• Cities
  • Travels
  • On Film
    • Leica M6
      • One Year with the M6
      • Munich
      • AWATTO
      • In Chicago
      • Winter Walk
      • Westport
      • Big White
      • First Roll
    • Leica M2
      • Pandemic Project
      • Montreal
    • Nikon F3
      • My vacation with Portra
    • Nikon F100
      • JCH 400
  • Blog
    • New
    • Archives
      • Canada
        • Quebec
          • Cozy fall
          • Pink Lake
          • Charlevoix
          • Cabane à érable
          • Big White
          • Christmas Cabin
          • Coolpix A
          • Winter Solstice
          • Last Autumn
          • Meanwhile
        • Ontario
          • Colour of cold
          • Algonquin Park
          • Colourful Algonquin
          • Westport
          • Back to Westport
          • Beautiful Morning
          • Winterscape
          • First winter walk
          • At the farm
          • Southern Ontario
          • Here be dragons
        • Newfoundland
          • Road Trip
        • Alberta
          • Rocky Mountains
        • P.E.I.
          • To the ocean
        • British Columbia
          • Granville Market
      • United States
        • Washington D.C.
        • New York City
          • Some Snaps of NYC
          • Brooklyn Walk
          • Ellis Island
        • Chicago
        • California
          • 36 hours in San Diego
          • Two days in S.F.
          • The Mission
          • A Sunday in L.A.
          • Monterey
          • A place for winter
          • Back to San Francisco
          • A bit of L.A.
        • Oregon
          • Cannon Beach
          • Weird Portland
        • Maine
        • New Orleans
        • Seattle
        • Wide Angle B&W
      • France
        • With Portra
        • Back Home
        • Voyage à Nantes
        • Balade en France
        • Mont-St-Michel
        • Saint-Malo
        • La gacilly photo
        • Balade à Nantes
        • Belle Bretagne
        • On the beach
      • Germany
        • Berlin Berlin
        • Munich B&W
        • Sunny Munich
        • At home in Hamburg
        • Stuttgart
        • Berlin in B&W
        • 25 years before
      • Italy
        • Colours of Rome
        • Napoli
      • Cuba
        • Children of the Revolution
        • Havana People in a 28mm lens
      • U.K.
        • In London
      • Denmark
        • Wonderfull Copenhagen
      • Netherlands
        • Two hours in Leiden
  • Extra
    • Weddings
    • Photoshoot
      • Daphne
      • Jennifer
      • Karen
      • Studio Portrait
      • Unknown girl
    • Videos
    • Live
      • Live Bands
        • Bonobo
        • Airbourne
        • Envy
        • Malted Milk
        • Chimp Spanner
        • Tides From Nebula
        • Hidden Orchestra
        • Her Harbour
      • Festivals
        • Hardcore Dancers
        • Ottawa Bluesfest
  • Info
    • About & Contact
    • Books
      • Road Trip
      • Travel Books
      • Capital Region
      • New York Views
    • Exhibitions
    • Publications


Havana People in a 28mm lense

 Posted on mai 8, 2018      by Bust it Away Photography
 0

Getting closer

Famous Magnum photographer Robert Capa once said: « If Your Photos Aren’t Good Enough, You’re Not Close Enough ». Here is the challenge I wanted to achieve when I went Havana in Cuba: getting closer. I always have been a huge fan of street photography but I felt like after these past years I never did master that style. I wanted to go a step forward and reach a point where I had never been before. Havana seemed to be the right place to do that. To be able to get closer and take the pictures I would be happy about, I found inspiration from three street photographers: F.D Walker, The Real Sir Robin and Juan Suarez who help me to get the right technique.

  • Camera settings and lens
  • Pre – focusing
  • Don’t think, just shoot


DFH_1449

Camera settings and lens

The best way to do street photography is to be fast, fast enough to catch a moment before it disappears. Because of that you don’t have time to think about the setting of your camera: chose the focal length, set the ISO, focus… and click. The moment is already gone. From F.D Walker I took the idea to set the camera with auto ISO (max of 6400 on my Nikon Df) and use it in manual mode with a speed of 1/500 to 1/1000 of a second. With that shutter speed you can freeze any action, and today’s cameras are good enough at high ISO to be able to let the camera pick what it needs to get the picture. For sure you can adjust the shutter speed and the aperture according to the weather. These values works well on bright sunny day.

Usually for street photography people recommend a 35mm lens or a 28mm lens. I decided to go with an old Nikkor 28mm Ai lens that I found for sale for next to nothing. Because I like wide angle pictures, the 28mm seemed to be an appropriate choice.

Pre – focusing

From The Real Sir Robin I took the idea of guessing the distance to my subject and pre-focusing. Plus, if you use a 28mm lens closed at f11 or f16 and pre-focus at 2 metres, you will have a very large depth of field (1m to infinity) which will allow you to not worry about focussing super precisely if you get close enough to your subject. Try to guess the distance, always have the same lens to get used to framing with it and pre-focus if you have time. Look at this video to get the idea.

Don’t think, just shoot

There is always a big difference between theory and practice. Even if I know how to set my camera and lens, I didn’t really know how to get closer, how to enter into the comfort zone of the stranger in the street. Happily, on the first day after my arrival in Havana, I had a three-hour workshop with Juan Suarez, a local street photographer. He took us in the lively areas of the city and told us how to behave and approach the people. His main points were to not think, if you see something, frame and take the picture, just frame and shoot. Then smile, be nice and continue your walk. After three hours looking at him and practicing I was able to take some pictures that I would have never taken before.

Settings summary
  • Camera in manual mode
  • Auto ISO
  • Wide angle lense, ideally 28mm or 35mm
  • Pre-focusing (28mm lens at f16 pre-focused at 2m is a good start)
  • Shutter speed at 1/500 or 1/1000 of a second
  • Aperture between f8 and f16
  • Exposure compensation at -1/3ev or -2/3 to save the highlight
  • Don’t think, frame and shoot

I spent almost all the rest of the week walking around discovering the beautiful city of Havana and trying to catch the life of the Cuban people. Here are some of my shots, all taken through the old 28mm lens.

You can check this other article to see more of Havane: Children of the revolution.

 

DFH_8444
DFH_7553
DFH_8808
DFH_8421
DFH_8409
DFH_8072
DFH_7659
DFH_7518
DFH_7613
DFH_8000
DFH_8416
DFH_8071
DFH_7583
DFH_7554
DFH_7710
DFH_8875
DFH_8671
DFH_8454
DFH_8345
DFH_8618
DFH_8402
DFH_8210
DFH_7986
DFH_7943
DFH_7957
DFH_7573
DFH_7584
DFH_8067
DFH_8081
DFH_8484
DFH_8413
DFH_7525
DFH_8485
DFH_7522
DFH_7816
DFH_8401
DFH_7639
DFH_8094
DFH_8602
DFH_7533
DFH_7515
DFH_7602
DFH_7633
DFH_7670
DFH_7589

If you are looking for prints, you can visit my online store.

Receive an email when a new post or a new gallery is online: Subscribe here

Leave a Reply





  Cancel Reply

  • Welcome

    Hello dear visitor, welcome to my photography world. I am a radio frequency engineer who moved from France to experience a new life in Canada. Living far from my friends and family, traveling for fun and for work I created this blog and website to share a bit of my life with them and everyone else interested in photography. I grew up in front of the Atlantic Ocean in the south of the beautiful region of Brittany. As a passionate photographer, I try to catch the best of each moment from the life in the streets to the changing colors of nature. Photography has almost always been part of my life and helps me to understand and remember the beauty of our world. I hope you’ll enjoy your time spent here.

  • Search

  • Follow

    To get notifications about the latest news, please subscribe, thank you.

  • CITIES

    OTTAWA

    NEW YORK CITY

    LOS ANGELES

    SAN FRANCISCO

    CHICAGO

    ROME

  • TRAVELS

    CANADA’S CAPITAL

    WESTERN ROAD TRIP

    COAST OF MAINE

    CANADIAN MARITIMES

    CANNON BEACH

    ROCKY MOUNTAINS

  • Links




© JH 2021