Henri Cartier-Bresson

[fran__ois_p._weill]

Douglas,

 

Easy to understand...

 

I think I know why you equals both exposure pre-set and zone focusing, as I'll do the same if required with any tele-lens and I know what is your favorite subjects... Of course with a long tele-lens which even at the seldom practically used small apertures has a very shallow depth of field both problems can be considered the same way...

 

But let's take for example a 35mm at f/8 : setting the focus ring at 5m will give you a subject acceptably in focus between 2.5m and infinity (hyperfocal). I think you will seldom need to modify this setting whatever the street subject you will need to shoot. But you are unable to master the light falling on it (I don't want to use flash), and the light can change very fast form a subject to another in street photography (both because the interesting scene can suddenly appear on the brightly lighten side of the street or the shadowed one and because light can be modified very fast either due to natural causes like a cloud or by the passage of say a truck or a van just as you click).

 

How it goes practically : You pre-set hyperfocal and Matrix AE mode and you can point and shoot at any interesting subject appearing between 2.5m and infinity and be in focus (approximate but deemed sufficient sharpness) at the same time, matrix will adapt the exposure enough to get an exploitable shot (at least 95 to 98% of the time). The creative side is the moment and the composition you chose. The process is extremely fast for a very high ratio of success.

 

Now of I use a 300mm f/2.8 at f/2.8 the problem is quite different... First, my eyes ain't no more good enough to manually focus fast enough properly if the subject moves (I know it is not your case) so I need an AF, then the composition is generally very tight around the subject, so a spot metering may be far more precise and appropriate than the matrix and even the move to re-frame the subject is generally very small... And if the subject is taken like yours in the country and if the light is constant enough, I can even pre-set the exposure using a hand held meter in incident mode if I judge something near me is lightened the same as the anticipated subject...

 

My opinion on using both DOF focusing and matrix is only valid when it goes to street photography using a standard or wide focal length. I don't pretend it is a universal technique which works for any subject with any lens... But for street photography (and a lot of press shots) it works well for me and better than the old techniques based on guesswork and exposure pre-set.

 

FPW

[msitaraman]

Regarding the first response's rebuke to the poster, didn't H.C-B. use the byline "Cartier" or "Henri Cartier" in

the early post-war years? I remember reading an interview somewhere in which the Indian film director Satyajit

Ray refers to him as "Cartier" as well. I think in the period when people initially began to notice his work, he

was generally referred to or known as "Cartier", IIRC.