Photography by Peter Charles
Photography by Peter Charles
Photography has been a part of my life for many years. I strive to have my images tell a story to the viewer or invite the viewer to create their own. I would hope that my images succeed in evoking a reaction from the viewer.
The scene must say something to me before I press the shutter release. My subject matter can be serious, thought provoking, occasionally disturbing and sometimes laced with a bit of humour.
My primary interest lines in the genre of street photography, though I do dabble in portraiture and landscapes.
I hope that you enjoy my channel.
Пікірлер
Got their 35mm Nokton and would love to try more from Voigtländer, but as you said: they are expensive. I also have a 23mm, an 18mm and the Fuji 56mm. I can't fully justify buying the same focal range again just for fun manual focus. I have been debating selling some of my Fuji lenses and then to buy the Voigtländer and stick to manual focus :) would be a very fun experiment.
Thanks for the explanation. But please keep in mind that stopping down beyond f/11 will decrease the sharpness on Fuji 26 MP sensors due to diffraction, beyond f/8 on the 40 MP sensors.
Thank you, for your skills!
Now they banned german Compact Magazin - bully people with "dangerous C. " t-shirts....
My Nikon F5 loves my 50-300 ED AI-S from Japan.
Good idea on the screen. I’m hoping for the 26 stacked sensor. I don’t bump my Q button but had a hard time feeling for which button of the two was the Q. I ended up making them both Q. lol. I’m surprised the function button next to the shutter doesn’t offer Q. My 10 year old X20 has an OVF that zooms with the lens.
I have the FN next to the shutter release set as the Q while the original Q is set to nothing to avoid me constantly turning something on.
@@photographybypetercharles9939Oh, I misunderstood you 🙄 I thought you couldn’t shortcut the Q to the function button. lol. I have mine set for Recipes and double Q on the Q thumb grip. I use the OVF/EVF toggle button for playback since I always seem to miss that button.
I am hoping for a workable solution for the tripod mount. I've worked out a compromise for the X-Pro3 (mini mounting plate), but it is a bit wobbly. Please - improve.
Are you referring to the interference with the rear screen when folded down, while the camera is mounted on a tripod? I know that is a problem, however I have a feeling that the Fujifilm designers had tripod use as a low priority.
@@photographybypetercharles9939 Yes. Just wishing for the X-Pro4. 🙂
This is an issue for me when scanning film negatives because the light table I use has a fluorescent light source. I really need a better light table. I use the lowest shutter speed I can so that it is open through several power cycles. Works for the most part.
I am a pure Prime guy (24, 35, 50, 85, 105 macro and 135) I just can't stand the look of 2.8 or smaller aperture zooms, unless it's beyond 300mm... The thing with primes (especially at 1.2 or 1,4) is that you can almost get Away with freezing the subject under unfavorable lighting conditions.. Both primes and 2.8 zooms have their varying restrictions but I will grab a prime over a zoom 9 times out of ten
Love playing with old weird lenses and the photos they produce.
not crazy about the term "bad" lens. it is an inexpensive lens made to imprecise specs.
That was the point of the video - what is a bad lens to some can be a fun lens to others.
every lens has a sweet spot.
I know what you’re getting at, but playing devil’s advocate for a minute…I’m a special case, but I was severely crippled in a wreck with a drunk driver, so zooms are a necessity to me. It would be extremely exhausting and painful to constantly be walking around to get the framing just right. (I know, this doesn’t apply to most) Zooms also allow me to play with perspectives instantly without having to reach in my bag and try 15 different lenses to get the perspective of the subject just right. Changing lenses increases the chances of introducing dust to your sensor by 1,000,000% Speaking of bags, I have learned while carying my equipment from job to job, I’d much rather have a much, much smaller lighter bag of gear than a very slightly smaller lens on my camera. Let’s face it, modern zoom lenses for modern mirrorless cameras have become very close to the size and weight of primes. IQ as well. The microscopic optical differences would only be noticed by extreme pixel peeping. I get your point, I’m just saying that there are many cases where primes aren’t useable and the advantages sound very much like the Vinyl vs. Digital music arguments. 😉
This isn't a contest about primes vs. zooms, rather it's about deliberately using limitations in our gear to kickstart our creativity.
What are your thoughts on the 18-55 mm lens? I just picked this up as my first "big boy" camera with the 14-45 mm kit lens. I was able to pick up a near mint condition 18-55 mm for around $350 from ebay. Should be arriving soon. Excited to try it out. Thanks for the video. Cheers!
You'll really like the 18-55mm zoom as it's one of the best kit lenses out there.
Imperfections lol. Who would ever think that would happen? Searching for imperfections lol. Great vid good fun
Everybody should own one bad lens!
You did a great job of explaining the pros and cons of each lens type. Additionally, many lower priced zooms do not have a constant aperture, which can impede your work. I'm a people shooter, both in studio and location; models, gr. seniors, events, etc., so I tend to use zooms and primes, depending on what gig I'm going to shoot. Your images that you posted were very good. I like how you posed and composed a lot. One critique, and it has nothing to do with your content or photography--put your video camera lower, because, at least to me, it's distracting that you are looking over me. Kind of like a teacher looking at the place where the wall meets the ceiling when they're lecturing. Other than that, you did good.
This was an older video from last year, reloaded from my other channel. Back then I had a screen mounted on the camera to check framing etc. I had a bad tendency to look at that screen instead of the camera. The screen is now gone, the studio re-rigged, so all of my current stuff has me looking directly at a lower mounted camera.
I do primes primarily because of size and weight. I like my kit to be as small as possible. Which is why I only have two very small zooms: The Fuji 15-45 and the Sigma 10-18.
@2:56 Other reasons I prefer primes to zooms: 1. No zoom lenses available for my Leica M6 rangefinder. Variable focal length lenses are not zoom lenses. 2. No perspective control zoom lenses are available. 3. Not many zooms are available for my medium format cameras. 4. No zoom lenses are available for my large format cameras. 5. No zoom lenses are available for my fixed prime lens cameras.
Back in the early 1970s, I bought my first zoom lens a -- Nikkor 43-86mm f/3.5 AI. Its image quality was so poor that it was one of the only lenses I got rid of for poor performance. Decades later, after a friend gave me two zoom lenses, I realized that zoom lenses had drastically improved. I now own and use six auto focus zoom lenses that cover a range from 14mm to 200mm.
I remember the reputation of that 43-86mm lens. Even the camera store owner warned me of it.
I am still using primes. My small local shop had to order them all from Nikon. I kept my 70/200 2.8 G which I almost never use. However it is a great lens.
In my 16 years of digital photography I have used both primes and zoom lenses, I photographed many different subjects but the one time I have used both was while photographing events, their are times when you need the ability to isolate subjects and also need the fast aperture then depending on the event their are times when you can't move around because you become a distraction and say when you're photographing an outdoor wedding ceremony you need to pick your time to move so you don't miss an important shot. The years that I photographed events, I had a full time job and for several years I photographed events while retired so I photographed events by myself and so I had to carry a wide variety of glass depending on the type of event I was photographing.
Nice words Peter. Just coming back to primes after becoming a lazy photographer with zooms.
I primarily shoot primes, but I have a travel zoom handy (24-120mm equivalent focal length, f/4) for when I travel with someone. Because I don't want to make people wait for my clumsy hands to change lenses every two scenes :v
Hey Peter, my name is Johnny and I'm a freelance logo designer, currently I'm looking for more works, do you love to have a logo redesign for your channel's branding to have a memorable graphic based modern monogram logo to help your audience recognise and follow your channel easier? I would love to design a photography themed logo inspired by your direction for you! Let me know if you interested to make it happen! :-)
100% agree with you about the power of constraints/limitations. I feel very fortunate that throughout my journey as a storyteller I've pretty much always had some hard limits in play. Most of my photography is done in abandoned sites - and I've had to push the limits of pretty much every constraint you can imagine. Equipment, angles, light, time, and environmental hazards just to get started. I'm not a daredevil or anything but on occasion I've found that the shot I want requires one hand for my camera and the other bouncing the light from my flashlight off a wall - and hoping I've braced my legs and torso enough to keep the shot steady. And not slip and break a limb 😄 Overcoming challenges and exploring limits strengthens us in ways that we mightn't foresee. Anyway, good video - have a sub as thanks 😊
another great video
This was so helpful. I had to stop and pause and think about it to make sure I understand and taught it out loud to myself a couple of times, but now I get it in terms of distance and focal length. Most basic photography classes talk about depth of field in terms of how it relates to aperture only. I saw your playlist and figured I would go through it, even though I've taken numerous beginner level classes on photography, and somehow I knew I needed your class, and yes, I did. Thank you so much for explaining it and then showing the examples. This helped tremendously.
I've tried to root these videos in how these issues influence our creative control. Many instructional courses get into the 'how', but rarely touch on the 'why'. It's the'why' that is important as most of us can eventually figure out then 'how' on our own.
Yes, and if you understand why it’s easier to figure out how. This definitely felt like the missing link, and it feels like everything is clicking. Thank you!! I already subscribed, and I’m about half way through your instructional videos. My depth of appreciation for your videos is in direct proportion to a deep depth of field. Sorry, bad pun! ;)
KISS (Keep it Simply Stupid)😅😅i rember
A good exercise we can all benefit from.
This is an interesting idea. Sometimes, just taking a picture will prompt you to take another. I use this to get started when I am feeling less than motivated. Recently, I have been trying to find subject matter at different times of the day. Something that is boring or busy in the daytime becomes moody and interesting at night. You throw in a black-and-white aspect, and things really start to get creative.
B&W white always strips things down to the essence of the image. No crutches left. About working the same subject over and over, that's something I've done in the past and since totally forgot about, so thanks for mentioning it. Going back to the same subject and finding something new each time is a tremendous exercise for the creative mind. That's worth a video. :)
A simple exercise but a really clever idea. Thanks for the insights, Peter, great video.
Excellent video. I've seen so many camera club images which aren't more than documentary images of the subject of the month. You've put some thought into these images. Perspective, background, lighting etc. all play a part in a decent image. The subject of the month in my camera club for Sept 23 was "toys". I went to the dollar store and bought some lego knock offs. October subject was tools. I used the same lego people depicting them stealing some 10mm sockets from my tool box. Some got it some didnt. Another month was fire. I used the fire painting technique with the lego people. Another was "sweets" again lego people and candy. I incorporated the toys into every subject of the month for the camera club season. Final month was balloons. Dollar store balloons and a wicker basket. I was lucky enough to get a window seat on a flight into Seattle and get an image out the window of Mt Ranier. Used that as a background and photoshopped the balloons/gondola(basket) and lego people in it. Were they the highest scoring images? NO, but I had fun making them and learned a bit in the processes.
Good points Peter. Keep that shutter working.
Great video. I probably have 2,000 photos around my house and backyard just practising. Great exercise! I like your photo of the windowsill and the chair.
THESE ARE ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD STREET PHOTOS!! DIG THE VIDEO AND YOUR XPRO3 REVIEW VIDEO! SUBBED!!!🤘🏾🤘🏾🤘🏾🤘🏾
Use flash like you are supposed to. 😉
Flash only works under certain circumstances.
I really struggle with artificial lighting. Another consideration is electronic shutter. The frequency of lighting may cause banding using electronic shutter. If electronic shutter, I need to use 1/60 to match the cycles per second.
Yup, I didn't get into ES as that is another can of worms. The main idea is to understand that nature of artificial light.
@@photographybypetercharles9939 I have a Pixii range finder and it is electronic shutter only. Took me awhile before I understood what was ruining my indoor photos.
Wow impressive. Glad to hear that about Fuji Canada. Hopefully I don’t need their services but good to know they are providing wonderful customer service. Enjoy the lens.
I think you should try a different copy of the same lens. I got a veeeeery nice one.
Which is the problem with cheap lenses - sample variation. The problem when buying one - are we getting a good one?
Thanks for this video - I suspected this was the cause for occasional out of focus shots and you have clearly demonstrated this to be the case.
Thanks good demo! Greatly appreciated
The key is not to stop the lens to f11 or f22 not only due to depth of field but phenomena known as defraction. On a 40mpix sensor I would go to f8 max if you want to have reasonable sharpness. The story about aperture of Fuji lenses ha snothing to do with Fujifilm but with how all mirrorless cameras works for more then a decade.
Yup, I have a video out on diffraction with one of these lenses. The closeness of the rear element to the sensor creates issues. Nevertheless, for an enthusiast putting stuff on social media, diffraction is a non issue.
I prefer Voigtlander than Fuji 35mm f2 too: comparing sterile and boring pictures.I very recomend Voigtlannder Lanthar Apo 35mm f2 on Fuji camera. Very beautifull colors and textures. And l'd like to buy 23mm Voigtlander for X mount...
Thanks for this suggestion. I've learned to set the focus on f1.2 and then, stop down as desired. Focus peaking doesn't work as well once stopped down. It's certainly a lot slower but a great suggestion.
P town great for street pics indeed
Very very helpful information. Thank you! BTW, how it compares to the NOKTON 35mm f1.2 in terms of image quality? I have the NOKTON 35, and I am seriously thinking about getting the NOKTON 50mm, and plus the Color-Skopar 18mm f2.8. I have the fuji 50mm f2, but the NOKTON seems to have a little more close magnification right? Even if the Voigtlanders image quality is not on par with the best FUJIFILM lenses, they all look good enough to me, and they are so much more joy to use. I have the 18mm f1.4, and at the end of the day I don’t see too much difference compared to the NOKTON, except the 18mm is awkward to use sometimes because of the size. The 18mm Color Skopar seems to be a better option to me, but I am just a little worried about the short focus throw from 2 to infinity. I am really looking forward for more comparisons videos. Have a good one!
I'm biased toward the 50 as it's in the range of my favourite focal lengths 65-85 FF. So if there is an option, the 50 goes on first, but I don't have any complaints about the 35mm. The close focus is the same 39cm.
Not sure you've done the 50mm f/2 any favours there with the lighting conditions being quite different!
Ya, my selection for the 50mm f2 portraits were mostly fairly tight head and shoulders. I only had a few that were about the same working distance as for the other two lenses. It is soft at f2 regardless.
Great video and thanks for the info. I have the voigtlander 35mm f0.9 and 27mm f2 both have inacurrate f stop detail when shooting wide open. This happen after the latest firmware update, i m currently using xt5.
Did you check your for the EXIF data at f1.2 on your XH2? Stunning lens by the way…
EXIF data is saved with the image on most recent Fujifilm cameras.
When using Apple Preview info, the EXIF reports both a correct and an incorrect value for the aperture. "FNumber" is reported correctly while "Aperture" is reported as a lower number. This is with an X-Pro3. I haven't used this lens on my X-H2 yet, but other Voigtländers on that camera report aperture incorrectly. A firmware bug fix is definitely required.
@@SteveKleinheider Yes, but there is a bug since last firmware update by Fujifilm. It records f16 instead of f1.2 since that update.
@@franciscoscaramanga2342 same thing happened on xt5 with latest firmware
@@photographybypetercharles9939 I don’t think I am having that issue with my X-T4…I will have to take another look.