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Published: 2005-05-04 03:28:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 30088; Favourites: 159; Downloads: 11163
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Description
Basically, i've been meaning to do this for some time.Give the serious amateur a bit of what goes on inside my head when making a photo.
This is not meant to be indepth by any means. I start out with depth of field and it's importance. And end with some composition.
Then some tips.
If you are convinced that digital is the only way to go, please don't leave f'd up comments. I don't think that it is.
This is aimed toward someone that wants to understand beyond what a program feature of a camera can provide.
That being said ... If you want in a photographer's mind ... this may be for you.
If you like film.
If you like breaking away from what a camera tells you.
If you like seeing something. Seeing how it looks in your mind. And ... translating that vision through your mind through the camera and to a viewer.
MATURE LANGUAGE ADVISORY.
But ... if you see my name on something you probably already know that.
Did this in .pdf. Thanks for the tip on how to put this forth.
Although he'll probably say "screw you" after reading it.
Hope this helps out those who it helps out...
NOTE: you must download this to your desktop. it's 10mb. i don't think it opens within dA.
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Comments: 221
I know that this is years old, and it's probably passed by the eyes of thousands of people, but I wanted to say thank you.
That was incredibly inspiring.
I'm going to go take out my Konica now.
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good solid and practical advice. thank you for sharing.
should be getting a Leica IIIc soon, but still need to track down a lens. looking forward to using my brain more.
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Thanks for sharing this! Found it quite interesting. I'm fairly new to photography. One thing I really liked was something I haven't thought about - taking a photo of a subject and in the same photo try to present their POV. Inspiring!
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Great stuff. I am looking to exand my photography always looking to grow and experiment. Iv'e chosen it as my lifelong hobby after all. This tutorial will point me in an interesting direction I think. Thanks.
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That's a darn good piece of work, if you ask me. Kind of an eye-opener - even if you are "on the digital side" (or perhaps even more so - the digital people are more prone to snapshotism, I guess). I am slowly getting into the world of photography - and the toughest thing of it all is to "think in photographs". And that's where such tutorials come in handy and smash the well-established ways of thinking that you've built up.
Oh, and BTW: isn't there 2 EV between f 1.4 and 2.8 (page 7)? I think there's 2.0 in between...
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Wow, I absolutely loved this. When I was younger, I was always interested in photography. The idea of capturing a moment, an idea, a point of view, in time. I grew out of it, mostly because I didn't commit any time to figuring out how to use a film camera. Recently, I have been coming back to it and it's fantastic. I hope everyone reads this. It holds a very inspiring and important message.
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Well, Iβm not a photographer but just love this photo. The big empty space in front of the snail seems to indicate it has long way to goβ¦just like our life. People say life is too short, but sometimes I feel itβs a long way. Why not to slow done like a snail and enjoy lifeβ¦
BTW, very nice composition and good example of the βrule of thirdsβ. Wonderful
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This was just amazing. I don't know when you started taking photographs but obviously it was long ago and you already know all the available tricks... and I have to thank you for sharing them with us.
Your writing is so entertaining yet inspiring that after reading this I grabbed my camera, my 50mm 1.8 lens and went taking photos. It was my first "fully manual" day.. and although it was difficult, I enjoyed every second. I have yet to check them out, but I think I got a couple good ones.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with us.
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WOW! amazing tutorial
i just loved it
i can almost feel i can see now ... i mean as a photographer ^ ^ ! .. will see if it makes in different in practice ...
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It's nice to see that some people still think there is a place for film photography 
People always forget, or ignore, the fact that there are a number of things that can be done with an enlarger or a manual slr that just isn't easy, or possible, to reproduce with a dslr.
Having said that I've only uploaded 3 or 4 pieces of my manual photography so far >< Stupid broken scanner.
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Haha, after reading this for like the tenth time since it was written, I realized when you wrote this, you must've forgotten about f/2. Apparently, 1.4 to 2.8 is twice the light.
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...I mean half. You know, a stop.
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sooo...
I wanted to write a long-ass comment after reading this.
All the tips You gave here i knew already but I never had them in mind when taking a shot, now it's going to change.
I guess all I wanted to say is: Thanks Chris. This helps a lot with getting my work more.. orderly ?. : )
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thank you for taking the time to create this. I have an old film camera and have started shooting with it. Thanks again
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Cheers man, I am doing a photo course at the moment and armed with my little digi slr I have started thinking about Dof and some shots. Its awesome though that someone like yourself gives the time (you obviously didn't write it in 5 mins) to pass on your experience to us just learning the skills and enforcing the need for practice and understanding. Gonna try and give up just setting my eos to AV priority and letting the shutter speed do the rest... cheers for the inspiration
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how'd you manage to get perfect focus on the snale with a rangefinder?
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that was with a canon mate!
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ah, i thought you used the leica... it would of been a difficult shot.
most difficult i've done with a rangefinder is this one [link]
i used the fed 50 if you know the camera... other than that i always miss focus
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very difficult.
that's an amazing photo with that photo, mate!!!!!!
you won't always miss focus ... just practice practice practice!!!!!
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thanks i will submit it to my gallery
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The most helpful and interesting part for me was about f/stops relation to light, shutter speed and ISO. And of course your emphasis on light and understanding it. Something which cannot be done without getting to know f/stop and shutter speed (and my equipment). Learning to use these things to translate the photo I see in my mind on to film. And something which had not occured to me before, if I am shooting in P or Av, etc. I am letting the camera think for me. Sure I am able to capture something quicker with less thinking, but isn't that kind of crippling me as a photographer?
Very thouht provoking. Thank you.
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mate, you dont have the foggiest who i am, but in my little, tiny way, I just want to thank you for the amazing work you do, your amazing style of writing. You work, both photographically and written, is amazing! thank YOU for sharing!
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Godly ;
Dude for someone to come from where some of us are now, from aspirations, from dreams and to achieve sucess of whatever form and to not forget where he came from.
When I saw u were on dA i though u were gonna be a stuck up hollywood photographer lording your success over us "amateurs" bu your still a down to earth guy.
Who I hope realises that u can help us, this Story/Tutorial shows us that photography is about feeling your subject about loving what u are doing.
I thank you dude, hopefully I can start taking pjhotos again soon, just need to buy a new camera, had to sell my old one when cash was tight ;(
/salute
Cheers
Jay
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i'm a conceited prick, really.
hope you get some $$$ for a new camera, mate!
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hehehe arent we all
Surfing ebay nightly trying to grab a bargain..Profiting atsomeone elses expense, ah gotta love this world dont ya
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hehe yeah ebay rocks for that
cheers,
bernd
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Thank you so much for making this, I learned alot about what I knew but didnt really understand was the application, I think I'll go out with my old E1 and start logging! thank you again
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do it!
you're very welcome!
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Great stuff!
It really helps me improve in shooting analogue film, for I'm quite new in it. It not only helps me, it stimulates and encourages me.
I do have two questions when reading this tutorial.
- I use Kodak TRI-X (ASA 400) film. How does the ASA 400 film reduce my possibilties in using the f/stops creatively? You think I should start shooting ISO 100 films to start with?
- What is the alternative for choosing an f/stop and let the camera choose an appropriate shutter speed? (that's what I'm doing for now) Can you just tell the correct shutter speed from the light circumstances? Is that what you mean by practice? Or do you use an external light meter (although I don't see the difference with the light meter in the body that chooses a shutter speed for the selected f/stop)
Thanks for the great reading!
I'm really looking forward to your next tutorial.
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Thank you very much.
Im going to read this over at home
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This is a great read, thanks for all of the insight.
I stumbled upon this by accident. But it is amazing. I found an old SLR with a 50mm glass, and bought b&w film.
This week I go out armed with a journal. My d50 will take a break...
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that was frickin awesome!!!!!!!! (though i couldnt shake the feeling you were very angry with me for some reason 
Btw, can i use that in my sig, "Photos happen in your brain. You're just lucky you have a camera."
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angry? me?
no.
of course you can use that in your sig!
thanks for checking it out!
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it's so simple, but that makes it so cool.
Amazing
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thanks for the tutorial. it was definately eye opening. damn fine stuff...
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Sweet tutorial.
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i'm so happy you got something out of it!!!!!!
note me when you've got something i should look at!
cheers,
Chris
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I went out and bought a journal as you suggested for one thing. I am also using your suggested shutter/aperature combo's. Going to get some photos developed next week.
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nice tutorial! fun to read hehe... and it was very helpful... hope to get more involved in photography these days, but right now music is absorbing my life... hope you can get a look at my gallery and help me out, i'll be very pleased if i can get some advise...
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I think this was my fifth time reading this.
And this particular little piece of writing of yours-which I love by the way- has done more for me than anything on dA.
I listened to every word you said. Besides the one four. I pussied out and bought a one eight. 'Cause I'm a 14 year old with no job. I can barely afford film.
I'm hoping to set up my own darkroom soon so I can actually shoot decent black and white (C-41 black and white sucks if you haven't noticed). That or I could pay excessive amounts to have them shipped off to a lab. You don't develope your own film, do you?
Money is a real problem for me. No... my age is. Fucking number.
You're right about it all though. I hate my zoom lens. Stupid kits. My 50 made me hate it.
I just don't know what to do about distant things. I'd get in close but sometimes I can't. What do I do then?
And it means a lot. It's been great. I've shot every picture in manual since I first read this and written down every setting in my little book.
I'm just trying things out. Seeing. Thinking. Capturing. Learning.
Maybe it means nothing to you. But I imagine this is what you wanted. Why else would you write this?
It did something.
And your opinions are great by the way.
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That was freaking amazing, no to mention helpful. So amazing that I think I'll go read it again. And a few more times after that.
I've recently become interested in photography, and before reading this I had decided to buy a film camera since my other one broke. This just makes me want it even more.
Thanks for the tutorial. Oh, and did I mention it was freaking amazing and very helpful?
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amazing tutorial. i just read it and realized i was doing most of that stuff, but the wrong way...my camera was always on auto. Im now going to go out and try doing everything manually. Thanks a lot for posting this up. Again, good job, and thanks.
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Wow... thank you. Really, that was great. I just bought my first film camera after learning a lot about depth of field and cameras in general and I must say, reading this was almost perfect timing. I'm nearly done with my first roll of film and I'm a bit pissed off I didn't read this before my first picture. You're right... with everything you said. It was great. Some of it was offensive but in good reason. I'm going to climb out of the digital world now.
Time to go find a little book.
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Fuck, this is great, man. Nice way to dumb down and condense the lengthly information you'd normally find in a 15 book set. I even like the way you verbally sneer at the point-and-click, auto users. I say users because they're not really full-fleged photographers... are they?
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thanks! that's seriously cool of you to say...
me? sneer? perhaps it was someone else?
far be it from me to sneer at point-and-click-auto-loving-fuckers ...
far be it...
cheers mate!
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A beautiful shot, man! And what a cool idea/concept! Cheers
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chris man your work is what prevents me from ever being satisfied with mine. even though you crush my self-esteem by setting such a high standard, being disenchanted with ones own work seems like the right path to progress
ive read over this tutorial over and over and finally went and bought myself an old canon a-1 with a f/1.4 fifty. when i went into the store i started out by checking out the 24-70 L lens for my digital rebel but decided that instead of paying through my nose for something that wouldn't necessarily help me "see" better, i should follow your advice and go the painstaking route...when i saw the solid a-1 and sexy f/1.4 lens i was sold.
i know that this is the right approach if i want to make a career out of photography. since photography has possessed me like nothing before i am happy to make the effort.
thanks, as always, for the inspiration...you have no idea how motivating it is to be able to communicate with a real-world photographer!
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