Action in the frame

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Andy and I accompanied Chandita and Feroz to the Colaba fish market yesterday. I took a picture of a fisherwoman cutting prawns, at which Chandita—who is a filmmaker—remarked that there was no action in my frame. She asked the woman to cut another one so I could click when her scythe came down.

So that’s a new thing to mull over. Action in the frame. Never thought of that. It’s always been about framing things so they balance well, checking the metering, and that’s it.

Speaking of metering, I think the F70’s vari-program matrix meter is goofy. Presented with 8:30 PM street light, it suggested 5 seconds at F8. The D70 would have gone for about F2.

I’m shooting slides (thanks,

thaths!) and will know what they look like in a couple of weeks.

sriramb — Feb 27, 2005 10:43:24 AM — # ↩

Look up Henri Cartier Bresson. His concept of the decisive moment redefined candid photography.
- vimoh — Feb 27, 2005 12:22:29 PM — # ↩
  
  hmmm
  I've seen photographers ask people to 'act' in order to 'get' the action. Isn't that messing with the subject? Wait for the subject to act. Click!
- sriramb — Feb 27, 2005 6:53:22 PM — # ↩
  
  scratch the comment about Bresson. Noticed on your website that you've been reading his books . (BTW, you can pickup Henri Cartier-Bresson in India pretty cheap in chickpet. I picked up a copy fo Rs.300/-)
  - Kiran Jonnalagadda — Feb 28, 2005 4:40:53 PM — # ↩
    
    His pictures of Gandhi's funeral were, for lack of a better word, amazing. They felt like really being there. Moistened the eyes.
    
    But despite those pictures, I didn't make the connection with showing action in the frame until Chandita pointed it out.
    
    BTW, found a copy of Getty Images' collection from the 1920s for about Rs. 300 at Crossword here. Only flipped through it so far, but what I saw were fabulous. Apparently they have a series of books representing each decade.
latelyontime — Feb 27, 2005 8:06:08 PM — # ↩

interesting...when we were doing reproduction analysis of pictures we also used to talk about the 'action' in the frame. The idea was that each of the picture comes with its own sense of history- not just a history of technology and techniques but its own diegetic narration. Hence a picture became interesting because it told us immediately, what has just happened before this piece of time was captured, and what is most likely to happen. The more options and probabilities a photograph can offer, the more complex it is deemed :)
Anonymous — Feb 28, 2005 3:22:46 PM — # ↩

F70 D70
Speaking of metering, I think the F70’s vari-program matrix meter is goofy. Presented with 8:30 PM street light, it suggested 5 seconds at f8. The D70 would have gone for about f2.

The minimum f-stop depends on the lens that you are using. You are probably using a 50/1.4 lens on your D70 which allows you to go up to f1.4. Does the F70 also have the same lens? If it has say the 28-80/3.5-5.6 lens, you can go only as far as f5.6 at full zoom. Not above that. Also the D70 allows you to change ISO which a film camera cannot...

- Nilesh.
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Feb 28, 2005 4:00:53 PM — # ↩
  
  Re: F70 D70
  It was the same 50/1.8 lens on both cameras.
  
  IAC, I figured out why. The F70 was set to landscape mode, in which it insists on a small aperture despite the light. It's hard to tell what mode it's in because the UI is truly goofy.
  - gromhellscream — May 30, 2005 2:12:19 PM — # ↩
    
    Re: F70 D70
    If F70 is like my F75 then I would say its the following
    
    - In autoprogram modes it would use Matrix metering. This depending on the shot can do a really good job or do a really lousy job.
    
    on a D70 the metering is much better so it can make adjustments way better than a F70 can. For that matter F75 has a better matrix metering system than the F80.
    
    Thats' why when I doubt exposures I just go spot metering and decide what I need to expose correctly and use that..ignore the lightmeter after you have decided.
swatisani — Mar 1, 2005 12:06:16 PM — # ↩

Chandita or Chandrika - I am searching for a long lost friend of mine Chandrika (we use to call her chandy) She went into film making after we passed out from Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi (in 1989). Last I heard from her she was at Gurgaon.
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Mar 1, 2005 12:32:43 PM — # ↩
  
  This one is Chandita Mukherjee and lives in Colaba. Not sure she's the person you're looking for.
  - swatisani — Mar 1, 2005 12:44:12 PM — # ↩
    
    NO :(
    I am looking for R Chandrika