooting with one camera is that due to my city climatic situations I am not surrounded with high buildings, nor roofed by overcast clouds. Therefore I am in a constant schyzofrenic situation of direct sunlight and shadows.

Both alternate with simple and extreme speed. You are besides an open space - direct sun. You cross the street - shadow. Shadows may vary a bit.

So you can understand that the street photographer here is constantly preseting his camera from f/11 to f/4 or lower. Or whatever equivalent you like, according to your preferences.

And, of course, any preset of DOF is out of question, although I am not used to it, and you can understand why.

But I have been cooking an idea to settle things down, that may or may not work: To add a third camera.

Thus two cameras will be dedicated to daylight in a way so simple that it sounds to me too silly, yet let hear your opinions.

One camera will work with ISO 100 color film for direct sunlight situations, and will be presetted in aperture and speed. Perhaps DOF too. Direct sunlight under bright sky never changes its intensity, unless you are at early morning or evening.

The other camera will be loaded with ISO 400 BW film and presetted in "auto", for shadow situations. I take for granted that to some extent this "auto" light metering may be faulty, but the margin cannot be too gross.

Therefore, I will be walking with two cameras and the only thing left to me is to pick the right camera, meter the distance and shoot. This is of course just the technical side.

Nevertheless there is a slight problem in this approach: mixed light. On situations that what interest me is under sunlight, no problem: the sunlight camera will be used.

But at situations of mixed light where the subject is shadowed - I will have to use the BW film shadows camera, but not in "auto". Hmmm... some trouble here.

Yet overall, it sounds this way I may improve my speed of reaction and ensure better exposures. Do you agree ?

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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if you ask me - one camera for all situations will make you faster as time passes. put 400 asa bw film and guess exposure. bw films are very forgiving. ;)
 
Pitxu said:
Ruben,

I think you need a Kodak "Instamatic" camera.

There is a switch on the front. One position for "sun", another position for "shadow".
Click to expand...

when i was a boy 3rd or 4th grade - that was a camera i used. :D
few months ago i filled one cassete with bw film - i must try it one day.
 
Dont know about you, but this setup would confuse the c****p out of me. Even if you make them. PLus having 3 cameras at a time .......If I wanted to go to such extreme - I'd use a Hassy or a Kiev 88 or similar and have 3 backs and only one camera - a lot less to carry. Plus changing settings is not that hard. But it seems like some Digital with pre-set modes is a way to go to achieve what you want.

Or, just one camera and iso 400 film as was said above. ;)
Why make life more difficult?
 
Pitxu said:
Ruben,

I think you need a Kodak "Instamatic" camera.

There is a switch on the front. One position for "sun", another position for "shadow".
Click to expand...

Ruben

Pitxu's idea is very good. You could work out the "best" combination of settings for bright sun and hyperfocal distance and also those for deep shadow then mark on your camera the apertures and shutter settings with sun and cloud/dark symbols. This would allow you to work very quickly and intuitively in those particular circumstances.
 
ruben said:
But I have been cooking an idea to settle things down, that may or may not work: To add a third camera.
Click to expand...
What you should do, is buy a stereo camera, and put an ND filter over one of the two lenses.. That way, you'll have an instantaneous +/- bracket of your shot and you can select the best exposed picture at home.. :p
 
Ruben - I don't know what the light extremes are, so I may be off. You are there and have been trying it. It just seems that 400 ISO would be the best choice, and an ND filter for when sunlight is too bright. I understand with Kontax lenses it may be hard to find ND for them all. Have you thought about converting a UV filter with a Conkin ND filter? Having another camera is always good, and I think you have the ability to make any Kiev sing. But carrying two bodies seems like a bit of a bother. Mind you, I used to do that, but I don't know if I would want to do it any more.

EDIT: Actually, after reading this again, I think rather than trying to convert a regular filter with a Conkin gel, it would be easier to figure out a way to put a Conkin filter holder on and use their ND.
 
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It sounds like you need an M7 or a Bessa with aperture priority automation and ISO 400 film. Digital, of course, would let you change ISO at will. Why use RF's if you are going to carry around the weight of a Nikon D3 anyway?
 
While I sometimes like to carry two cameras - ISO100 and more, I think that old Lynx 1000 or 5000 loaded with XP2 (OK, there other nice films too) could solve problem to some extent.

I know Ruben about your struggle with 1000 model, helicoid specifically, though there are working pieces.

Again, sometimes it's fun to grab guitar case, loaded with cameras, and go out. But then one just has, simply has to burn film!
 
'But at situations of mixed light where the subject is shadowed - I will have to use the BW film shadows camera, but not in "auto". Hmmm... some trouble here.'

I don't understand why you can't use "auto" in mixed light situations. What am I missing?

In any event, if you are dealing with that kind of brightness range, buy a Hexar RF, load it 400 speed film, set it to AE and the lens to 5.6. With the Hexar RF's 1/4000th top shutter speed, you will be able to shoot in full sun at 5.6. With 400 speed film, you will be able to shoot in shadow at 5.6. One camera, one film, one aperture. It doesn't get much easer than that.
 
You will be faster with one camera. Changing cameras takes times, whereas flicking your wrist to open 3 stops takes less than a second. Also, learn to focus fast.

If you have problems with extreme light and extreme shadow, learn to incorporate that into your pictures, for example, by photographing subjects coming into and out of the light.

Look at Trent Parke's black and white work for inspiration. Or these photos from Siegfried Hansen on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetphotography/314750481/ and http://flickr.com/photos/streetphotography/2671517715/
 
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Hi Ruben,
second vote for AE here. I guess it's not likely that you drop into really shaky ground (longer >1/30 s) during daytime at 200 ISO. So you just pick your desired f-stop for the DOF you want and that's it. The AE will adjust for you.
 
Well, Ruben, you are a perfectionist and try to "arm" yourself for everything, but with the wrong equipment, I am afraid: Why do you close down the lens in sunlight and open it up in the shade, the aperture, I mean?

So, with the proper equipment and 400 Kodak UC film loaded, you can shoot at a constant f/4 or f/5.6 or f/8, whatever you like, and let the shutter cut down the sun light and you are all set. All you need to get is a Contax G2 which goes down to 1/6000 sec and has a fast and reliable AF to boot (or - if you prefer, use its manual focus preset to the standard 3m street shooting distance). I recall you mentioned an interest in that superb camera. It is just that darn 1/1000 sec limit of those Leicas that makes you bundle three cameras around your neck like boat anchors.

Get the equipment you need, Ruben!
 
Actually, what you need is auto ISO.

You set the base ISO and maximum ISO then set the minimum shutter speed and 'forget about it'.

Unfortunately to use this absolutely wonderful and useful feature you need a digital camera, an evil DSLR.
 
A couple of months ago, on a trip to southern Turkey, we wandered around streets in lighting similar to this,- me with a Canon 7 and two lenses, my wife (who is strictly point and shoot) with my Olympus XA loaded with 200 colour neg. and set to the little orange 'optimum' marks - guess who got some of the best pictures of the trip? :(

Cheers, Dave.
 
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