{"id":42540,"date":"2017-11-09T17:34:59","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T21:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=42540"},"modified":"2018-06-16T02:01:41","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T06:01:41","slug":"portraits-with-vintage-lenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/portraits-with-vintage-lenses\/","title":{"rendered":"Portraits with vintage lenses"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Portraits with vintage lenses<\/h1>\n

That crazy bokeh there is via the\u00a0Mitakon Zhongyi Speedmaster 50mm f\/0.95<\/a> \u00a0(B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/em><\/a>), taken at widest aperture, giving this wafer-thin depth of field. Even though this is a new lens, I would classify it as a classic or vintage lens. It is manual focus, and gives that delicious look to images exactly because of that DoF and bokeh. In terms of the composition, I like how the blue lights in the foreground is echoed by the same lights in the background.<\/p>\n

How this photo session with Anastasiya<\/a> came about …
\nMy friend, Parker J Pfister<\/a> was in New York for a few days, and asked if I wanted to meet up for lunch. Via a few text messages this soon became, “We should find a model and play!”<\/p>\n

I texted Anastasiya, and she was available to meet up with us.<\/p>\n

I then asked Parker what camera he was using \u2013 Sony A9 and A7Rii.
\nGood, I wanted to try out a recently purchased vintage lens, to be used on my Sony A7ii.<\/p>\n

I then asked him if he has or needed lighting of some kind.
\n“Nope. I’m fine without. I am super low tech”, came the reply.<\/p>\n

So there we had it – a near-impromptu photo session with Anastasiya out on the streets of New York, using available light, and shooting with some classic lenses. I should tell you then that Parker has given me some advice over time regarding which vintage lenses I should seek out. So there’s that common point.<\/p>\n

I love working with, or observing other photographers. There’s often something that you can pick up and learn from them. Have a look at Parker’s\u00a0website<\/a>, and you’ll see work with a distinctive artistic style. So more than just hanging out with a friend over lunch, and taking a few photos for fun, I was excited at the idea of seeing him work with a model that I’ve often photographed.<\/p>\n

This for example is where the photo above came from. It was a cold, grey afternoon. My first instinct would be to fall back on my usual approach – using off-camera lighting to punch up the portrait, as shown in this previous example with Anastasiya:\u00a0Checklist for portrait photography on location<\/a>. \u00a0It becomes a familiar fall-back. On the one hand it can be seen as a style, however, it can also be limiting in that it is “the same old thing” after a while.<\/p>\n

With this photo above, I followed Parker’s idea of shooting with layers in mind – foreground and background layers. He stood close-up to some small blue lights wrapped around the tree trunks on that street, forcing these lights to appear as large defocused bulbs of light … which are then echoed in the background.<\/p>\n

And you may well think this idea of using layers isn’t unusual, and it’s not. What I want to underline here is that most of us go along with our habits – a usual way of working. So this was just a good nudge again to be more aware, and look for more interesting opportunities than just relying on a default way of working. I need to be more aware again of the less ordinary, such as this in this example –\u00a0using interesting available light<\/a>\u00a0– where I photographed Olena who was lit by the sun reflecting off the back of a stop sign. I need to be more alert again.<\/p>\n

The photo at the top and this one below, were both shot at f\/0.95 – an aperture where you have to be super careful about focusing. The way that the Sony mirrorless cameras implement manual focusing, make them really ideal for this.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t

<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>

\n\t\t\t\t\t

Mitakon Zhongyi Speedmaster 50mm f\/0.95<\/h2>\n

The Mitakon Zhongyi 50mm f\/0.95<\/a>\u00a0(B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/em><\/a>) is a manual-focus lens available in the Sony E-mount. The super-wide maximum aperture of f\/0.95 is unusual, and obviously creates a razor thin depth-of-field. More than that, the optical quality is such that it renders the scene with a somewhat dream-like quality in how the out-of-focus areas look.<\/p>\n