One of the major advantages of shooting fully digital (as opposed to shooting slides as I did back in the past) is that you have full control in post production to edit and process the look of your images.
I took this image in Myanmar recently and have not done any other editing than converting it to BW as I find that many portraits could benefit from this conversion.
It is shot on a Canon 5D MK2 with a 24-105mm (1/320sec f.4.0 ISO1000) converted from RAW to Jpeg
Edit: This blog was originally written in the beginning of September 2012, but I have been awaiting the recent Canon/Nikon/Sigma/CZ announcements from Photokina to roll in to ensure I was fully up to date and accurate. ^M
With a selection of more than 100 different focal lengths on the market today it can sometimes be very difficult to decide which lens to purchase. Through the last ten years I have personally testes, purchased, owned, sold and swapped more than 50+ different lenses, but one lens will never leave me: my beloved 50mm lens. I currently own three different 50mm lenses, which may seem a bit excessive (and probably is) but I simply love this fixed focal lens, almost as must as I hate the 18-55mm kit lens….
In my bag at the moment I have three different 50mm lenses to chose from:
Canon 50mm f.1.8 EF ‘Nifty Fifty’
Canon 50mm f.1.4 EF Nifty-fifty-upgrade
Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f.1.4 MF
For most people one 50mm lens would suffice but for me it is an obsession – The Canon f1.8 is probably the best value-for-money lens ever made (yes I am a bit biased, but you know I am right!) and if you are an entry-level photographer this will probably be the best $130.00 you will ever spend. When I purchased this lens several years back, little did I now that this would become one of my all time favourites. Only downside is the plasticky-feel, which is why I a few years back upgraded to the f.1.4 which offers the same high optical quality but packed inside a more robust barrel. When it comes to the Carl Zeiss lens it was the full-filling of a lifelong dream. When I started selling cameras and photo equipment back in 2001 I was fascinated by this mythical brand and after a short love-affair with Hasselblad in the mid-00’s I decided to invest in a range of their ZE lenses which is probably the most expensive photo-related purchase I have ever done, but worth every penny: all the lenses I have worked with are extremely sharp and I absolutely love the vintage manual focus system which does remind me of the good ol’ days before megapixels and Sandisk.
On the market today the 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm seems to be the standard fixed lenses for most people, and it can sometimes be very difficult to decide on which one/s to go for. I personnaly went for the 50mm range as per the above story, but also because of these five reasons:
To me a 50mm is the ultimate lens for these four simple reasons:
Great value for money. Whether you go for the nifty f1.8 or the more expensive f1.2 (or even the f1.0) you can be sure to get a lot of bang for your buck. With a recommended price of less than $150.00 (Canon/Nikon brands) it will not break the bank and for most people it will suffice to work at f1.8.
It improves YOU: When shooting with a zoom lens you have the option of easily changing the focal length of the lens however, where with a fixed focal length you will have to spend more time composing your shot.
50mm is very close to what is considered to be standard perspective (43.6mm). This is one of the reasons why many street and reportage photographers chose this lens – with the right scene and technique you can make the scene look like the viewer ‘is part of it’
Its ultra lightweight! The f.1.8 weighs less than 140g! (or the same as two mars bars!)
So to me there are no doubt at all: Everyone should have at least one 50mm lens in their bag – there are absolutely no reason why you would not. And remember if you are using a cropped sensor body like 60d or 7d the focal length of this lens equals 80mm which makes it a perfect lens for portraits!
National Geographic (Hungary) caption by Ken Kaminesky
Ok. so I admit it; I have not been as active on the blog recently, which I apologise -I have been flat out with work and will hopefully be able to show you some very interesting projects very soon.
However, until then I would like to draw your attention to one of my favourite fellow travel photographers;Mr Ken Kaminesky. I firstly noticed his work a few years back while writing a piece on HDR photography for another online blog. Whether or not you like the almost artificial colours which HDR tends to produce you can not deny that when it is done professionally and correct it does tend to produce a very striking final images.
Ken’s work has won him many accolades, including a cover of National Geographic and a commissioned two week shoot for the Tourism Board of Jordan.
I encourage you all to visit his homepage and his blog where you will find many more of his striking images as well as information about how they were created.
Making nice, natural an good-looking portraits does not need to be either expensive nor difficult. The photo above of the lovely Bernadette was taken with an absolute minimum of equipment: two heads with softboxes and a reflector.
The head on the right side was equipped with a standard 60×60 softbox and was shooting on 1/8 and the right head had a 60×80 softbox with grid installed and was set on 1/16.
The reflector is a standard model of ebay with a gold/silver side in the size 80cm.
No post-processing has been done to this image besides compressing it from the original RAW format…
So….. Why do I tell you all of this?
Some weeks back I asked you all what you would like to see on this blog and one of the things that kept popping up was BTS, setups and simple lighting solutions. Yes, I am using expensive lighting products from Profoto and Elinchrom but.. If you do not have a few K to spend then there are other solutions; standard 250w-1000w studio sets can be bought on Ebay for a few hundred dollars and the are the PERFECT introduction to portrait photography (and product photography)
To assist bit with the basics I have also included a L-diagram below with the basic set-up I used on this shot.
For in-depth information and great articles about Lighting 101 I recommend you to visit STOBIST where David Hobby can teach you everything you need to know and much much much more… -Always worth a visit!
As part of the user interaction of this page I would like to invite you to submit YOUR requests and wishes of what you want to read about here on this blog.
I do now have more than 3000 unique visits each week which is more than I could ever have dreamed of five months ago when I decided to close down Photorism and dedicate my work to this blog instead. This is why I ask YOU for help now!
Tell me what is important to YOU and what would make it even more interesting for you to interact and participate on here.
Submit your ideas and wishes to me either via TWITTER, by commenting on this post or via email (post@MortenLindholm.com)
The word is YOURS! (All ideas will be posted here on the blog – spam will be deleted)
Thanks for your input
Kind Regards
Morts
PS. Photo does not have anything to do with this post, I just like it!
Manly Beach has long been a favourite for photographers, artists and poets alike. For surfers this is one of the best spots to hit the early morning waves before heading to work in the buzzing metropolis that is Sydney.
For a lucky few people, Manly Beach is the workplace.
For Joel Coleman, photographer and part of the Saltmotion team there are so much more than surfing to Manly Beach; Every weekday morning around sunrise he gets up and, armed with his camera, walks along the sandy shore front capturing surfers, waves and general morning beach life. His photos are then sorted, edited and pasted into a daily email newsletter that is sent out to several thousand subscribers all over Australia.
His best shots are framed and put on the walls in the Saltmotion Gallery from where they can be purchased by people like you and me!
Saltmotion is a great concept and their gallery in Manly (on Market place just opposite the library) is definitely worth a visit. After having enjoyed the artwork please make sure to grab a coffee and a muffin from the in-house cafe.
