Forum participants make frequent reference to shooting with a particular lens "wide open". I know what "wide open" means, but what is the advantage/disadvantage of the technique? Again, I appreciate the patience of those who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with those of us new to photography.

-- Max Wall (mtwall@earthlink.net), January 27, 2002

Answers

We often post shots that were done "wide open" for several reasons. At least these are MY reasons.

1. Cause that's what the people want Caesar! 2. I like experimenting with OOF as an extra element in my images and like feedback on my use of this element 3. Sometimes others ask about lens performance. The ultimate test of the performance of any lens is to shoot wide open as all the nasties show up coma, vignetting, flare, etc... 4. Its nice to oohhh and ahhhh about how great a piece of fast glass is but sometimes you have to back it up with something tangible.

;-)

-- John (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), January 27, 2002.

Apart from the obvious matter of letting more light in, to take pictures in lower light or with faster shutter speeds (at least I hope it's obvious!), wider apertures give a shallower depth of field.

Advantage: isolates the subject against an oof background (works best with long focus lenses), concentrating attention on the subject or rendering otherwise distracting background (or foreground) details oof. An example of oof foreground: shooting through wire mesh and making it 'disappear'.

Disadvantages: more difficult to focus; depending on the subject it may not be possible to get all the subject in focus.

-- Nigel Bowley (nigel.bowley@btinternet.com), January 27, 2002.

John, relax. Step away from your computer and have your morning coffee and then return.

-- Richard (rvle@yahoo.com), January 27, 2002.

Max:

I think a lot of us shoot with our Leica glass wide open simply because we can... Most of us have come to Leica from other systems, primarily SLR's. I came from Nikon. With my Nikon gear, I learned pretty quickly that if I wanted a really crisp image, I had to stop the lens down a few notches from wide open -- usually to about f4 or f5.6. However, things are a bit different with the Leica glass. In other words, the Leica glass performs admirably wide open that the little bit of field that is in focus is at least sharp. This generates a unique look to the image, something not often seen from other glass -- a sharp subject inside the shallower-than-normal depth of field the wide f-stops generate. Aside from that, I also enjoy being able to photograph in low levels of light and get acceptable -- even enjoyable -- results, something that rarely happend for me with my SLR unless I used flash. Now I can do it without the flash.

:) Cheers,

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), January 28, 2002.

Whoopsy, too large a font size.

Oh well, I guess I'm not the master of HTML

Peace.

-- John (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), January 28, 2002.

"....a unique image - a sharp subject within the shallower-than-normal depth of field..."

Like Jack said....

35mm Summicron, f/2 @ 1/4000th (courtesy Hexar RF)

This really only makes a difference, though, with 35mm and longer lenses. With shorter lenses the backgrounds tend to stay sharpish regardless of aperture.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), January 28, 2002.

Max,

Others have done a good job of explaining that with Leica lenses, one can shoot "wide open" and still have sharpness in the image. Having that choice available as an artistic tool lets you guide the viewer's attention to where you want by using the narrower depth of field of the wider aperture.

Here's another example, f/2 at 1/60 (as I recall) with a 50mm Summicron DR on an M6 TTL in the Carmel Mission in CA:

-- Ralph Barker (rbarker@pacbell.net), January 28, 2002.

not leica, wide open though!

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), January 28, 2002.

Maybe Leica's reputation for "open wide" performance explains why they're the camera of choice for dentists?

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), January 28, 2002.

It's so I can use the fastest possible shutter speed. I hand-hold my long lenses. With Leica lenses the performance penalty for using the maximum aperture is minimal. In the last 21 years using the 400mm and 560mm f/6.8 Telyts, I've uses these lenses at apertures smaller than f/6.8 for no more than a dozen photos.

-- Douglas Herr (telyt@earthlink.net), January 28, 2002.

Thanks, everyone, for your helpful explanations. Many of you could be most successful as technical manual writers, for you have the ability to make clear esoteric language and principles. I am grateful for your assistance.

-- Max Wall (mtwall@earthlink.net), January 28, 2002.