My Sunday series about making available light portraits continues today with a portrait of Maria Elana, a mature model I photographed at a group model shoot in Phoenix. Arizona several years ago.
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, ok maybe all, 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. But, alas, that was not to be the case…
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 above right, were in sharper focus. These days I believe 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 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), 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 pose suggestion when photographing 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) that some of you 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, you can compare the two versions so that during your next model shoot, you might want to think about making variations of a pose. That’s part of what I call my shooting through a pose approach.
The camera used for this portrait was a Canon EOS D60 with that EF 135mm f/2.8 SF lens set at its #2 (maximum) soft focus setting. The available light exposure was the same for both image at 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 unfortunately maximized the soft focus effect. Shooting it at f/8 with the #1 soft focus setting, I think, would have created a better looking, slightly sharper but still soft focus image. You live an you learn because when looking at images on the camera relatively small LCD screen, it was difficult to see exactly how the soft focus setting was applied. Yes, I know you can zoom in of the screen but…
Soft focus or not, the EF 135mm f/2.8 SF is still an eminently usable lens because it also has a “zero”–no soft focus–setting that lets the lens 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 in my Stupid Photographer’s Tricks series when you have time.
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My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography and includes information on all of the cameras used as well as the exposure data for each image. Used books are available from Amazon for $33.17, I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.