Digital 'Vivian Maier' style shooting

[Hsg]

By tilting the LCD upward and shooting by looking down on the LCD, just like shooting with a rolleiflex, any digital shooters trying this method of shooting and if you have, share your results.

 

[daveleo]

I recently bought a Fuji X-A1 and shoot that way virtually 100% of the time. Very comfortable, stable and two-eye previewing.
I don't shoot her style, so we'll pass on the examples.

 

[rhl-oregon]

Or via EVF ratcheted 90 degrees. This is how I mostly shoot my GXR on the street. It's less intrusive.

I also select 1:1 ratio when doing so, I partly in order to create continuity of vision/approach with my TLR shooting, partly to maintain competence in head-down framing since the shift from horizontal 3:2 shooting can be discombobulating.

I also do this for horizontal 3:2 with a Lumix GX1--similar ratcheting EVF.

The waist-view or bent-view approach can also be adapted to any eyelevel filmcam that takes a chimney or 90 degree VF. That's why I have a Nikon 90' (fits my GF670, GA645) and a VariMagni for my OM4.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Interesting name for TLR shooting. 🙂
Never worked for me with TLRs, to little image for accurate focusing. I ended up with the loop or prism viewer right to my face.
Here is one on-line review of Sony "100 something" as best street camera. Reviewer explains how TLR focusing method works for him with tilted screen.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Interesting name for TLR shooting. 🙂
Never worked for me with TLRs, to little image for accurate focusing. I ended up with the loop or prism viewer right to my face.
Here is one on-line review of Sony "100 something" as best street camera. Reviewer explains how TLR focusing method works for him with tilted screen.

Thats why there are DoF scales on the lens 😉

 

[Hsg]

rhl-oregon, thanks for the examples. I think the lack of intrusiveness and also the ability to stare longer at the LCD while framing, without making people feel uncomfortable, makes this style a very good one for street photography.

 

[daveleo]

Interesting name for TLR shooting. 🙂
Never worked for me with TLRs, to little image for accurate focusing. I ended up with the loop or prism viewer right to my face.
Here is one on-line review of Sony "100 something" as best street camera. Reviewer explains how TLR focusing method works for him with tilted screen.

There's an unfulfilled marketplace need ! ..... an autofocusing TLR . . . 😱

 

[NY_Dan]

Don't wish to rain on anyone's parade, but...

This is a ridiculous premise, that shooting from waist level equates to Vivian Maier style.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Don't wish to rain on anyone's parade, but...

This is a ridiculous premise, that shooting from waist level equates to Vivian Maier style.

You would have to dress like Nannie and have child with you. If you want it Vivian style. 😎

rhl-oregon, thanks for the examples. I think the lack of intrusiveness and also the ability to stare longer at the LCD while framing, without making people feel uncomfortable, makes this style a very good one for street photography.

Once people realize what you are taking their photos "hidden" way, it is even more uncomfortable, not just for them, but for you 😉

 

[ZeissFan]

Yep, it's always embarrassing when you get busted when you're trying to shoot on the sly.

 

[rhl-oregon]

Considering the spirit of the OP suggestion, let's accentuate the positive, engage with the creative possibilities/similarities, rather than toss tomatoes.

Thanks for starting the thread. Certainly when I came to digital photography in 2009 via a Lumix G1 kit, being able to flip its LCD for composing vertically took me back to the first camera I bought and learned on in 1973-- a Yashica 44 (whose wlf was usually glued to my face, with the magnifier popped out, for composing--but not necessarily for shooting...)

 

[Pioneer]

I don't know why people have this assumption that Vivian shot on the sly. The majority of her best compositions are of adults and children who knew full well what she was doing. Some were friendly looking, some a bit suspicious.

And she just didn't shoot randomly in the street. She composed her photographs. Singles, three somes, people working or waiting, it didn't matter. She recorded those events in pleasant compositions.

If you are serious about the "Vivian Maier style" go get to know the people you are photographing. Talk to them, but be paitient and wait until there is a story in your picture. A story about that person and what they are doing.

And forget the camera. She used a Rolleiflex, sure. But she also used a Leica LTM. She used good reliable tools but her photographs were about the person, not the tool. It is a way of seeing.

IMO of course.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Thats why there are DoF scales on the lens 😉

I missed this one 🙄

I used to have one of the first Yashica A and 124G as well, plus Mamiya monster.
For my embarrassment I can't use DoF or even distance scale on those TLRs.
My 135 format RF lenses - no problem. Well, with Elmar 90 F4 it isn't so easy 🙂

And thanks to Pioneer, he is exactly right.
I also have one thought about her style. Remember how person, who was her kid to look after, describes how timelessly Vivian was pointing camera at the stores windows? I think, it was done on propose, to make people less suspicious about her camera.

 

[willie_901]

...
And she just didn't shoot randomly in the street. She composed her photographs. Singles, three somes, people working or waiting, it didn't matter. She recorded those events in pleasant compositions.

...

I think randomness profoundly affected much of her work. Often she no control whatsoever over who she would see and when see would see them.

I completely agree she was blessed with a gift for composition and she used that gift purposefully. Randomness played no role in her compositions.

 

[Godfrey]

Yep, it's always embarrassing when you get busted when you're trying to shoot on the sly.

Never shoot "on the sly" ... It's dishonest. That's why you're embarrassed when "you get busted."

I point my camera at people and take their photo. Some notice, some do not. Some that notice I engage with, usually very pleasantly. Some are suspicious at first, but then I show them what I've been doing and they invariably want me to take another shot or two.

Vivian Maier had a wonderful eye and used the waist level viewfinder to good advantage, but she also shot eye-level with 35mm cameras. Waist-level TLR photos do tend to have a particular style, which we can emulate today with a digital camera with an appropriate lens and an articulated LCD, but it's hard to get the same mix of FoV and DoF since the format is so much different.

G

 

[airfrogusmc]

There's an unfulfilled marketplace need ! ..... an autofocusing TLR . . . 😱

LoL..........

 

[airfrogusmc]

I missed this one 🙄

I used to have one of the first Yashica A and 124G as well, plus Mamiya monster.
For my embarrassment I can't use DoF or even distance scale on those TLRs.
My 135 format RF lenses - no problem. Well, with Elmar 90 F4 it isn't so easy 🙂

And thanks to Pioneer, he is exactly right.
I also have one thought about her style. Remember how person, who was her kid to look after, describes how timelessly Vivian was pointing camera at the stores windows? I think, it was done on propose, to make people less suspicious about her camera.

Shot with blads for a couple decades and they work quite nicely. But like everything they need a little pracice. But most things worth learning do 😉

 

[Keyne]

I just bought a Fuji x-t1 and plan to shoot 1:1 and waist level with the LCD... Not to be sly but because after looking at Vivian's work I am interested in that point of view (Lower to subject than at eye level). Just got the camera (almost bought a TLR and still might...) so I haven't tried it yet but can't wait to try it. Also if someone does it on the sly... So what... To each his own.

 

[willie_901]

I just bought a Fuji x-t1 and plan to shoot 1:1 and waist level with the LCD... Not to be sly but because after looking at Vivian's work I am interested in that point of view (Lower to subject than at eye level). Just got the camera (almost bought a TLR and still might...) so I haven't tried it yet but can't wait to try it. Also if someone does it on the sly... So what... To each his own.

What focal length lens do you plan to use for the "lower to the subject than at eye level" compositions?

 

[cz23]

I don't know about the Vivian comparison, but I certainly enjoy shooting this way. In fact, I consider the flip screen one of the great boons to street photography. Not only is it discrete, but the angle of view is appealing, particularly for those of us who are 6+ feet and like to work close. The point of view feels more natural and more in the action to me, as opposed to looking down on people.

Unfortunately, my two favorite cameras (GR and X-Pro) don't offer this option, so I also own an X-M1, bought specifically for this feature.

John