It’s Not About the F-Stop

Sometimes It Is About the F-Stop

Years ago, I did a book on San Francisco. I found a wonderful shot in front of the Palace of Fine Arts: ducks on the water, with reflections of buildings and columns in the water; movements of ducks on the water making fantastic distortions. I worked on this for about three hours, tried every viewpoint, exposure, and shutter speed possible. The film was Kodachrome, daylight, 32 or 64 ASA, some shadows, backlighting, just lovely.

I got the film back. There was good stuff, but the best was 2 to 3 stops under. Since it was a book and I had time, I went back to reshoot it. First time, no birds. Went back again. No sunlight. Another try, birds weren’t where I needed them. I went back 22 times, and on the last time, ...