Author Archives: Michael Willems

Student asks:

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A student asks:

My name is Pauline – I have taken a couple of courses with you. I have the Canon 5D and we had talked about a perchase I sould make of a 50mm lens — when I  talked with a salesperson, they said because the 5D is a full frame camera that I would need the 85mm so that I would not get distortion.  Due to the fact the an L series 85mm lens was more than the 50mm L – I  resisted the purchase. Can you please help me – I took the portrait course in Waterloo and the instructor said portraits are done with zoom lenses wich I know you can, but I had never heard that before – he didn’t recomend a 50mm at all.

Headshots are best done with a lens that is, say, 75mm long or more. As it happens, the 50mm lens works like a 80mm lens on crop bodies – not on yours. So the salesperson is right that for headshots, 85 would be great.

On yours, a 50 is a “nifty fifty” – a general purpose or, when used for portraits, half/body shot lens.

However! A 50mm lens is a very affordable fast lens – fast meaning large aperture (low f-number, 1.8 or 1.4), and that is a very great benefit. Get one and use it as a half- or full body shot lens or for general purpose you when you want to shoot in available light or want blurred backgrounds.

I have a full frame camera too and yet I also have a 50. I do not use it for headshots, but I use it for many many other things.

So yes – get one. No it will not be the only lens you own – no lens, alas, every will be! But it will be a lovely lens that will change your photography.

POST EDIT: “Portraits are done with zoom lenses”? I would not agree with that. Some are; some are not. Available light portraits in particular, see tomorrow’s post, are almost always taken with fast prime lenses.

 

Snapshot

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This, taken at a School of Imaging workshop I taught the other day, is a snapshot of a volunteer the way Uncle Fred takes them:

What is wrong here? Well if this is meant to be a portrait of the lady looking at us, rather a lot:

  • The subject is in the middle
  • Uncle Fred shoots horizontal only
  • Uncle Fred shoots from 5.5′ above the ground only

Instead of doing this, try to turn the camera 90 degrees, get close, shoot from teh subject’s level. You now get:

Simple, no?

A 50mm prime lens (a “fixed” length lens) will make this way. And note, I shot that at 3200 ISO in a dimly lit classroom. Yes, it can be done.

 

Flash Note

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When bouncing a flash, you may need more flash power than you have available. To ensure you have enough, do the follwoing:

  1. Use an ISO of at least 400. You may need higher ,especially if ceilings are high or non-reflective.
  2. Use an aperture of, say, f/5.6 or wider.
  3. Test your bounce environment by turning the flash to MANUAL mode at full power (1/1, or 100%). Fire. If the picture is overexposed, you have enough power; go back to TTL and start your shoot. If not, then raise ISO and open aperture, or move to a better environment.

Simple steps that can avoid a lot of pain – and TTL flash can do a good job, like here in Anastasia’s picture a few days ago:

 

Lighting

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Here’s why you use proper lighting – with flash used for many outdoor shot too.

Say I shoot talented new model Anastasia outdoors using available light:

That is well exposed – but poorly lit. Even on an overcast day, there are shadows; no catch lights: not a great shot.

So now I do it again, with a big flash (a Bowens 400 Ws) with a softbox. I set the flash manually, using a light meter, as follows:

  1. First I meter, using the ambient light meter, for ambient light. I read, say, 1/100th second at f/8 at 100 ISO.
  2. I want the background to be darker than what I will light (remember Willem’s Dictum: “Bright Pixels Are Sharp Pixels”), so I actually set exposure to 1/250th second (still at f/8 at 100 ISO).
  3. I now switch the meter to flash meter mode. I set it to 100 ISO and 1/250th, and fire a test flash while holding the meter in the exact place the model will be. I adjust the flash level until the meter reads f/8.

That gives me this:

I think you will probably agree that this is a much better shot. And the procedure is simple. On an overcast day you can use speedlights too, if you prefer.

 

Another poor Facebook decision?

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When I post an image on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/cameratraining/ I see what people like, and comment on:

So I see someone “shared” my post. Nice. I’d like to see who, of course; so I click on the link. Now I get this:

Seems very odd that someone is allowed to share my copyrighted picture, but I am not allowed to know who this is.  Doesn’t it? Facebook has some odd “policies”, and it appears this is another one. Photographers, beware.

 

Reflect on this

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When you use TTL flash (automatically metered flash), you can get great images – I use TTL all the time. Like in this image of Anastasia:

But sometimes, oooh, it goes wrong and the image goes too dark. Like here:

What happened?

I’ll tell you what.  Your camera’s evaluative/3D Color Matrix metering tries to expose well, and to avoid over-exposed areas.

And that watch is reflecting the flash. So it would be over-exposed. So the camera tells the flash to fire at lower power- to avoid that. Hence, the rest of the image is underexposed.

Simple, once you know: in TTL flash images, avoid reflective surfaces like the watch!

 

Dogma

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Be careful to question dogma – in photography like everywhere else.

Two items of such dogma:

  1. You must light evenly in portraits
  2. You cannot shine a flash directly at someone – you must use modifiers like softboxes and umbrellas every time.

So this is not OK?

Sure it is. No rule, even the best ones, always holds. Sometimes art can be made by breaking rules you thought were sacrosanct!

 

Quick portrait

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Prior to a class the other day, I decided to do a very quick self portrait or two. Let me share, and explain how.

How? This is how:

  1. A 1D camera with a 580EX flash on it – with that flash used as a master, and disabled otherwise, so it only drives additional flashes.
  2. The camera set to manual, 1/125th sec, f/5.6, 400 ISO.
  3. An additional flash A on our left: a 430EX on a light stand, with a HonlPhoto grid to avoid the light spilling onto the wall.
  4. An additional flash B on our left: a 430EX on its little foot, equipped with a HonlPhoto gel.
  5. A 1:1 ratio of A:B flashes.
  6. The camera set to choose its own focus point for once, since I am holding it myself!
  7. The camera in my outstretched arm, tilted for diagonal line effect.

Not bad eh?

Finally, one more with a different gel on the background flash: egg yolk yellow, my favourite colour.

Total time taken: Maybe two, three minutes.

 

Facebook revealed

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Ha ha – I am not the only person to take issue with what I see as Facebook’s Taliban mentality! Read this, in Gawker:

Inside Facebook’s Outsourced Anti-Porn and Gore Brigade, Where ‘Camel Toes’ are More Offensive Than ‘Crushed Heads’

An interesting read, and it underscores my warning about the excessive power wielded by Facebook.

And about the Taliban nature of their policies. I will tell you what I find obscene: the fact that an implied vagina is deemed worse than crushed heads, deep wounds, and excessive blood. That is sick.