Christmas and New Year is now over and things are getting back to normal. So its back to my lunch time meandering around Lincoln, with a camera in my hand.
Being in Lincoln with the castle, cathedral and the wonderful shopping experience of steep hill there is always photo oppertunities.
As usual my lunchtime wondering was with my Leica M10 in hand.
During the eighties I kept a diary. In the nineties I used a Palm Pilot and Outlook / Exchange to keep myself organised.
For the last three years I have gone back to paper, or at least a mix of paper and computer.
I work in IT for a large outsourcing organisation and support a number of companies. Due to data and privacy rules my work diary is encrypted and accessible on my laptop and work phone. My personal information and my part time job as a photographer is now a mix of electronically held information for data that needs to be shared and my paper journal.
My paper journal is also a mix of things, its a bullet journal for everything and a personal diary. Over the last year I have been looking at the William Hannah products.
Its a simple leather bound A5 ring journal but incredibly well made and I have been lucky enough to be bought one for Christmas.
I spend yesterday setting it up as my new 2020 bullet journal and am looking forward to using it to plan my future 2020 shoots.
It has to be said the Leica range finders are not for everyone and even if you want one you may not be able to afford one.
I have been hearing rumours about Zenit producing a range finder but did not really believe the rumours but it turns out they are true. Its been done in partnership with Leica and the camera is based on the old Leica M240, so us range finder users now have another option.
As I mentioned in the previous post; if your shooting full frame 35mm then lens around 85mm are the traditional focal length for portraits, but one can go longer or wider.
For myself in general when in the studio if shooting 35mm full Frame it tends for me to be a 105mm portrait lens or a telephoto zoom, depending on how I am working that day. As I mentioned I do not currently a traditional portrait lens.
For my environmental portraits I often go wide, usually a 35mm lens but occasionally 24mm or 50mm.
Getting a more traditional focal length for my Leica has been on my purchase list for a few years now.
Its not been high on my list as a) Leica glass is expensive and b) for more traditional portrait focal lengths I am generally shooting with an SLR.
This month Leica have released a new 90mm portrait lens, the Leica Summilux-M 90 f/1.5 ASPH. As you can see, at 90mm and f/1.5 giving it an object lens of 60mm diameter as well as it having an aspherical lens element means that it will be good (well amazing) and also with this amount of technology its going to be expensive.
I have to admit that I even I was a little shocked at the price so I’ll be going back to look at second hand 75mm and 90mm Leica portrait lens but its good to see Leica pushing the envelope in what is possible in lens design.
When one thinks about a portrait lens you tend to think of a fast sharp 85mm f/1.4. Its certainly one focal length that many manufactures have a good version off.
Its a focal length that I have been considering purchasing for sometime but as I own a 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom and a 105mm I have been managing quite happily.
For fun and personal work I often shoot portraits with my little Leica M. I find the Leica fun to use and is useful when working with less professional models as the camera is less intimidating.
For full length portraits a 50mm works well, but going wider you run a risk of distorting the figure and care is needed.
In my work when the working conditions are tight I have gone as wide as 24mm. With wider lens you can use to with care to make the legs look longer, shooting from a low angle.
If you have a search on the web for well know photographers you can see some portrait photographers have produced some amazing images with lens as wide as 21mm.
So is any lens a portrait lens?
In the past many portrait lens were designed for low contrast and certainly less sharp then modern lens, a more forgiving lens for the human face.
Its posible now to buy lens that wide open are soft and dreaming but then stopped down a couple of stops are as sharp as any top lens.
Now the look of a lens is often forgotten as Photoshop is used to give the effect one wants, but its nice to get as much done in camera and just leave some basic editing for post production.
But in answer to the question, yes any lens is a portrait lens, generally 55mm to 135mm traditionally but I have seen great portraits from 21mm lens to 300mm and even the 500mm mirror lens.
With the recent Apple OS updates and Adobe releasing new version of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom, I was left with only one machine my MacPro desktop that could use the new programs.
With the release of the new Apple 16 inch MacBook Pro I had to indulge.
There are a lot of new features to learn in the new Photoshop and Lightroom and having a new laptop means I can play and not be too antisocial by locking myself away in my office using my MacPro.
Tonight I have been playing with the new Texture tool. Its a bit like clarity in the way it deals with high frequency contrast areas but is a bit more delicate.
It makes a great way to soften skin without loosing too much texture in the image.
Applying some negative texture to the skin and a little positive clarity and texture to the hair, eyes, lips and clothes you very quickly get a pleasing image.
My normal route for soft skin is a round trip to Photoshop but this may be quicker and easier and give just as good results.