Lance Pearson Loc: Viriginia

Most of the camera work I've done in the last ten years was a portion set manually and the good cameras selecting the rest. However, with the Sony A7 body I have as a travel camera I have outfitted it with a suite of old Canon FD 35mm manual film lenses from fast primes at 28 and 50mm to 35-105mm f 3.5 and others. The largest lens which I paid a whopping $75 for and is perfect tho it is 30 plus years old and 94 mm diameter at the front is tho a slow f 5 85-300 mm lens a really clear lens on images.

What this image is is one shot of some dafodils today off a heavy monopod about 12 feet away. What I'm slowly doing is awakening the memory of setting things manually and using peak focusing for that segment to do so. Some of the images from this lens are every bit as good as the Nikon D4 I shoot with pro lenses and it is a lot of fun.

The process for me is composition then varying the shutter speed, f stop, iso if needed, choices to get the light the way I want it before final focusing and then shooting. I know it but don't always get the best settings right away as those memories are buried pretty deep from film days and older cameras but they are starting to get dredged up as I use it more. It's a really interesting combination to me.

This image was shot at f 8 or f 5.6 (can't remember and manually there is no record) at 1/800th at iso 50 and e.v. at -0.3 from about 12' away at approx 200mm...on canon fd 85-300 f 5.0 lens set manually on sony a7 body via adapter fd to nex body. center weighted average.

Could have shot it at f16 for more depth of field and slower shutter on reflection at the very least. The camera shoots incredibly low iso if you want and that was what i was experimenting with when this was shot.

I wonder, as I do this more since it is fun, will the right setup come quicker so there is less guesswork until I get a satisfactory image? I think I'm making progress and don't really consider this to be an imposition just a learning curve. Once I know what I'm doing it seems to be easier.

Anyone else gone through this process? Any suggestions of a helpful nature to do it well?

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justhercamera Loc: NW Michigan

I have my camera on manual more than any other setting. I have trained my eyes to be acceptable (although imperfect) light meters, only checking with the camera's meter now and then. Keep shooting and watching results, the learning curve won't be so bad, and as you have learned, it IS fun!

Jim Bob

Yep. Nope.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Not sure what your getting at?? I'm guessing your trying to read the light in the scene and hoping to catch correct exposure in the first shot?? Once your perimeters are set a simple half press on the shutter button will illuminate your camera meter indicator, which you can see thru the view finder. If dead center exposure correct, on either side change the shutter speed or ISO or aperture depending on the look your shooting for. Once the metering indicator is centered fire away.
Will your camera meter with these older lens???? If not start carrying around a light meter to take the guess work out.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I have four light meters and carry none of them. Since I carry my phone anyway, I now use a free light meter app on my iPhone.

jim quist Loc: Missouri

I use my old Hasselblad lenses on my camera. I use the camera's light meter and double check it with the histogram. I tend to give more thought to what aperture I want to use. I don't know that it gets any faster. I just like using these lenses again.

Dyeager Loc: Michigan

If you are using an A7 you should be getting live feedback in your viewfinder as you change the settings. That is one of the advantages to a mirrorless camera with electronic viewfinder

shredmandan

Just getting out a full manual Blad I inherited and learning how to use it. Like the original poster its dredging up those old memories of the film days....Im kinda chicken to start! Just picked up a like new Minolta IV F light meter so now have to figure that out (have never used a light meter). Been reading on incident vs reflected readings and when to use which...hmmmm.

Lance Pearson Loc: Viriginia

You are absolutely right. I see real time/light through the viewfinder as I make changes in any setting on light. I guess it just takes time to get in the rhythm of using manual with modern aids and old lenses again. It is fun though and I'm getting better at it as I do it more.

Shooting the dslr cameras like my nikon d4 more and more I was setting more of the settings manually to shoot to control the effects on the image anyway. I don't really see a need for a lightmeter when I have this visual feed back real time.

ricardo7 Loc: Washington, DC - Santiago, Chile

I think, perhaps, that you are worrying too much about getting the perfect exposure. I think there will always be limitations
in the pictures you make if you take what you get out of the camera. Even with the perfect exposure some post processing
will improve the image.

Lance Pearson Loc: Viriginia

That's interesting...the key is: how much post processing. I try and keep it down to a really dull roar. So many images I've seen simply aren't any longer natural or real but have been morphed into graphic designs rather than photographs...modern post or even in camera tools just lend themselves to it and many enjoy that more than the actual composition and taking the photograph. Just preferences and styles I suppose.

I am getting used to shooting manually again and each week it gets easier and easier.

I probably will never adopt hdr or excessively dynamically modified images as much as more muted, natural photographs properly cropped (that's subjective, of course) and lightly adjusted. That would be a style that works for me...and everyone has their own style preferences methinks.

ricardo7 Loc: Washington, DC - Santiago, Chile

What you say makes sense. Moderation.

Photocraig

One of our members posted on another thread that he "Blended" bracketed exposures---probably to avoid the negative connotations of over cooked HDR images that look like posters or worse. But, using selective exposure and/or focus compensation to get the highlight, mid tone and shadow values correct is no sin. It's good photographic processing and the results of never having to see a blown out sky, or a hillside looking like a silhouette because the highlights biased under exposure. SO, just because some artists have given HDR a bad name for you, remember, that this is a long standing darkroom technique with proven pleasing results. I encourage you to call it by a different name, like blending in LR and avail yourself of this great,and easy to use capability.

Lance Pearson Loc: Viriginia

Dark room skills have always been part of photography after composition and shutter and today it's just digital. The question of how much and what is really a matter of taste and style I'd guess. To me more natural photography is preferable with small amounts of change and the opposite where it is extreme becomes more like graphic design to me. At least that's how I understand it for me.

I love nature and some of the hdr I see is so exaggerated I think to myself I've never seen it in nature like that and that's my barometer. Every photo gets cropped and post processed. How much is the art after the art of composition it seems to me and that's an individual thing...thanks for the comment.