Today’s Post by Joe Farace
There are two big reasons why I like shooting with Panasonic‘s Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f/2.8 ASPH. MEGA OIS lens: It’s great for capturing traditional macro-type subjects but it’s also a wonderfully useful portraits lens. As can be seen in the portrait of Amanda at right, she’s a young model who has great skin and can easily handle the DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f/2.8 macro lens’s unflinching optics.
At 4.8-inches the 45mm f/2.8 Macro-Elmarit lens is compact and weighs just 0.7 lbs. It has a Micro Four-thirds mount allowing it be used with Panasonic and Olympus mirrorless cameras. Since both Micro Four-thirds systems have a 2X multiplication factor, the lens has an effective focal length of 90mm that, to me, is a near perfect focal length for portraiture. I picked up my 45mm f/2.8 Macro-Elmarit lens used for a good price from KEH.
How I made this shot: The image of Amanda was shot in my in-home studio using a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f/2.8 ASPH. MEGA OIS lens with an exposure of 1/125 sec at f/800 and ISO 200. Lighting is from a Godox monolight with a Westcott Apollo Strip softbox attached and placed at camera left. Side light came from another Godox monolight located at camera right with the standard metal reflector in place Background is a Savage Infinity black vinyl backdrop.
Tip: And it’s not just the Panasonic macro lens, any macro lens with a appropriate focal length will make a great portrait lens too.
While I usually prefer lenses in the 85-90mm (equivalent) range for portraits, you can also use longer focal length macro lenses, such as Olympus’ M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro that has a 120mm equivalent focal length for outdoor portraits, headshots or close-ups of your subject. They’re useful when you want to separate your model from the background using shallow depth-of-field.
If you’re interested in learning how I shoot portraits and use cameras, lenses and lighting in my in-home studio and on location, please pick up a copy of Studio Lighting Anywhere which is available new from Amazon.com for $34.32or used starting at the incredibly affordable price of $13.62, as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.