Difficulty to Defocus with a Canon A1 Film Camera

[lucylacy]

Hi


I am a newbie in the world of photography but lets sya that I have done some decent homework over these last months. I have also attended a 5 week intensive workshop for film photography – and I am planning to move forward

Currently I am in possession of CANON A1. One of the few disadvantages of this camera is that it has a very limited amount of shutter speed which only goes up to 1/1000

Now this brings me to my question

I like a defocusing effect for portraits (Portraits focused, and the surrounding enviorment as defocused). But whenever I chose F2.8, the amount of shutter speed never seems to be enough to compensate for the high aperture – let alone using F1.4

I tried to use setting F1.4 / 2.8 at TV 1/100 but the resulting image was highly over exposed. (to be completely homnest, shots were taken in a protest during broad daylight..but still its an issue..)

True, there is the exposure compensation function as well but it has its serious limits

To shell all of this in one question : what would be the best Manual settings to be set, in a normal amount of light setting (not too light, not too dark) , if I want to shoot a focused close up portrait set against a defocused enviorment surrounding the portrait ?

Thanks


Lara

 

[limr]

You're talking about a shallow depth of field - getting the background blurred to separate your subject.

What film are you using? Perhaps you need to go to a slower film. Also, what lens are you using? You can blur the background at smaller apertures when using a longer focal length.

You say portraits, which usually implies a studio or a planned set up, but then you talk about shooting at a protest. Are you doing street photography or planned shoots?

 

[astroNikon]

you could at a ND filter to compensate for your limited shutter speed.

 

[lucylacy]

In the protest I was taking also close ups of people shouting, and wanted a shallow depth of field effect

I have a 35 mm Lens

Is there an ND lens that fits CANON A1?

 

[lucylacy]

ND filter I meant....sorry

In the protest I was taking also close ups of people shouting, and wanted a shallow depth of field effect

I have a 35 mm Lens

Is there an ND lens that fits CANON A1?

 

[astroNikon]

a screw on ND filter (they come in various "darknesses" though.
==> Neutral density filter - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

so for instance if you want a 2 stop reduction you get a ND4 filter

the filter size is dependent upon the thread / camera lens diameter. This number is normally identified on the front of the lens (or someplace on it), or the backside of the lens cap.

 

[limr]

In the protest I was taking also close ups of people shouting, and wanted a shallow depth of field effect

I have a 35 mm Lens

Is there an ND lens that fits CANON A1?

You need to check the size of the thread in the front of the lens and that will be the size you need when looking for an ND filter. Look on the front of the lens - many of them say the filter size they need.

Again, what film are you using?

 

[gsgary]

What iso film are you using ? Get some PanF and shoot it at iso25

 

[lucylacy]

400 ASA

 

[limr]

400 ASA

Use slower film. If you're using color, go down to 100 for outdoors. For bright sunny conditions, that leaves you with a shutter speed of 1/2000 at f2.8. You don't have that but it's just a stop - you can use your exposure compensation settings.

If you want black and white, Ilford Pan F is ISO 50. Again, in bright conditions, your f2.8 shutter speed is now 1/1000.

And when the light isn't bright Sunny 16 conditions, then you have more options since your shutter speed would only get slower.

 

[lucylacy]

Thankyou so much for this. All of this was very helpful

 

[vintagesnaps]

I typically use 100 speed film outdoors and 400 indoors unless it's a cloudy day or I'll be shooting later day losing light.

Using a wide open lens (or almost) isn't usually the best setting for events. You might get some close ups that way but usually you want a midrange or smaller aperture setting so as things happen you can get everything/everybody in focus. I've sometimes done in game portraits where I get a close up of a player and do that during warmups when there's time to reset the camera and focus on a particular player. During the game or at an event there's too much happening too quickly for that to work.

You can't just blur backgrounds, you need to see them, find a good vantage point, and take the background into consideration. Even if it's blurry if there's a bright red stop sign there, you'll have a bright red blob that could make for a distraction from the subject. Move around and change your vantage point as needed to change what background you're getting in the photo.