Today’s Post by Joe Farace
The more I shoot with Micro Four-thirds in my 11×15-foot home studio, the more I like it. When shooting portraits with mirrorless camera, my favorite feature is that after you click the shutter the images you just captured is visible in the viewfinder enabling you to keep working without having to flip the camera over and chimp. You can also see if the subject blinks in real time, allowing a quick re-shoot and I’m convinced this produces better portraits as well.
With a fixed focal length lens like Sigma’s 30mm f/2.8, mean you spend less time fiddling with the camera, instead moving your body back and forth, left to right to get precisely the framing you want makes the experience more interactive with you and the subject. Because my lighting style can sometimes get contrasty it invites flare but there was no flare with the 30mm f/2.8 DN when used with its well-designed lens hood.
Sigma’s 30mm f/2.8 costs less and is physically shorter that the f/1.4, which is 2.89-inches long while the f/2.8 is 1.59-inches. The f/1.4 isn’t as heavy at 9.35 oz but the weight of the f/2.8, while obviously lighter is “not specified by the manufacturer.”
And the smaller aperture is no big deal in the studio (or outdoors for that matter) since the EVF, unlike flippy mirror cameras makes all lenses equally bright. Yet, if shallower depth-of-field is a consideration, the f/1.4 is the winner and is a lovely lens in it’s own right.
How I made this portrait: The 30mm f/2.8 DN turned out to be a perfect compliment to the old Panasonic Lumix G2 that I used to photograph Anastasia. (I still don’t remember owning this camera but EXIF never lies does it/?) Lighting was my Purple Haze 320 Ws Alien Bee B800 monolight with a 60-inch parabolic umbrella used in shoot-through mode placed at camera right. A 32-reflector is at camera left. Exposure was 1/125 sec at f/6.3 and ISO 200.
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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 $34.96, with used copies starting around twenty-three bucks, as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.