When you ask why they will then say that it is to draw the viewer’s attention to the subject, to get rid of distractions, to make the image more artistic. There is this strange notion, unfortunately reinforced by Mr Karbe (the chief Leica lens designer) during some interviews, that a fast lens should be shot wide open all of the time, to get the fabled bokeh. It certainly isn’t an affliction exclusive to the Leica fandom, but the German manufacturer’s camera owners seem to be particularly terminal with the disease. Slobbering and dilated pupils are accompanied by tremors and a droning repetition of the mantra: “Bokeeeeehhhh…bokeeeeehhhh…bokeeeeehhhh…”. Nowadays uttering the words “fast lens” triggers an atavistic, primal reaction in the typical Leica enthusiast’s lizard brain. Shallow depth of field was a problem to contend with, not a feature of a fast lens. Those lenses were soft, full of aberrations, lacking contrast, but they drew a lot of light in and that was their purpose. The technology available at the time didn’t allow the lens designers to achieve the kind of image quality wide open that we are used to today. A fast lens in those days was necessary for low light. Like all of the greats, he had skills in camera handling, composition and manual focusing, and most importantly an incredible eye derived from endless study and not a care in the world about what gear he was using. The answer is simple: skill developed in long, long hours of practice. For most of his career Henri Cartier Bresson shot with film that was so slow compared to what we have with digital cameras that one wonders how he did ever manage to get an image without the help of image stabilisation, automatic exposure, autofocus, image preview and all the technology we have access to now. In the past photographic film was not that fast: ASA (ISO) 25 was the norm.
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