I do probably 75-80% food photography, so when another type of photographic opportunity comes along, I often jump at it. Here’s an image from this morning’s shoot. It’s a simple portrait of an Doc in an operating room. I did the shoot with a new lens of mine. It’s a 85mm f 1.4 Nikon Lens. I simply love this lens. If you shoot wide open, you not only get another two stops of speed, but you get an amazingly shallow depth of field. In the next day or two, I’ll post some other shots that I’ve done with this lens. With this lens, you can focus on the person’s eye, and the eyelash will be out of focus. You REALLY have to watch yourself. It’s real easy to blow focus!The effect that this lens has is pretty amazing though. Before I sprung for this lens, I’d use an 80-200mm 2.8, shot wide open to get this type of feel. But to get that feel, you’d need lots of space between you and the subject in order to shoot at 200mm. With this lens, you only need a little distance.
Another thing I did with this photo is pull back the saturation. (in Photoshop) After that, I tweaked the hew a bit until I got something I liked. The shot looked fine without the tweak, but I like this more. Let's see what the client likes...
Sure, I still take along the 80-200 and all my other lens, but I really do love this new lens. I'll post some mire images, maybe tomorrow.
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Hi Michael, I love your food photography and feel it is some of the best out there and I enjoy updates to your food blog. I love the 3 portraits of the 3 elderly men you did with the 1.4 lens, the shallow depth of field effect looks awesome, I think I will be getting one. I do not think it works well on the doctor portrait though. I feel as an environmental portrait the surroundings should be a bit more in focus. It is hard to tell what the background is the way it is. Just my opinion, but I love your work!
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Brian
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words about my work. I know what you mean about the Dr. shot. I just shot it today and am still "living" with the shot before I come to a conclusion. I may very well have over-did it. I've overdone it in the past, for sure. I'll post a shot tomorrow on an example of the lens's use that I really like.
Take care
Personaly, I'd prefer a doctor who's got more "life" to his skin than me :)) I mean, I also like desaturated tones, which probably work well with hospital environment (interiors, equipment...), but when it comes to faces, I don't think thats a good choice.
ReplyDeleteWell, just my 2 e/cents :)
I mentioned that I needed to live with an image for awhile before I know if. I like it or not... I think I like it. And the more I look at it, the more I like it. Not quite color, not quite black & white. I'm going to investigate this farther...
ReplyDeleteall the effects used (photoshop) does not reduce the core purpose of these photos, I thought it would be nice plus if you use a little touch with the program. and will be better supported with a good photo results, too.
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