When I started photography in the high school, I was (usually) given a Smena 6 and a roll of Svema film, and left to myself to figure out what, when, how, where. My teacher however called us back in the lab to develop, print and discuss the negative and the print of course. And one of the lessons we all very young students had to learn by heart was what the lens can give you in certain situations, and moreover, what the lens can or can’t do or does badly, in relation to your film, light, etc.
We so learned that the one of the main keys to a good image was doing a delicate and sensible balance between the aperture, shutter and the image in front of you. “Juggle through the apertures, give your photographs some variation, understand the needed depth of the image” – that what the teacher said. And I remember being annoyed at the endless theory classes, because many of us were convinced we’re the next Cartier-Bresson.
For years, my lenses were of the 3.5 aperture; at first, I didn’t care. After I came to learn what this fast vs slow lenses business is, I was not in a position to use a fast lens, because there weren’t any to be had in the lab. This was all right though, because being used to have the 3.5 at my disposal, I was not experiencing the want of it, really. Using B setting on a tripod was getting me out of low light situations which were not that many anyways. I was learning, step by step, to make do with what I had at the time. Lesson learned, good for the future.
Years came and went by, and at some point in the mid 90s I was able to get my first fast lens, a silver-nose Zuiko 50/1.4 for my OM2n, which I still have these days. That was a game changer for me, and I became addicted to shooting wide open. I really thought the fast aperture was releasing me from the 3.5 curse; my images seem to have some personality to them, which I interpreted (wrongly, I know now) as personal style. Well, it was not, not by far; all I was doing with that fast lens was to take hundreds of images, focused on the bokeh more than it was healthy for me. I was addicted to shooting wide open: there, I’ve said it.
Which made sense for me at the time, because shooting wide open gives you some benefits. I am not going to discuss the benefits here, you all know them and from the single point of view of being able to shoot with faster speeds, I was somehow right. Of course I was not shooting only at faster aperture, but it was a general feeling of go there, use 1.4, it’s much better. And of course, in many instances, this is true. But not always.