# Henri Cartier-Bresson Perspective 50mm



## grokglock (Feb 2, 2013)

HCB is a major influence on me and one of the things that I have always admired is his ability to use a 50mm lens but allow the photo to "breathe" almost as if shot with a 35mm. Are there any techniques or perspectives known to cause this effect? I do not want to crop or force the image to "look" wide but HCB just seems to know how to frame so that it looks wider than it should. 

Maybe no one will understand what I am saying but if you do I am all ears - would love to gather some insight on this.


I mean obviously besides stepping back a few steps as Ansel Adams suggested.


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## gsgary (Feb 2, 2013)

grokglock said:


> HCB is a major influence on me and one of the things that I have always admired is his ability to use a 50mm lens but allow the photo to "breathe" almost as if shot with a 35mm. Are there any techniques or perspectives known to cause this effect? I do not want to crop or force the image to "look" wide but HCB just seems to know how to frame so that it looks wider than it should.
> 
> Maybe no one will understand what I am saying but if you do I am all ears - would love to gather some insight on this.
> 
> ...



He could frame so well because of skill and the camera he used Leica  rangefinder which let you see out of the frame lines so it is easy to  see things coming into the frame, there are vidios on youtube so you can see him shooting also my favourite photographers


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## grokglock (Feb 2, 2013)

wow! I did not know rangefinders had those types of viewfinders. That definitely is one piece of the puzzle and of course HCB's talent is unquestionable. I might have to pick up an old off brand rangefinder to mess around with.


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## gsgary (Feb 2, 2013)

grokglock said:


> wow! I did not know rangefinders had those types of viewfinders. That definitely is one piece of the puzzle and of course HCB's talent is unquestionable. I might have to pick up an old off brand rangefinder to mess around with.



Not sure about all of them, i know Leica can coz ive got an M4 since buying it i have not shot digital for about 4 months it is so nice to use, a good cheap one to buy is Voigtlander Bessa if you look at the picture you will see a lever that alter the frame lines Voigtlander Bessa R2


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## ann (Feb 2, 2013)

A 50mm lens on your digital camera is not the same field of view, perhaps that is why you are having issues. 

Depending on which camera your using it will be either 75mm or 80mm, which is the starting edge of a short telephoto lens


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## grokglock (Feb 2, 2013)

i am shooting an ae-1 or elan7 both are film so no crop factors for me, even my digital is a full frame but I suspect Henri could shoot with a 100mm even and make the image feel open


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## ann (Feb 2, 2013)

ah, ok.

am sure he could just as Ansel Adams could make a great image with a Brownie Hawkeye


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## gsgary (Feb 2, 2013)

grokglock said:


> i am shooting an ae-1 or elan7 both are film so no crop factors for me, even my digital is a full frame but I suspect Henri could shoot with a 100mm even and make the image feel open



But it is not like shooting with a Leica amd a Sumicrom 50


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## usayit (Feb 2, 2013)

Its the composition marked with a distinct "decisive moment" which sets his photos apart from all else.  Other's can see a great composition but often we choose to photograph it and move on without consideration of what subjects and actions may complete the photograph.  He shot many known examples with other focal lengths but always gravitated towards the 50mm focal length.   

He could do this with any camera... no doubt.

But he chose a preference towards the Leica rangefinder.... yes... but at times I cringe when Leica comes up immediately at the beginning of a discussion about HCB... as if that really mattered.  


A rangefinder offers

*  framelines that are smaller than the actual view offered by the viewfinder.   Allows you to see subjects entering the frame....  make adjustments dynamically.
*  viewfinder is bright and has infinite DOF.   You can see everything clearly and visualize all subjects in the frame independently of the actual aperture chosen on the lens.

A very different experience than the tunnel vision and shallow DOF (Lens is stopped down at the time of shutter trigger) offered by SLRs we are all used to.


That aside... I'm still convinced that HCB is HCB because of his eye and skill as a photographer.   My recommendation, don't just shoot 50mm because he did.   Not everyone visualizes the world in the same way.  You are forcing it.  Winogrand shot with 28mm and sometimes 35mm.. for example.  Rent glass or tape your zoom at various lengths... find what speaks to you.


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## gsgary (Feb 2, 2013)

no body will ever see like HCB


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## grokglock (Feb 3, 2013)

*usayit** - very elegantly put. I have been actually looking for a 35mm FD lens, instead of trying to make my 50mm perform like HCB maybe I should just use a darn 35mm and see what happens. *


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## amolitor (Feb 3, 2013)

HCB was a big believer in the standard lens. Claiming that "he would have been awesome with a 100mm too" is moot, since he wouldn't have used it.


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## grokglock (Feb 3, 2013)

all i was trying to say is that he could have probably made any lens function in the same manner - his images have this je ne sais quoi this openess that is as far as my experience has been difficult to achieve with a 50


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## gsgary (Feb 4, 2013)

Watch this video 



 you will see that he does not have his camera hanging round his neck most of the time it is hidden until he sees the shot, if you go round with an SLR round your neck people will behave different


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## gsgary (Feb 4, 2013)

This is also worth watching another great photographer


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## BrianV (Feb 4, 2013)

Some old threads on Photo.net stated that HCB used a 5cm F1.5 Sonnar converted to Leica mount. I found those recently searching for some Sonnar history.

There are a lot of inexpensive RF's out there with parallax-corrected viewfinders. The Yashica Lynx 1000 has a 45/1.8 len and all-manual exposure. Goes for cheaper than the 35 lens for the Canon.

The Walz 35 is another all-manual fixed lens RF, the only one that I know of with a classic (7/3) Sonnar formula lens. 48/19, very sharp.


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## Solarflare (Feb 4, 2013)

gsgary said:


> Watch this video [...] you will see that he does not have his camera hanging round his neck most of the time it is hidden until he sees the shot, if you go round with an SLR round your neck people will behave different


I only wished I would understand french better lol unfortunately what I learned about that language in school is long lost now.


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