PhotoMappersMagazine | | 1
RAINY DAY PROJECTS We set ourselves the task of shooting a self portrait
secretsexposed! Getting that ÂŁ30,000 medium format look with just about any camera!
PLUS
Tips on keeping creative and more...
n o i t sec
Dis take apart
We to and a pho ou y show how it ly exact e on was d
2 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 3
Contents
6
16
We focus on adding contast to a photo to improve it’s look.
secrets exposed!
5
Can you define what a portrait is?
Getting that medium format look with just about any camera and a little effort in post.
We all know what a portrait is, but explaining what one is becomes difficult. Have a read and get them knowledge gains.
18
8 RAINY DAY PROJECTS
Fun with friends Take a group of friends, make them do stupid faces.. That’s what fun with friends is about!
20
Show their best side
Get better photos now!
Always be Creative We’ve outlined a few ideas on how to keep that creativity alive for you guys to try.
22
Rainy day projects ii Selfies. Self portraits infact. We show you how easy it is to take a decent self portrait withyour DSLR.
We give you some pointers and common issues to watch out for when shooting people
24
Scream queens Experssion and breaking the comfort zone is what we discuss in this article.
D
issection
12
We take apart a photo and show you exactly how it was shot.
www.photomappers.com
26
Showcase A two page spread of two beautiful photos.
All Right Reserved PhotoMappers 2017
PhotoMappers Magazine consists of professional photos
28
Buying a portrait lens?
A guide into choosing a portrait lens to suit you.
and public domain images where no acreditation is required
4 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 5
Editor’s Note
Can you define what a portrait is?
A Month of portarits
We all think we know what a portrait is, but defining it will leave most of us flat on our faces.
W
Portraits are something we can all relate too. They’re probably the most viewed photos we’re subjected to on a daily basis, and probably dominate the majority of our client work. So what better way to celebrate portrait photography than dedicating a whole month to them! Plus, we show you how to use gels, we argue which lens is best for portraiture, show you how to get the look of a £30,000 camera, and help you to get the best out of your subject.
www.photomappers.com
e as humans tend to be vain creatures. So for the most part, taking a portrait of somebody is literally photographing them from the waist up. Usally with a close up of their face because they, or a make up artist has spend an eternity perfecting and sculpting the face with beauty products.
The Oxford dictionary defines a portrait as;
As we are constantly exposed to this type of photography on a regular basis, it becomes very easy to forget what the definition of a portrait actually is.
It means a whole world of creativity! Let us explain... If we take the second part of the definition, it’s saying it could be a “representation or impression of a someone or something”. A pile
“A painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders A representation or impression of someone or something in language or on film or television” So what does that mean to us as photographers?
of paper stacked in such a way that it looks like a family member could be a portrait. Or even a certain scent and clothing that is the epitamy of a friend would be a representaion of a person, also known as a portrait. But back to shooting people. A good portrait will draw you in as a viewer. Something will catch your eye by showing an emotion or personality. Our job as photographers is to draw it out of a subject. So let’s make some people laugh and shoot their reactions!
6 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 7 create an image that appears to be shot with a wide-angle lens but that has a shallow depth of field. The Brenizer technique requires some knowledge of manual functions and, for best results, a wide aperture. Because it involves combining multiple images, it’ll increase file size too. This is something to consider if you’re shooting 36MP shots as some people using this technique literally take like 50 shots... That’s a heck of a lot of data, and could put a serious strain on your computer. Starting with the Brenizer method, we need a base line exposure. I’d suggest starting in aperture priority mode, dial in the widest aperture you’d
We can achieve a wide angle shot but with a shallow depth of and take a shot. If the field like, exposure is looking good, the
Secrets Exposed! Getting that medium format look
I
f you’ve ever seen those photos that have a crazy shallow depth of field, but are still pin sharp, then you’ll know how awesome medium format is. You may also know how expensive medium format is too... If you don’t, we’ll tell you... For something basic, it’ll set you back around £25,000! That’s serious money in anybody’s books. And that’s just for the body! Add in a back and a lens then you’re pushing £30,000. That’s not even top of the range either.
about a medium format photo though, and it’s not all about the shear amount of pixels. It’s to do with the compression, subject seperation, and depth of field too. Obviously then, we can’t get immitate the medium format look fully, but we can get close. There is a technique unofficially called the Brenizer Method, and this is multiple shots, stitched together to The above shot was achieved with a post processing techinque. This involves selected zone blurring and sharpening.
There is something magic
www.photomappers.com
take note of the shutter speed and ISO. Switch your camera to manual mode and dial in these settings. That’s the exposure set. Now for the focus. The idea is to have a very small area in pin sharp focus with the rest of the scene still shown. This can be hard to achieve with a DSLR. Lens choice and subject will play a big factor in the end result.
In a single point autofocus mode, choose the focus subject and press the shutter halfway until focus is obtained.
Now we want the autofocus mode set the manual. Overlap each photo you take by around a third to make a smoother transition in post processing. Our second technique in some ways easier, but it requires a fair bit of thought. We will be blurring sections of the photo subtly depending on distance and ‘zones’. This can be done with either a multi shot image after merging, or with a single shot. Our shot on the left page was a single shot. And, to make things easier, it was shot with natural light. Photoshop is the best software I’ve found to edit this way. The ability to edit on individual layers is is a huge benefit. It can be done in lightroom, it’s just a little harder. Below is the our final image but with coloured zones showing how strong the blur show roughly be. The horion being the furthest point away from the subject should have the most blur. Also, we don’t want any discerable lines between the blurred zone, so we need to make sure that there is a decent amount of feathering between them.
8 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 9
Show their best side
E
verybody likes to look good in photos, and when a client pays you for a shoot they expect perfection. And why shouldn’t they...? You’re a confident and capable photographer after all. With digital photography, we tend to take hundreds of shots per shoot. This gives us ample amount of photos to choose from.
But, which photos shows our clients in their best light? And why? When shooting a subject, it’s worth asking them which side they feel is their ‘good side’.Then pay attention to which side the subject naturally turns to or feel comfortable shooting. There’s usually a reason people have a good and bad side! There’s no point shooting the bad side if
Things to consider Below are a selection of common ‘issues’ to look at for when shooting and editing • Hair - Are there fly away hairs, lumps and bumps, gaps in the hair • Eyebrows - Similar to hair, are they tidy, are there stray growing hairs • Eyes - Nobody has fully symetrical eyes but look out for half blinks, lazy eyes, red viens, eye turns, under eye bags, clumps in eye make up • Glasses - Is there a distracting reflection, do the glasses rim obstruct the eyes or cut throught them • Nose - Does the nose look crooked, the shadow created give it an abnormal shape, too much attention drawn to it • Mouth/Lips - Is the mouth parted in a strange way, are the lips dry, distracting teeth showing, an awkward or an obviously fake smile, smeared lipstick • Facial hair - Are there patches missing, stray growing hairs, uneven lines, unitentionally dense or noticeable hair • Skin - Has the skin got any blemishes or scars the client wants removing, blotches or patches, uneven make up, lines or wrinkles the client would like removed
www.photomappers.com
10 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 11
slight turn of the head can make a huge difference. As a Lightroom user I’ll tend to switch between two images, and choose the one that feels right. Even if I have 8 images that are very similar, I’ll do them two at a time. It takes about 8 comparisons to choose the one photo this way, but it works for me! That’s the basics of our editing done. We now have a handful of photos to take into lightroom or photoshop to play with.
they look uncomfortable. Some people have different sized features, turns in the eye etc. We just have to work with light and angles to disguise these features. A larger eye would be placed further away from the camera to even the eyes out, whereas a higher camera angle will make the subject look upwards slightly, opening the eyes more.
the shadow cast by a tree over the subject’s face. After finishing a two pass ‘edit’, our total number of photos should be down significantly. Usually, I’m down to 10 - 20% of my images shot. The third and arguably hardest part is choosing between very similar images. A
Firstly, we need to eliminate the rubbish shots. Our first pass of editing will include shots with out of focus eyes, motion blur, severe under or over exposure, cloed eyes or strange faces. Basicailly anything that is clearly not ‘the shot’.
My workflow starts with the spot healing tool. I’ll eliminate any easy to fix dust specs, spots and stray hairs. If the spot healing brush doesn’t quite cut it, a combination of clone stamp and blending modes should do the trick. A super subtle skin smoothing on some subjects is my second job. I still like to see some form of pores and not have the skin as plastic looking as a Barbie doll. Features enhancement is my next port of call. Namely eyes. I use the clarity and highlights adjustment brush on the iris to add some contrast and sparkle. A seperate clartiy adjustment brush on eyebrows and eyelashes will give them more contrast and make
Our second wave of editing will be looking at details. For me, this will be distracting elements that are impossible to remove. For example
www.photomappers.com
them appear a little shaper. To further enhance the subjects features and to add definition to the subjects face, I will next dodge and burn the skin. Only very subtley, but subtle makes for a big difference! Still with the dodge and burn stuff, it’ll be hair and clotheing next. We want to create sense of dimentionality and depth. Finally, I sharpen. I don’t want much sharpening on the facial skin however, so I’ll usually put a layer mask up and paint with a 20% opacity. That’s it for my quick general workflow on how to make people look their best. It does get more involved and more processes added depending on the subjects, but as a basis, this is a good workflow to start with.
Basic Workflow Out of focus Shots Details/distracting elements Choose from similar shots Spot healing tool Skin smooth features Enhancement (make them pop!) Dodge and burn skin Dodge and burn hair and clothing Sharpen
12 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 13
Tips for using gels
A few pointers to get you shooting like a pro with gels:
1
4
2
5
3
6
A gel on your flash will eat up light output. This means the power will have to be increased, or the aperture changed to maintain the same exposure.
D
There is no real correct way to expose the light when using gels however. We just have to go with what looks best. So take the shot, review it on the back of the camera, and adjust by eye.
issection We as photographers, tend to look at millions of photos and some of them we want in our own portfolios. In this section, we dissect a photo which looks complicated and present it in an easy to understand format so you can go out and try it for yourselves.
G
els can turn an ordinary photo into an extraordinary photo, but these scare and confuse photographers into disregarding them completely. We’re going to inspire you guys to take the shot above as inspiration, and give the confidence to try it yourselves.
softbox and a standard round reflector dish. There is also some compression present, indicating that it was shot at around 135mm.
The shot of the girl above was taken using 3 speedlights, with 2 of them gelled, a
If we take a look at the photo, and then at the lighting
The aim of the shoot was to show the model’s power, determination, body shape and athletisism. Which was achieved by primarilary lighting style.
www.photomappers.com
Lack of colour saturation from the gels can be cured by under exposing the flash. Try under eposing by 2 or 3 stops relative to the key light. For example, if the key light is at 1/2 power, make the gel flash 1/8 power.
Moving the gelled light further away from the background will create less of a ‘hotspot’, more colour through the frame, and a more even exposure.
Using an orange gel can help create or enhance a sunset. Aiming it just out of frame, but pointing towards the camera will give the whole scene an orange glow.
Turn off TTL! TTL will cause havoc with your exposure when using gels. Turn your flash into manual mode and adjust them individually.
14 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 15
diagram on the page opposite, we can see that the light is quite hard. This is to say there is a very rapid transition between the illuminated areas of the model’s body and the shadows. We have a fully black background, which suggests there is no natural light present at all, and it looks like there is a decent amount of depth of field. From this, we can hazard a guess that camera setting were ISO 100, 125/th and f8 - f16. Let’s breakdown the main/key light next. The length of highlight on the punch bag suggests the key light was a long softbox, with no grid, and positioned adjacent to our shooting position. Getting the hardness from the key light can be achieved by 1) having a small softbox. However, this wouldn’t give anywhere near as much illumination area due to it’s ting size. 2) Taking the front diffuser panel off of a big softbox. I don’t think this is the method used as the highlights would be more specular and the contrast range would be greater. 3) And this is the method I think was utilised. I think it’s a big softbox pulled away from the subject to make the light harder. Now look at the model’s body position. Can you see what I see? Firstly, her body is angled towards the camera. With a little twist of the waist, we can tighten abs and get them tense to help flatten a stomach. The angle also shows us more of the model’s physic. But the main reason for this is to help sculpt the light. The slight turn away fro the light helps to stop light wrapping around and illuminating the whole subject. The gloves have been positioned in such a way to show the model’s face. It’s quite easy to get carried away with shots this this, especially when getting the ‘action’ shots, and forget to have the face unobstructed.
background, a similar or identical light was placed behind her, creating a nice rim light around her arms, back of her shorts and just kisses her hair. This can also be seen as a highlight on the punchbag, but because half of the light is hitting the model, it looks like a short softbox. It isn’t. If you look at the lighting diagram, you can probably see the punchbag is slightly behind the model. If it was directly infront of her, the keylight would fully hit the punchbag , casting our model in shadow. We don’t want that. So, a long lens compresses the scene and makes the model and punchbag appear on the same plane of focus. Now to the gels... The keylight looks like it was gelled, thrown in the softbox and shot through. The rim light isn’t gelled (the rim light is white on the model). And the third/background light is gelled red, positioned at around head height and aimed to the top right of the frame. It looks like a standard reflector without a grid attached was used, because the spill of red on her hair and arm. And there we have it! A breakdown of the photo, a lighting diagram with an explanation of positionings, and a chart of how the gels are affected by exposure. Now there’s nothing stopping you going out and replicating this kind of shot for yourself, or even using parts of the dissection and applying it to a future shoot. On a final point, if you’re struggling with creativety on a shoot, break out the gels. They’ll open a whole new world of possibilities.
To make the model stand out front the
Lighting diagram for the boxing girl shot
A little chart depicting how the aperture affects the saturation of the gels. For this test, our exposure was ISO 200, 1/125th, with the only variable being the aperture.
f8 with grid
f16 with grid
For the flash set up, we set it at 1/4 power and placed the unit around 4 feet away from the wall. A grid was used for the first set of shots, then we shot the same sequence of images without th grid to show the difference. As you can see from the images, no grid gives a more even coverage of colour, whereas a gridded light gives us a more focused spot with a heavy vignette. Intrestingly however, the ungridded light gives us a huge hotspot in the middle of the frame. Below f5.6, on the blue gels, the exposure got f5.6 with grid really bright. So much so there seemed little point in showing them. Remeber, different gels will be affected by exposure in different ways.
www.photomappers.com
f1.8 with grid
f1.8 w/out grid
f5.6 w/out grid
f18 w/out grid
f11 with grid
f16 w/out grid
f11 w/out grid
16 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 17
Get better shots now! being drawn to any specific area/subject which makes my attention wonder through the frame. The fix to this is simple, add contrast in post. I pushed the contrast slider to the max to bring in some real deep blacks. Subject. This is the thing I’m struggling most with in this shot. I’m not sure if the light, clothing, or ith this month’s subject being portraits, shape of the person is the subject. If there is we thought we’d make it a little harder anything that get’s my attention, it would be part on ourselves and critique a more of the hat and the back of the shirt, obscure portrait. and chances are, the shirt back Overall, I like the shot, but I like isn’t the intented subject. the potential I can see in it the Fixing this can be tricky. if most. This doesn’t mean just in you’re shooting without the editing stages either. I can intention. What I mean see the things that could have by this is if you’re not been done to improve certain trying to draw attention aspects of the shot, or to get to a certain point, the completely different shots subject of the shot may altogether. However, as this is not be discearnable. If our shot, this is the one we will you’re intended subject focus on. is the jewellery a model is wearing, then that’s where Firstly, the lack of contrast jumps the viewer’s attention needs to out at me. I’m sure that a low contrast be directed. In this shot, I chose shot was the objective, but I’m unsure the subject to be the contrast between why. The lack of contrast also prevents my eye
W
Having an obvious subject will stop the viewer from getting confused
www.photomappers.com
Quick tips Adding contrast to your photo will give it more depth and make it stand out more. This can be done with light position, modifiers or added in post. Black and white photos usually benefit greatly with a tonne of contrast. Just go with what looks good to your eye.
light and dark, and the contrast should now be the first thing that gets noticed when the shot gets viewed. The centeral composition of the shot feels unbalanced.the negative space on the right hand side of the shot feels like it adds depth. Whereas the left hand side feels cold and unutilised. As a general rule,
a subject being close to an edge of the frame will feel uncomfortable, but in this instance, I think it works and suits our shot better.
18 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 19 look stupid. The instructions that were given to the models were things like, “give me a black stare, pull a stupid face, try to lick your eye” etc. Basically nothing serious. Getting the ‘real’ person makes for far better shots than having just a pretty face infront of the camera. This is where shooting friends or someone you have a personal connection with can really show in your images.
Fun with friends
I
f you’re lucky enough to have some friends that love to laugh and not take themselves too seriously, then rope them in for a fun shoot! This is perfect for testing
new techniques or equipment and locations. For the photos shown, we were in a small space with 2 speedlights. Anything bigger would have been way too cumbersome.
Inbetween shooting BMX friends pulling tricks and shooting some awesome candids, I managed to catch a friend giving out a thinking pose. I love the shot as it shows his true and fun personaliity. The moral here is draw out and shoot the personaility.
We also had mimimal props! Fake moustaches! For Ben, it seemed to fit him perfectly and look so natural! The brief for the shoot, if you want to call it that, was simply to have fun and
www.photomappers.com
All of the guys said beforehand that they feel awkward infront of the camera and don’t know what to do or how to pose. So giving stupid insturctions gave us some real smiles and laughs. Plus the freedom to not feel like they have to be stereotypical model material. Our shoot only lasted for around half an hour, but we ended up with some photos the guys were happy with and we all had a brilliant time!
Props can be your best friend! Let’s say you have a person infront of your camera who is a little camera shy or feeling a little awkward, and you’re struggling to bring the real them out. Don’t panic yourself.. Just grab a prop,any prop will do, and have your model do something with it. It doesn’t even have to be in frame! It will give them something to psychologically hide behind and hopefully make them feel safe. Alternatively, you can hand them a prop to just play with. The shot below was just that. A couple of red flowers and poses later, and voila! All of which took a whole minute. Not bad for a little improvisation.
20 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
Always be Creative Photography can exhaust our creativity in an instant. And it sucks! Here’s a few ideas on how to keep those juices flowing...
Shoot slow shutter speeds With portraiture, we generally want a fast shutter and an image with tack sharp focus. Generally in the eyes. However, let’s drag that shutter speed... Alot... Let’s slow it down by a few stops, and perhaps make the subject move around subtly. The idea here is to stray away from achieving perfectly sharp photos. Even if it’s just for a few shots.
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 21
Shoot though everyday objects Things like glass, christmas decorations. a lava lamp, cracked mirrors... These kind of objects often get over looked as we see them on a daily basis. But have you ever tried to shoot through one..? Try a shallow depth of field and focus on your subject. Then slowly wave your object infront of your lens and see how it affects your shot.
Find extreme angles Get low, climb ladders and aim down, use a fisheye... Anything to get us out of our comfort zone. Yes a wide angle lens isn’t going to give the most flattering portraits, but they can give us some awesome stuff. So go throw on a wide angle lens, lay on the floor and see your subject through the eyes of a worm.
Shoot a theme Use gels Conviniently, we’ve got a whole section in this mag dedicated to using gels to achieve a certain shot. Give it a look to give your creative mind a new tool. Gels are great for colouring backgrounds, or firing at your subject to change to feel of the photo althogether! How about trying to shoot through a sheet of gel instead of putting it on your flash head...
www.photomappers.com
Imagination and creativity are funy things. Sometimes we’re briming with ideas, usually at the most random moments, and other times we struggle to see a subject in a new way. As creative individuals, it’s down to us to keep ourselves constantly creating and coming up with new ideas.
Shooting with a theme in mind can accelerate those creative juices like crazy! With a predetermined box to work in, we already have a lay out to work from. We just have to add our awesome creative flair.
22 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 23
Shoot a self portrait
away and to obtain focus, I used a light stand as a subsitute for myself. I got myself into position against the wall, adjusted the light stand tip to my eye level, then got behind the camera to focus.As the light stand tip has been set to my eye level, that’s the point that was focussed on. After the focus was set, the camera and lens was put into manual focus mode. The exposure was manually set at ISO 100, F1.8 and 1/125th. The speedlight was mounted inside a 60x60cm softbox and power output was 1/8th with a distance of 1m away. The flash was triggered with Yongnuo
Having a camera body with an articulated screen and live view will make these self portraits a breeze!
Rainy day projects ii
transcievers and the camera settings changed to timer mode, with a shot taken every 5 seconds and a duration of 10 shots. This sounds confusing, but it’s just another way to trigger the camera. If you want to explore it yourself, it should be in the self timer mode,and in short, it means you’ll press the shutter once, the counter will count down and then take a photo. Then without pressing the shutter again, it’ll repeat the process for the duration of shots that have been set. In my case it was 10.
Everybody shoots ‘selfies’ on their phones nowadays, and alot of them will be instantly uploaded to social media regardless of whether they are actually blurry, too dark, or even any good! This is good news for us photographers though. One good photo will stand out like a sore thumb amonst the rest and they’re pretty easy to do. All we need is a camera and prefferably a tripod. I personally used a speedlight because it gave me the look I was going for. Not to mention I had just gotten a new softbox and wanted to test it out. The hardest part of the technique I found was getting the focus correct. with a large aperture. I shot a 50mm 1.8 at 1.8 from around 1.5m
Now the technical stuff is done, the rest is a little bit of a gamble. Well, more of an educated guess as we kind Lighting diagram for the above shot
www.photomappers.com
of have our position set. However, depth of field was around 5mm... So there wasn’t much in the way of tolerance.
The light stand was removed and I took it’s place, trying to keep me eyes on the same plane of focus. This really is hard when changing pose between shots! And because of this, a large percentage of the shots got discarded because of focus issues. As you can see from the diagram, the softbox was angled away from being parallel to the wall. Having it parallel gave too much light spill and reflected back into the lens. Plus, I like the fall off of light that angling it away gives.
24 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 25
m a e r Sc
Ask your next subject to shout or scream at the top of their voice... Go on, do it. You’ll be amazed at the experssions you’ll get...
S
Que
houting, let alone screaming in public is enough to make even the best of us feel uncomfortable and anxious. But this is what we want from our subject! With the uncomfort, comes the laughs and giggles! People laugh all the time when they’re nervous, and it’s genuine. Not to mention the huge smile that comes after the scream when the endorphines hit our model.
ens
A good scream can loosen a stiff or uncomfortable subject too. But what if they’re so insecure they can’t bring themselves to scream...? Or what if the location you’re shooting in really isn’t scream friendly..? We fake it! We tell our subject to fake a scream, or scream with no noise. It sounds bizarre, and it really is. But it doesn’t draw any attention like a real scream would. Alternatively, try shooting a subject where they come naturally. From going to watch and shoot bands often, I’ve noticed the range of facial expressions you get from the subjects is huge! And, they’re all genuine. Which is so much more interesting the a vacant, expressionless face. This is just one more tip for you to keep in your arsenal to help you get the best out of your subject. The idea behind getting your subject out of their comfort zone is to tease genuine expressions from them.
www.photomappers.com
26 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
ShowCase
www.photomappers.com
ShowCase
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 27
28 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 29
Buying a portrait lens?
can also be elimiated easily with zooming the lens in. Asides from versitility, the biggest advantage a zoom lens has for portraits is it’s ability to compress a scene. You can literally make background elements appear closer and larger than they are in real life. This is an awesome natural phenomenom that has many uses! Got a secion on a wall that looks amazing, but the rest of the wall sucks? Zoom in and bring it forward. Another example would be a studio setting: Let’s saying you’re shooting a subject against a seamless backdrop and you want the model to do a starjump.. Problem is their arms and legs got wider than the edges of the background. Take a few steps back and zoom in. You’ll bring the background closer to your model and you create extra background space from thin air! Next, we need to consider focal length.
‘Ideal’ portrait lens lengths are 85mm,
Price
Price is a huge factor in the decision making process, and you can bet that these lenses aren’t cheap! Generally, the larger the aperture, the more expensive the lens will be. Especially if it’s a big brand lens.
Materials and construction
There are so many questions about gear that can be asked, with the most common being “what’s the best...?”. This month, we answer “What do I look for in a portrait lens?” Each type of lens has it’s advantages and disadvantages. A prime lens will give the best image quality,. Period. The colour saturation, sharpness, lack of distortion, and contrast all lean towards a prime. There will be some people who own a 70 - 200mm 2.8 take will want to contest this, but it will be in vain. Prime lens will usually have a bigger maximum aperture too. The largest maximum apertures being the manufactures flagship model.To which you can guarantee the best biuld quality and heftiest price tag! A zoom lens with a large aperture is a very versitle tool. Although the maximum aperture on a zoom will tend to be 2.8, bokeh can still be easily achieved by getting close to your subject and zooming in. Distracting elemnts of the frame
www.photomappers.com
Materials used may seem like an after thought, but depending on application and what you’ll be shooting, it can make or break your purchasing deciision. A good example is a personal story. i was after an 85mm to shoot bands with, and the Nikon 85mm is quite a cheap lens, and very acclaimed. It has super A 50mm lens on a crop sensor fast auto focus and is sharp as hell. camera still has all of the charateristics owever, it doesn’t have a coating on of a 50mm lens. The distortion, while the front element to reduce glare... Kind slight, is still there. It just becomes a of essential to shooting directly into 1.5 or 1.6 crop. For example, on a 1.5x lights... So I’m considering the Sigma crop sensor, a 50mm will give the same 85mm 1.4. A little more expensive, frame view as a 75mm lens on full but for my use, it’s perfect.Another frame. material thing to consider is the lens construction materials. Plastic may seems cheap and tacky, but plastic absorbs shocks, knocks and bangs...
30 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
100/105mm, 135mm and 200mm. 200mm and longer lengths tend to compress features too much and makes our model’s face look flat in head and shoulder shots. It is argued that a 50mm is a good portrait lens. It is... for 3/4 body shots. When getting closer to the subject for a head and shoulder shot, the 50mm has some distortion. Which can make our subject’s features look a little funky.
PhotoMappersMagazine | | 31
photos unless you become some sort of photography ninja or have a tripod, remote shutter and a super still model.
Portability can be an issue for some people. Size and weight vary vastly bewtween the lens. A good example is the 70 - 200mm 2.8. It’s a beast. It weighs an absolute tonne and it’s long! Not very portable or easy to conceal .The flag ship primes (85mm 1.4’s) aren’t shy of weight either. When I review images I’ve taken That huge aperture requires alot with my 70 - 200, the shots I like of glass! They are shorter though. the most are usually between the But these are the pro range 85 and 105mm lengths. lenses. If you go down the semi pro route, the 85mm 1.8s are alot Another factor to consider is lighter! This can be advantagous aperture. A huge aperture will if you’re going to be hiking all day allow a ton of light to come in, and have to carry equipement all whichc is great for low light day. shooting. But, most people buy a huge aperture lens is for depth Was that boring to read? Maybe. of field. or lack of. The bigger the But they’re a few important points aperture, the shallower you can to consider. We’ll now condense get depth of field. Usability can that list into something abit more become an issue however, as usable. Our little chart here you may get a depth of field that basically points to the lens that’s becomes only an millimetre. This best for the most important factors will result in a boat load of blurry to you.
Best Image quality
Price (based on flagship models of 70-200 2.8 and 85mm 1.4)
Larger maximum aperture (more light into the lens) Resalability
Prime lens
As you can see, for portraits, most of the factors point to getting a prime lens. But this is just for portrait photography. If you plan on getting a lens to shoot more than just portraits, I’d heavily recommend spening your money on a professional zoom. Yes they’re a little more, and yes they let less light in due to a smaller maximum aperture. However, you can throw it on a crop sensor camera and have the same crop as a 105 - 300 lens with a 2.8 aperture. If saving money is your main concern, Nikon and Canon (probably other brands too) make 85mm 1.8 lens. Image quality is going to be slightly lower than the flagship model, and you’ll lose around 2/3 of a stop of light in maximum aperture. The build materials are cheaper too, and you won’t get the special lens coatings helped to reduce flare, but you’re going to save Around £800! That’s huge! Having said that, Tamron makes an 85mm 1.8 but it has vibration control! This means you should still be able to shoot at around 1/20th and still get sharp photos! That’s insane! It’s is also crazy sharp and has beautiful micro contrast. It does come at a price, but that price is around £800, right in the middle of nikon and Canon’s professional and pro-sumer lenses. To finish up this article and give you a few ideas of what’s out there, below is a few lenses with price ranges.
Pro level prime £1100 - £1400 approx Nikon or Canon 85mm 1.4
Versitility
Zoom lens
Sigma 135 1.8
Pro-sumer level prime £330 - £500 approx Nikon or Canaon 85mm 1.8
Pro level zoom £700 - £1500 approx Nikon, Canon or Tamron 70 - 200 2.8
www.photomappers.com
32 | | PhotoMappersMagazine
NEXT ISSUE Shooting action!
www.photomappers.com