Leica at Waist Level

[Allen Herbert]

This is the most sensible Leica post i have read in a long time. How to use your Leica to take photos, there's a thought. Waist level finder....my next purchase.

[Alex_Es]

I do possibly half to three quarters of my shooting on the street at waist level--or actually at chest level.

 

My favorite candid lenses are 35, 28, 25, 21, 15. As the light gets dimmer I tend to go down the line for the sake of maximizing depth of view. My standard film is 800 color negative.

 

I like to shoot my 35/2 at f16 when possible. The 25/4 is great at f11. I can get a good in-focus range at f 5.6 with the 21/4. The 15/4.5 is splendid wide open.

 

There is a trick to visualizing the image when you're shooting a chest-level. I try not to look at the subject directly when I am shooting.

 

Expect a lot of failures.

 

I once did a lot of subway train shots. They were easy because distances between seats and the lighting does not change.

[Alex_Es]

I think I did this shot with a V/C right-angle finder. I don't remember which lens I used. Maybe the 25/4 stopped way down. I had to do a little burning in in the foreground. I decided to leave the young man's hair alone.<div></div>

[Alex_Es]

I am sure I used the 21/4 in this shot.<div></div>

[andrew n.bra hrefhttp]

BTW, for those who are incredulous about the spirit level I sometimes use, heres a

link to the "double bubble" Hama level:<P>

 

<A HREF="http://www.hama.co.uk/product.asp?productid=100&sectionid=211">

Hama Spirit Level </A><P>

 

Secondly, there's a theme in this thread that "hip shooting" only really works with

wide angle lenses. Not so. FWIW 80% of my shots are taken with a 50mm Summilux,

at less than 3m, at f2.8 - f5.6.

[ray .]

Experience- getting a feel for pointing the camera where it seems to make sense- along with depth of field- will take care of the majority of this stuff.

[ole_tjugen]

I would never have guessed it could be this difficult ;)

 

I learned photography with a folding camera. No rangefinder, no light meter, fixed lens, and a viewfinder that's mostly for decoration. So I learned to guess at distances, field of view, and lighting conditions. And every once in a while I get a good picture, too.

 

I have shot every film sice up to 9x12cm from the hip - focus, exposure and framing with a "normal" lens is not a problem before I go above 6x4.5.

[bobflores]

Nearly half of the photos that I have in my folder here were taken at waist level using f11 zone focused 35mm lens.

 

Whethere or not this is a glowing endorsement or not, I can say that the thing that I worried about most (out of focus shots) was not an issue at this aperture.