With trepidation I bought yet another lens for the Fujifilm GFX 50Sii. It wasn't much of stretch. It turned out to be much better than I expected it would be.

 

Closest Focus. Handheld. Wide Open.

I recently bought a Fuji 50Sii from a friend. It looks brand new. I thought I'd use it for portrait work. It came bundled with a Fuji 50mm f3.5 lens which is like a 40mm on full frame (24x36mm) cameras. That's a nice focal length for casual work, and walking around. But I thought I might want more range. I bought the Fuji 35-70mm on sale for $495. It's a great lens. Like a 28-55mm lens on FF. 

For a while I tried to convince myself that I would want to continue doing portraits with my Leica gear and would only use the MF camera for fun, personal work (meaning I'd stop buying lenses for it) but that fell by the wayside with stunning speed. I shot a couple of portrait assignments with the 35-70, shooting square and cropping in to the final result but it wasn't as satisfying for me.  I couldn't fill the frame the way I wanted since the 70mm long end of that lens is about 55mm on a FF. Not long enough for my taste when shooting studio portraits... Maybe for someone of a more recent generation, raised on the 26mm equivalent that comes with a basic cellphone. But not for me. 

I did a bit of research and read good things, generally, about the TTArtisan 90mm f1.25 lens. I was hopeful that it would be the right answer as it comes in a GFX mount, as well as other mainstream mounts. It was a big step in the right direction but still not in that focal length zone that makes me really happy. The 90mm is sharp and easy to use; especially easy to focus with Fuji's focus peaking engaged. But at a FF equivalent focal length of 70mm it still is not close enough for my use in making classic, formal portraits. I bought a used 90mm for $400 in the GFX mount and love it so it stays in the inventory but... in a perfect world.....  remembering the Nikon 105mm 2.5. Now there was a great portrait lens. And fashion lens. And all around short telephoto lens. Could I find something in that equivalent range without paying a fortune?

A few weeks ago, when I was circling in on the 90mm purchase at B&H Photo, I took a break to see if there was anything else I might be interested in as far as longer focal lengths go. I assumed that eventually I'll end up buying the famous Fuji 110mm f2.0 but I nearly always tend to do things in smaller steps... I found a product description for the Zhongyi Creator 135mm f2.5 lens. It would be available in a GFX mount but was not yet available. I left a request to be notified when it came into stock.

After a couple more assignments using the MF camera and the 90mm I was pretty sure I still wanted something a bit longer. So when the email alert came in I was ready to give the Zhongyi lens a try. I figured that at under $300 for one in a GFX mount I wouldn't do much damage --- even if I hated it. 

I got the lens yesterday. As far as imaging performance goes we're in the early days of testing but it exceeds my expectations --- so far. It's a big lens, originally looks as though it was designed for DSLRs and got some barrel lengthening to compensate for mirrorless cameras' flange distance difference.. It weighs a tiny bit less than 2 pounds and it's built completely of metal and glass. The lens is totally manual and has absolutely no way of communicating anything (information wise) to the camera. I'm fine with that but if you need AF and shutter priority or program automation then this is absolutely NOT the lens for you. 

I grew up cutting my manual focus teeth on slow, dark Hasselblad lenses, bayoneted onto cameras with dim, vague waist level finders. The use of focus peaking and the ability to magnify frames for fine focusing with modern cameras is just fabulous for the way I work.

I couldn't book a portrait subject yesterday because we were busy watching the "Barbie" movie with friends (a must see) and I couldn't do a session this morning because of swim practice but I was interested in the basics and wanted to at least do a quick test of the lens for sharpness and basic operation within the two day window BHPhoto suggests --- to make sure there's no shipping damage...

When I got home from the pool this morning I grabbed the camera and lens and shot stuff around the compound. Easy as pie. And sharp too.  I'm keeping this lens and am very excited to book some art portraits for myself in the coming week.

Here are some samples from my quick run through --- some with 100% punch ins. 

chimney rock work. 7:6 frame aspect ratio. 

100% magnification of rocks in the center. 

Plant at f11.

Plant at f11 + 100% view.

Same plant at f4.0 to check "Bokeh"

Mailbox "Bokeh" check. F4.0. 

Kirk's moldy pool buoy getting sterilized in the hard UV rays of the morning sun. 

Nandina bush.

Nandina leaf from the center of the frame as seen in the image above this one.

see 100% crop just below.

100% of the frame one above. Point of focus on the two "Minimalist Lighting" books in the center of the frame. To the right of "Photographic Lighting Equipment." 

Wide open, handheld, manually focused. 

The "Barbie" movie was great. And hilarious. And wise. 

Loved every minute of it.

Combining photographic technique testing and exercise. Working on the black and whites. AKA: Monochrome.

 

I spent some time yesterday morning walking along some old, familiar trails through downtown Austin. I had one of my favorite "walk" cameras with me; a Leica Q2. I'm not one of those classic, old school photographers who love to overthink shots and I don't believe very many people who make a big deal about pre-visualizing a photograph and then endlessly tweaking before the actual taking of the photograph are really taking better photographs. Reminds me too much of amateurs standing at the scenic overlook of the Grand Canyon in front of a group of ten or fifteen bored family or tour members waiting, waiting and waiting for the photographer to get the focus.....just right. Mind numbing. Temporal wasteland. Overthinking things that should be easy or automatic. 

Want to get everything exactly just right before clicking the shutter? Then build a set and hire some models.

With all this in mind, if I am multi-tasking at photography and walking, and walking is the "primary" activity, then the photographic part should be mostly auto-pilot. So I set the camera to raw (bigger mishap buffer), set it to Auto-ISO, dial in a minus one stop exposure compensation (easier to recover shadows than non-existent highlights) and then shoot everything using aperture priority with an f-stop that matches my usual vision for a particular focal length. For the 28mm lens on a full frame camera I find that either f8 or f5.6 handles most outdoor scenes well. With the camera set this way it's so easy to respond quickly and without a bunch of ineffective fussiness. Less second guessing.

This is also the way I'm approaching black and white casual photography with handheld cameras now. I've given up even having to see the image in the EVF as a black and white. I just try to capture the best image I can in a color DNG file and then use the ever-improving Lightroom presets and controls to make what I consider to be good black and white conversions. With this new (to me) approach I thought I should include some "before and after" samples. Along with an image of the current (non-Tilley) hat of the month. Is there a "hat of the month" club? Should there be? 

So, each set of images started out life as a quick shot on a handheld Q2. No fussing, no recomposing and no second guessing as to whether the scene would be better or worse if I waited. It's a process that honors the belief in the power of first impressions. See the scene in a flash of recognition, bring the camera to your eye, quickly compose (and by that I mean to figure out where the edges of the fixed frame should be positioned) and then click the shutter. And, the shutter having been clicked is my cue to move on.

Most of these images I actually prefer in color. But I wanted to work on my conversion technique to black and white. Especially after having been challenged by adherents of the Monochrome Camera Cults. I have a Leica M10 monochrom coming on loan shortly so I can really, really see how much of the difference is apparent and how much is placebo. Placebo still being a very powerful thing...

Anyway. It's a peek at how I think. Move fast, shoot stuff, go home and work on it.

No B&W on this one. just a palette cleanser. 

I skipped swim practice this morning. It was cooler outside and partly cloudy. I thought a long overdue, long walk was a better option. For a change. Photos taken with the lovely and delightful Leica Q2.

 

The chic new color for Texas grass...

Conceptual art with orange posts. #1

Conceptual art with orange posts. #2

Staying on the path. Lamar Bridge #1 & 2

How hot is it in Texas right now?

Hot enough to melt this steel railing....

Naw. Structure damage from vandalism. 

building which constantly vexes those who must have straight up and down lines...

Lamar Bridge, part three.

My vague attempt at being an urban landscape photographer.

The "budget" side of the fence at Barton Springs. 

My twice a week foray into defending the part of the lawn under which lurks the septic system. 

Best not to encourage erosion. 

And the rationed watering schedule does help keep the trees alive.

I got a nice walk in. I have heightened regard for the Leica Q2.

I am awaiting the delivery of a 135mm f2.5 lens for the Fuji. 

Then the real fun of portraiture can begin in earnest. 

Back to the Minimalist Roots. Lighting portraits in the studio with battery power.

Jenny.

A portrait taken a few  years back with a Panasonic m4:3 camera

and an adapted lens...

 Back in the mists of time I starting playing around with three or four Nikon speed lights and Nikon's on-camera flash triggers. When I realized that I could do 95% of the jobs we normally did using big, plug in the wall flashes with the ease and portability of battery powered flashes, coupled with being able to control groups of flashes from the camera position, I followed my usual routine of diving in deep end and convincing myself that this would be the future of photographic lighting. Yeah....that was a few years before I convinced myself that LEDs would be the future of photographic lighting, etc., etc.

It worked out pretty well on a number of commercial/editorial jobs and so I wrote a magazine article about this "new way" of lighting --- which then turned into a book deal. That was back in 2008. Six books ago...  Isn't it amazing how time flies? 

In the ensuing 14 years I experimented with lots of different lights including HMIs, LEDs, a short revisit to tungsten spotlights, lots of different battery powered monolights which convinced me that consistent modeling lights were a nice thing to have, which led me back to traditional, A/C powered monolights.

I never gave up the LEDs and use them A LOT for location/environmental portraits where overpowering or matching the intensity of the sun isn't part of the mission. But I recently donated all of the "plug in the wall" flashes to a young photographer and decided that, going forward, I would depend just on the collection of battery powered lights I've accumulated; along with a couple of cheap radio triggers that seem to always work flawlessly. The feature that pushed me into tossing the big, heavy AC units was the addition, though a magic speed ring, of good, solid modeling lights with the Godox AD200 Pro flashes.

While a blogger of note in the photo world recently remarked that No One wants to pay for portraits nowadays I've been keeping the collection of flashes (and weird cameras) pretty busy in the last couple months with a series of environmental portraits for a large ad agency and, in the past week and a half, five studio portraits of doctors for a large radiology practice. Apparently they did not get the message about the cancellation of portrait photos as a thing. At least not yet. Thanks goodness; I can keep my hands off the retirement funds for a little while longer...

I'm setting up the studio this morning to make yet another physician's portrait today. The lighting is simple and straightforward which is what generally is called for if the image will subsequently be used with a different background, which is added in post production.  

We use a simple gray background with a light directed into the center of it. The main light consists of two Godox AD200 Pro lights attached together in a speed ring that has bright modeling lights built in. The speed ring/adapter is also from Godox, it's called an AD-B2. With two lights in the ring the total maximum output is 400 watt seconds. And I can get hundreds and hundreds of fast recycling flashes from this set up when I used 1/4 power on both units. Those two lights in the magic ring get stuffed into a 60 inch octa box. 

The "above' was written before the actual photo shoot. 

The "below" is being written after the shoot and after the preliminary post production of getting online galleries up...

My appointment with Allison was not completely locked in yesterday. We'd traded emails a couple of times to narrow down times when I would be available and when she could break away from her office and head over to the studio. Our goal was to match up a time that would work, get a nice series of portrait images and also make images that would match up well with the other 160+ doctors and physicians assistants I have previously photographed for the group. 

I said my schedule was "flexible" for the day. Excepting swim practice, of course. She said she would check in, see how the schedule flowed and get back to me. At 11:07 I got an email letting me know she was on her way. She'd be there at 11:30. I was working on something else when the email came in and was surprised by the knock on my studio door at 11:35 am. I thought we'd be aiming toward a late afternoon time...

But having general anxiety disorder and an (un)healthy dose of hypervigilance I had already set up all the flashes and modifiers, positioned the background and checked the exposure settings. In fact, I got that done the evening before because....the unexpected sometimes happens. 

The one thing I hadn't really sorted was the camera. I knew all the big stuff. Where to find the "format" feature in the menu, how to set the aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and ISO. And shooting in Raw there's loads of mishap buffer should it be needed. But the one thing I couldn't find was how to put the preview mode in the right setting for use with flash. A standard thing since the dawn of mirrorless cameras. You have to be able to turn off the exposure preview to get a bright image to focus with when using flash, manual focusing and higher shutter speeds. 

As Allison went into the house to change from her scrubs into her "business" attire I frantically went through the menus a couple of times. I finally found the right setting. Fuji calls it "turning off the preview." Leica calls it something else. And Panasonic has its own way of labeling the command. Breath of relief. 

I was using the new (to me) 90mm f1.25 TTArtisan lens in the GFX mount. No adapters needed. But no AF or other automation supplied. It's easy as pie to hit the rear dial of the camera and get a magnified preview with which to focus accurately. I shot most of the images at between f5.6 and f8.0 but after we  captured a couple dozen good, safe shots I asked to shoot some with the lens at f2.0, using available light (and resetting the "preview"). We did that and after Allison went back to work I had a dozen images at the lens's most vulnerable settings to work with and examine in post. Near wide open and near the minimum focusing distance. I needn't have worried; the lens is quite good enough for any kind of portrait work. Maybe not quite as lofty a performer as the Fuji 110mm f2.0 but close enough for my needs. 

In fact, I liked the look of the resulting files enough to also order yet another third party lens --- to be revealed in a different post.

Two AD200 Pro bodies mounted together onto an AD-B2. 

This allows both flashes to power bare bulb tubes in the modifier.

That cuts recycle times in half. And doubles battery life.

It also gives me two LED modeling lights that are controllable 

 in three level. The highest level is perfectly fine for studio work.

A back view of the two flashes as mounted. 

Both are controlled by a XT-2 Godox radio trigger. 

I used an older (and well used...) AD200 (original) with a round 

flash head and a dome diffuser to light up the background. 

There is a rubber bumper protection attachment on the back (left of frame) 

to prevent hitting the back LCD panel, which more or less kills the unit. 

I like the physical buttons on this trigger better than the menu driven controls

on its predecessors. The flash trigger worked perfectly. And it's relatively cheap. $59.

I added a bit of back light at 1/64th power. Just a touch. A light touch. 

It's a Godox V1 flash. Also controllable from camera via the X2T.

Finally, a photo of my trusty light dome. 

Add more and more diffusion for a softer effect.

Or just bring the light closer and closer to the subject. 

It feels like I've circled back to 2008 with the flashes but that feels offset by the use of the Fuji GFX50Sii MF camera. But at the bottom of it all is the reality is that a good portrait is much more about making a good connection with a sitter and having a nice, fun, honest conversation. Oh, and good timing. 

We'll work on that scheduling thing....