New Nikon F (!) User/Leaf Chaser

Hello. I haven't posted to this newsgroup before. I'd like to see how
much better/worse my Dad's old Nikon F SLR is than a low-end point and
shoot digital (Canon PowerShot A620) I bought this past summer.
I bought an F user's manual (circa 1962), two rolls of 400 speed film,
and would like to do the following with this camera...in late September
and throughout the "red maple" part of Northeast U.S. autumn:
1) Take photographs at relatively close range of individual, peak or
"past-peak" red maples. By relatively close range I mean no more than
50 feet away.
2) Take photographs in early morning--which, in the Northeast U.S.
autumn, often ensures fog. I would actually desire more rather than
less fog, because--
3) I would like individual maples, which will be the subject of my
photographs, to be in as sharp a focus as possible, with the background
forest's clarity or lack thereof of negligeable importance.
4) Under no circumstances do I want *any* sunshine in these
photographs.
5) If it needs stating, then-- I do not want to use any source of
artificial light.
Because I am an absolute novice, I'd like suggestions of aperture and
shutter settings, and any other germane thing peculiar to Nikon F 35
mm.
Part of my dislike of my digital camera is what *I* call "indifferent"
depth of field. In fact, I got into a very unpleasant and ad hominem
argument on another photography group because (in my opinion--I stress
"opinion"), what is called "perspective" and what is called "depth of
field" in analog photography are both uniformly unnatural in digital.
Let me stress once more that this is my layperson's, acolyte's,
opinion...which prompted several of the posters on the other newsgroup
to recommend film photography to me.
Rather than get into another brouhaha with hobbyists, learned amateurs,
and/or professionals on this or another group, I decided I could easily
avoid the entire issue by choosing to photograph my red maples on a day
where depth of field and perspective are both moot--i.e., in
mild-to-moderate fog.
Thank you for reading this post and for any suggestions.

Jules Vide

Re: New Nikon F (!) User/Leaf Chaser

Repeating this myth will not make it true.
--------------------------------------------
PERSPECTIVE IS NOT RELATED TO FOCAL LENGTH!
--------------------------------------------
Only camera position and subject position affects perspective. Perspective
is purely the result of the relative distances of the objects in the
picture. Turning the zoom ring on your lens won't affect the perspective.
Moving the camera closer or further will.
If you take the picture from the same location with different focal length
lenses and then crop the shorter focal length ones to match the field of
view of the longer focal length lenses you will see that the perspective is
identical.
Optimal viewing distance for the print is related to focal length (the
perspective will appear natural if the viewing distance = focal length x
print size / negative size), but perspective is always correct with any
rectilinear lens regardless of focal length. This is to keep the viewer's
field of view similar to the lens's field of view.
Perspective is entirely determined by trigonometry and focal length doesn't
enter into it.
The powerful car image is a result of the close, low camera position, not
the lens choice. He may have chosen a wide angle to fit the whole car in,
but the perspective was chosen first by the position and did not change with
the lens choice.


Default

Re: New Nikon F (!) User/Leaf Chaser

...
Fifty feet is really very "close range", unless "relatively" is relative to
astronomy!
I'm not sure where you're headed here-- If you want as little
foreground/background to be in focus as possible, then you want an f/stop
close to wide open, and possibly film slower than 400 speed.
Obviously you need some source of light! But early morning sunshine
filtering thru pea-soup fog might look good. Morning light is usually more
blue-ish in color and could tend to mute the brilliant red-yellow-orange of
the foliage. Might be a good effect...
Artificial light with landscape is difficult to do good-- I've seen pictures
of big buildings where the camera was set on a tripod and time exposure, and
the exposure was done by multiple "pops" of electronic flash around the
building... nice pictures, but difficult to do...
A meter is a good idea... but there is always the "Sunny-16" rule: Set the
shutter speed equal to the film speed, that is for 100 speed film set the
shutter at 1/100 second (or 1/125 second, doesn't really matter). The
f/stop is set at : Bright sunshine on beach or snow=f/22, Bright
sunshine=f/16, Hazy sun=f/11, Open shade=f/8, full shade=f/5.6.
Your scenerio of morning fog, I'd guess f/4 or f/2.8
Depth of field is how much of the picure (near to far) is in focus. A
smaller f/stop (higher number) yields more depth of field. Additionally, a
particular f/stop will give more dept of field at a further distance than a
near distance. For example, if the subject is in focus at 6 feet, f/8 may
give a depth of field from 4' to 10'. If the subject is in focus at 50'
(such as your maple trees), f/8 may give a depth of field from 20' to
infinity.
Perspective is how near or far an object "looks" in a picture. For example,
if you have a picture of a person standing in front of a car, the relative
sizes of the person and the car give you a clue to how far the person is in
front of the car. But suppose the car is one of those little clown cars in
the circus and the person is a basketball player: it may look like the car
is miles behind the person, when actually the person is about to get run
over. Perspective can be affected by the focal length of the lens. Telephoto
lens tend to compress near and far, wide angle lenses tend to spread out
near and far. ( In the days of big cars, advertising photos were often taken
with wide angle lens from low angle-- the car would look huge!)
Ken Hart


Ken Hart

Re: New Nikon F (!) User/Leaf Chaser

4) Under no circumstances do I want *any* sunshine in these
If you want neither sunshine, nor artificial light, then the only thing left
is starlight. So, do you want to take night pictures of your trees on a
moonless night? Or, do you mean that you want an overcast day, so you'll not
have any direct sunlight?
In any case, the time and f stop opening will still depend on how bright
a day it is....Sometimes overcast days are very bright, so you really need a
light meter, or a camera with a built in light meter.....


William Graham

Re: New Nikon F (!) User/Leaf Chaser

In article <1154987514.846860.227830@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>,
Toss the 400 and get Velvia 100. Put the camera on a tripod and use a
cable release. Beg or borrow a polarizer.
Tripod and slow film again.
Um, why not?
That said, fall foliage often appears more vibrant on cloudy days with
the sunlight diffused. Same for flowers.
You don't want flash with foliage.
The more depth-of-field the better with landscapes. If shooting closer
objects, you'll need to understand depth-of-field to set it properly to
capture subjects which are apart from each other.


Tim

Re: New Nikon F (!) User/Leaf Chaser

: Well I don't often agree with UC but in this case he sums it up well,
: WTF are you talking about?
I don't ever remember agreeing with Scarpitti about anything. Like you I
agree that he's dead on.
: For what it is worth you might want to pick up a basic book on
: photography.
A great suggestion. The OP clearly lacks a basic understanding of photography.
Until the OP learns a lot more about photography any testing will be meaningless.
--
-------------------
Keep working millions on welfare depend on you


Frank Pittel

Re: New Nikon F (!) User/Leaf Chaser

Well I don't often agree with UC but in this case he sums it up well,
WTF are you talking about?
For what it is worth you might want to pick up a basic book on
photography.
Scott


Scott W

Re: New Nikon F (!) User/Leaf Chaser

Depends on what lens you use, and what film.
Why?
WTF are you talking about? Depth of field depends entirely on the
aperture, focal length, and distance.
WTF are you talking about?
????
WTF?


Uraniumcommittee@yahoo.com

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