My Sunday series about making outdoor portraits continues today with a portrait of Maria Elana, a mature glamour model, who I photographed at a group model shoot in Phoenix. Arizona.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“Everything in the street today seems soft focus.”― Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting
For a long time after I purchased a used Canon EF 135mm f/2.8 Soft Focus lens from KEH, I shot many of my portrait and glamour images in soft focus. I thought I was going to become another Julia Margaret Cameron or maybe her long-lost brother Joseph Myrick Cameron.
Glamour In Soft Focus
I quickly found out that I was being short sighted and over time wished that some of my outdoor portraits, like the one shown at right, were in slightly sharper focus. These days I believe that soft focus and diffusion effects are best added after you’ve captured the image but I liked this subject’s pose and wanted to share my experience of photographing her with you today as well as my change of heart regarding how I view soft focus.
How I made these portraits: In the first shot I made of Maria Elena (below) at a group model shoot in Phoenix several years ago, I used the wall to anchor her body but asked her to move slightly away from it and arch her back, which is always a good idea when shooting a subject from the side. She looked off to her left, flipped her right arm up and I made the shot.
Then I made a few additional exposures with the model looking at the camera (above right) of which that some may consider to be the best of the series but I still prefer the shot (at left) where she’s not looking at the camera because I think it adds more drama to the portrait. To me, the image with her looking at the camera seems a bit forced and her head seems to be at an odd angle. But hey, here are two versions and I’m showing both so that you can think about shooting variations during a model shoot. That’s why I call this approach shooting through a pose.
The camera used for this portrait was a Canon EOS D60 with that EF 135mm f/2.8 SF lens set at its #2 soft focus setting. The available light exposure was the same for both images: 1/160 sec at f/3.2 and ISO 200 with a plus two-thirds stop exposure compensation. The combination of a wide aperture with a high soft focus setting maximized the soft focus effect. Shooting it at f/8 would have created a better, slightly sharper but still soft focus shot.
Soft focus or not, the EF 135mm f/2.8 SF is still an eminently usable lens because it has a “zero’—no soft focus—setting and acts just like a normal 135mm lens. For a look at a funny or not so funny story about my original EF 135mm f/2.8 Soft Focus lens (my current lens is a replacement) you might want to check out this post when you have time.
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The original title of my book Posing for Portrait and Glamour Photography was The ABC’s of Portrait Posing. On this blog there are many posts about posing. Use the Search box in the upper right-hand corner and type “posing” to find some appropriate posts. If you want something more lasting, take a look at the book that’s available new from Amazon for $29.95 or used starting around twenty-five bucks, as I write this, Kindle version is $28.45 for those who prefer a digital format.