My wife suggested the theme of “Tricky Tuesday” as a way for me to share some of the tricks, tips and techniques I’ve used over the years when shooting glamour images in my home studio and on location.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk.” Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
My favorite focal length for portrait made with a full frame camera is typically 85mm; with my Micro Four-thirds camera it’s 45mm (90mm equivalent.) But there is more to shooting portraits than shooting one focal length lens, which is why I also photograph models using the G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens with my Panasonic Lumix cameras. That’s why…
A Two In One Lens
…sometime a lens can serve two different functions at the same time. Take the EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro lens for example. It is one of Canon’s L” series lens and their first telephoto macro lens that features image stabilization. That feature even works when the lens is at 1:1 macro mode compensating for both the angular and shift camera shake during close-up shooting.
In addition to macro photography, you can use this longer focal length lens for portraiture and it’s especially useful for outdoor portraits when you want to separate your model from the background with shallower depth-of-field. For indoor photographs where space can be more limited, you may have to work a little closer to the subject. Even when shooting with zooms, such as the aforementioned 14-45mm zoom, I tend to shoot at the longer end of the focal length range to minimize any hint of distortion of the subject’s features. That’s why using the the EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro for studio portraits was something I wanted to try to, you know, see what happens.
How I made this portrait: The subject of this portrait is my former muse Erin Valakari, a model who has great skin that can easily handle the EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro lens’s unflinchingly sharp optics. This lens renders every tiny freckle on her face in perfect sharpness.
The camera I used for this portrait was a Canon EOS 5D Mark I with an exposure of 1/100 sec at f/8 and ISO 200, when used with my typical lighting setup of Paul C. Buff monolights. The background was a 5×7-foot Savage Photo Gray Infinity vinyl background that’s suspended on JTL background stands. One of the reasons I like this background is that it’s perfect for color correcting using PictoColor’s iCorrect Portrait. Just click on the background and skin tone is perfect.
At $1299, this lens is certainly not cheap, so don’t forget that many of these kinds of (expensive) lenses are available used. KEH Camera sells a grade of used equipment they call “Bargain” at prices that are quite affordable. Equipment that have this rating might not look great but will function properly and have good glass. Buying bargains likes this gives you access to higher quality lenses than your lens budget might otherwise dictate.
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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 complete exposure data for each image. New and Used books are available from Amazon starting around ten bucks.as I write this. Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.