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GRD2 Walkabout at ISO 200

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Mitch Alland

Guest
Yesterday afternoon I was walking around Siam Square in Bangkok waiting for someone and started shooting in this shopping area. As I was distracted by a phone call I didn't realize that I had turned on the camera with the MY2 setting which was set for ISO 200 — normally I would have shot with the MY1 setting (ISO 400) unless the light was too bright — sort of like the mistake I made on last Friday night's series with the GT-1 tele-converter at ISO 1600 when I was shooting at f/4.0 thinking that it was f/2.4. Well, I'm glad that I did because I now like this "harder edge" of the ISO 200 which, with a good bit of contrast, shows well the nature of the brightness and harshness of the light.

I used to shoot these types of pictures at the SNAP (2.5m) focus setting, but now I use manually focus and preset to either 2.5m or 1m, and switch between the two, because I find that I like to take a lot of shots at the closer distance; and at about 1m the pictures are not that sharp at the SNAP setting.

I might use most of these pictures in the "commercialism" chapter of my (never materializing) book project, a slideshow of which you can see here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/sets/72157594271568487/show/

As usual I welcome any comments or critique whether you like the pictures or not and am also interested in which pictures you think don't work.





























—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
Maggie O

Maggie O

Active member
These have a nice "Tri-X in D-76" kind of look to them, Mitch. The 1st, 5th and 6th have a nice play of geometry going on that's enhanced by the high contrast. Were these done with the 40mm?
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
Thanks, Maggie. No, these were taken with the 28mm EFL. Generally, I find that for this type of street photography the 28mm EFL is more suitable than the 40mm one because as you walk on these crowded streets it takes a few seconds to pick out what you want to shoot from everything happening in front of you — and with the 40mm lens you're often too close, and therefore too late by the time you've picked out what you want to shoot. On the other hand I like the perspective and the different sense of space produced by the 40mm EFL. The most difficult thing is adjusting your timing after you've changed from one focal length to the other.

On the first picture, I like the Manichean contrast between the light face of the young women on the left with the shadow-dark one on the right. And, BTW, the Muse does sometimes throw you a crumb: when I shot the picture I was not aware of the "Naked" sign on the left.

—Mitch/Bangkok
 
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Michael Rivers

Guest
Nice work, Mitch. I particularly like the last photo for the facial expression. On the first two, it seems that there is a bit of highlight detail in the background. Was it easier to hold this detail at 200 vs 400? I am still learning the limitations of SSC capture and blown highlights.
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
Thanks, Michael. Actually, I could have recovered some more highlight detail but preferred the higher contrast look to express the extreme bright, tropical light. I think that the highlights would have looked the same at ISO 400.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
kai.e.g.

kai.e.g.

Member
Hi Mitch - that's funny - I first saw these photos in the flickr stream this morning, and was thinking to myself "that's not like Mitch - where's all the trademark grain?". My favourite of this set is the first one.
 
kai.e.g.

kai.e.g.

Member
Mitch Alland said:
Kai, does that mean that you think that they would be better at ISO 400, with some grain?
Click to expand...
Hmmm, I'm not so sure; not necessarily so. If any of them would benefit, maybe it would be #4 (though I like it as it is, too). I think it was when I saw #4 this morning that I most noticed the relative smoothness compared to most of your recent work. It made me think of one of your GX100 shots that you've used as an example before - I believe it was an outdoor café scene in Paris.
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
Good memory: it was probably the picture below that I used as an example of how I wasn't getting the texture that I wanted with the GX100, although I like that camera especially at ISO 400, although the picture below is at ISO 100:





—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
Brian Mosley

Brian Mosley

New member
Hi Mitch, I really like the tonality of No1 and 4 above... really great! I was thinking. I might be able to get some shots at 50mm with the E-3, at perhaps ISO 3200 f5.6 to give you an idea of what you could expect with the E-420... would that be of interest?

Kind Regards

Brian
 
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PeterLeyssens

Guest
Hi Mitch,

I've just taken a look at your Flickr gallery and I'm quite impressed. I'm not a very big fan of street photography because I usually find the results very messy. A street scene frequently has a lot of visual elements and this results in excess of information on a photo. I guess the process of making a book takes a lot of selection before publication. It's nice of you to give us some insight into how you proceed: you publish fairly raw material here, but your gallery shows a more final selection. Thanks for that !

As for the photos above, I personally am only a fan of the last one. The facial expression is great and I find the background (2 people looking into a shop with a "Naked" sign) very cheeky :) The other ones are too busy for me. Looking through your Flickr gallery, your selection there is also much less visually confusing: you've picked the ones that show just a few things. I like that better than the above pictures.

This is of course just my 2 cents about the above pictures. I have a lot of respect for your ability and the results in the gallery !



Peter.
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
Thanks for the comments Peter. I still have to cut some pictures from the book project and add others, and do some rearrangement as well; but it's really difficult to edit your own work — and your view of individual pictures changes over time as well. Nevertheless, I think the overall quality and the impression the project creates would be greatly increased if I cut some 10-20 pictures, but I haven't yet been able to figure out which ones. The project has gone through some 3-4 edits already. Thanks for looking at it.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
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PeterLeyssens

Guest
Tell me about changing opinions on your own work ! Some years ago, I frequently traveled to Asia for work and was considering doing a dual view of Asia. I bought one of those chinese harmonica books and I wanted to show old Asia on one side and modern Asia on the other side. I was just getting a bit more serious back then and my own opinion of what I'd shot was shifting every other month. In the end, I guess I learned a bit more and I didn't like any of the pictures anymore, so I scrapped the project :)

What I like about your pictures is your very specific style. Now I'm picking up photography again, that's one thing I want to work on. I've also subscribed to LensWork and it's very inspiring to have a magazine with portfolios and views instead of equipment reviews. It's also why I like Sean's reviews and this forum: we may discuss equipment but it's mostly result oriented, not equipment oriented.
 
Brian Mosley

Brian Mosley

New member
Mitch, having looked through the excellent shots in your book project, I think you could also consider using a Hexanon 40mm f1.8 pancake lens, at f5.6 and zone focus manually on the E-420... I will do some examples with both if I can.

Here's an idea of what the E-420 would look like with the 40mm Hexanon fitted :


It could be too long for your usual work, but it's such a sharp lens that it's worth having around. Here's a shot I took recently with it on the E-400.


And another shot, with this combination... ISO 1250 on the E-400


...at ISO 100 on the E-400


In answer to your question about the live view - on the E-3 there's a display gain option which brightens up the lcd display to compensate for a low light scene. It goes to B&W at very low light levels.

Kind Regards

Brian
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
The trouble with a 40mm lens is that the EFL will produce an EFL of 80mm on the E420, which is much too long for my street photography. For example, on my Leica M6 I almost never used a 90mm lens and found the 75mm too long.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
johnastovall

johnastovall

Deceased, but remembered fondly here...
Mitch, wonder full work. You are following in the footsteps of Winogrand's "Women Are Beautiful" but with your distinctive look and style on the streets of Bangkok.

Keep it going....
 
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Player

Guest
Mitch, shucks, I like 'em all, ISO 200, ISO 400, whatever. It proves to me that a good/ great photographer will always transcend technique. I mean if you took a mediocre picture, and experimented with different ISOs, it would still be a mediocre picture.

You gotta get your work published in a book! Great stuff!
 
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