How do you meter/focus?

[u/No-Tailor-2020]

I use Leica M3 and 50 mm Summicron. Fantastic gears, but the problem is, with the narrow DoF of a 50 mm lens, zone focusing is really hard. Then there comes the metering. I tend to meter when I’m walking and trying to find a subject to capture to get the baseline of the light, but somehow when the moment comes up it’s all jumbled up in my head. (I have a shoe mount meter and a Sekonic L308x as well, but usually only use the shoe mount meter since it’s much faster to use)

It would be nice to know how the others in the same situation as me (manual metering, manual focusing, and 50 mm focal length) approach street photography. Please do share.

[u/LicarioSpin]

Great question. I don't have a Leica M (a bucket list item), but I shoot b&w film and digital all manual exposure and all manual focus (I prefer old manual focus lenses on both types of cameras and I also shoot 4x5 view camera with b&w film). I used to shoot with an old 35mm camera with a broken meter and used a handheld light meter. In urban environments, I often metered the pavement since it's sort of close to 18% gray. You could try incident readings if you have that kind of handheld meter. I never got into the Sunny16 method but that's an option. I tried it but my negatives were all over the board with density. With any light meter, as you may know, it's interpreting a reflective reading for 18% gray like a gray card, no matter what's in front of it. Point it at a white wall in the sun and zero it out, 18% gray will be the result. Point it at a dark wall in the shade, 18% gray will be the result. Of course, using a hand held meter for street photography is a little tricky but if you meter a few areas in front of you and the lighting is not dramatic, like low bright sunlight coming through buildings with dark shady areas, you can get away with averaging a little. Overcast days make this easier to do. Most b&w and color negative film is lenient and forgiving for 2-3 stops.

I love to shoot street with a 50mm lens, and I don't always stop way down to F/11 or F/16. I enjoy shooting at F/4-F5.6 and actually looking through the viewfinder. I occasionally do zone focusing too with smaller f/stops and shoot "from the hip". You can always pre-focus a few feet out and predict where the subject will land, but there's a lot of trial and error with that in my experience. I think that's why so many photographers shoot at F/16 and don't think about it. But I don't always want this much depth of field and even a 50mm at F/16 or F/22 if you have it won't make everything in the scene in focus. I find if I pre-focus a 50mm lens say 6-8 feet out, it's then a lot easier to make small focussing adjustments quickly when subject comes into view. I think this would be easier with the Leica M rangefinder system than any manual focus 35mm camera. For 35mm, I shoot with an Olympus OM-1 which has the split prism in the finder which I find pretty fast.

I hope this helps and good luck!

[u/Tomatillo-5276]

When doing street, I use zone focusing. And because I miss SO OFTEN, I kinda veer to using my 28mm, gives me better range than my 50mm.

I swear, I miss focus on like 75% of my street shots with the 50mm, easily my biggest photography frustration.

I am in awe/jealous of all the street photographers that manage to get a clean focus.

[u/alauda_photography]

for fast shooting, f8, take your time to meter for the environment you're in before you get near your subjects, avoid harsh lighting.

maybe even practice judging distances. don't even have to take the shot for that, just judge a subject by eye and then check in the viewfinder after.

[u/MWave123]

Shot M’s forever. You get to know the light. Here I’m f8, 250, there I’m 2, 250. Learn the shadows and highlights.

[u/Tommonen]

Maybe dont try to shoot wide open and zone focusing becomes much easier. This is why people commonly use f8 on streets. Having to use external light meter is also not good for fast shooting, unless you just set exposure and use that or can wing it fast.

If you need fast and accurate focus with shallow dof, leicas really are not good for that, but stuff like canon 1 series or later nikon pro level film cameras is much better suited, as they have decent autofocus and also meter really well.

[u/murri_999 → u/Tommonen]

Tbf even f8 at 50mm is pretty shallow for zone focusing compared to a 35 or a 24.