Packing up for tomorrow's assignment. Subtractive lighting will be key.

 

Former CEO of Ottobock Canada. 

A different location from the law firm discussed below.

Over the last ten years most of my clients have evolved when it comes to executive portraits. We've moved past the traditional studio portrait and into environmental portraiture with gusto. Tomorrow I'll continue a series of portraits I started for a law firm here in Austin, adding portraits of two new attorneys. I'll be following a style that I set for them at the outset of our working relationship. It's all about making a nice portrait in the foreground and showing an out of focus rendering of the space behind the subject. The nicer the architecture and general/ambient lighting the more fun the photograph. 

The images for the law firm are done on location in their downtown Austin offices. From the outset I've done the portraits with LED light fixtures as my main lights. I started with LED panel lights ten years ago and over time I've upgraded the LEDs as better and better instruments have become available. I'm currently using Nanlite FS-300 Bi-Color (C.O.B.) units because they are bright, highly controllable, powerful, and reasonably priced. In all the time I've used the LEDs I have yet to come across a situation in which banding from the 60Hz A/C current has shown up. 

I'm a fan of big umbrellas as light modifiers and when I say "big" I mean the smallest umbrella I bring along is 60 inches in diameter and the usual umbrella I use as a main light is 72 inches in diameter. In addition to their size I try to use the umbrellas as close as possible to the subject. This results in a very soft but directional light with good fall off on the shadow side. 

I mentioned subtractive lighting in the headline and it's a very important part of my process, especially when working in an area where there are "can" lights in the ceilings that can't be turned off for the shoot. 

The can lights are almost always a poor photo rendering CRI and an ambiguous color profile, somewhere between Halloween orange and slime green. And the last thing I want is light from the ceiling mounted cans providing a hideous "hair light" on my subject. It's hard to correct in the photographs ... bordering on impossible. 

I want to be able to block the light coming from directly overhead and sometimes I want to block the light bouncing off a close by wall that's on the opposite side of my main light. A wall with white or light colored paint can sometime fill in too much and compromise the ratio of light-to-shadow on a face that I am try to achieve. To control or subtract the lights I don't want I bring two round pop-up disks that are 48 inches in diameter and can be set up with a black, light proof fabric on one side. Each subtractive panel requires a hardware piece to hold it in place and also to attach it to a tall light stand. And each panel requires its own light stand as well. 

In all I need to pack four fairly sturdy light stands, two modifier holders and a tripod in the stand bag. The Nanlites, the camera and lenses, and all the power cords get transported in a Manfroto roller case and everything, even the lighting case with wheels, gets lashed onto a Multi-Cart (like a Rock N Roller cart) to get the gear from the car in the parking garage, through the bank building lobby, and up to the 23rd floor. 

The lights and modifiers are the most important part of the kit and the camera and lens are mostly interchangeable between a range of options. As long as the lens is long enough to allow for a nice fall off of focus over distance. 

For tomorrow's adventure in portraiture I'm packing the Leica SL2 as my main camera and I'm pairing it with a 90mm lens. I haven't decided for sure whether I'm going to use the Sigma i-Series 90mm f2.8 or the Voigtlander 90mm f2.8 APO Skopar so I've packed both and I'll just let the photo spirits move me in the right direction. I have also packed an incident light meter and I've included the tiny Sigma fp camera (stripped down to its essential form) as a back-up camera; just in case. A few extra batteries and the case gets zipped up and put into the car. 

Even though I have photographed at this particular location about 60 times in the last ten years I'll start out by pulling out the camera, the lens and a tripod and roughing in how I'd like to position my subject in relationship to the background. I generally mark a position on the floor with blue "painter's" tape as an indication for where I'd like the subject to stand. I put a high backed office chair on the mark not for the subject to sit in but to use as an anchor for the subject. He or she will stand just behind the back of the chair and can use it as a convenient prop on which to rest their hands. The final crop is a "head and shoulders" so the chair, hands, etc. don't show up. 

While I'm setting up I sometimes use myself as a stand-in for the portrait subjects. Sometimes I get lucky and find an intern or assistant who can spare a few minutes to stand in and allow me to fine-tune distances and composition. The whole set-up process takes about 30 minutes, tops. 

After I've placed a chair and figured out the relationship between the tripod-mounted camera and the subject position I get to work blocking out the unwanted light with a light blocking round modifier. Then I add the main light --- and I don't know why but --- I always seem to light from my left or my subject's right. If there is a reason to go in the other direction I can usually tell in the first few minutes the subject is in place. With a big umbrella my rule of thumb is to place it no further away from the subject than the diameter of the umbrella. Closer if I want the light to be softer. But remember the inverse square law! The closer the light source to the subject the quicker the light falls off from one side of the face to the other. 

The final step is to add some more light to the background areas which may be 20, 30 or even 40 feet behind the subject. That's what the second light is really for. Usually I'll put the light into a decent sized hard reflector and put a grid on the front.  A tight grid is used because I want to make sure I don't over light the area just behind the main subject.

I meter to get into the ballpark and then fine-tune based on the EVF image in camera. For single subjects I nearly always use raw files, especially now when I want to be able to use A.I. noise reduction which is currently only supporting raw files in Adobe products. Achieving balance between background light and foreground is pretty critical but a lot can be done to "save" a file in post. Especially with the selection tools now available. 

In general the scene is best captured with the camera set to ISO 640, a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second and an aperture of f4.0 or f5.6. Go with the smaller aperture if you know you'll be treating the foreground and background separately; it all looks better if there is sharper edge detail to select against. 

I'll have the camera set to a white balance of 5100K. Seems to work best with the LEDs. 

The final tweak, as far as the lighting goes, is to adjust the subtractive light panels to the subject. I want to use them as close as possible but I have to keep in mind the angle of the main light --- which I don't want to the modifiers to block.

Then I smile my warmest and most gracious smile and we begin the photographic process. It's all fun and takes less time to do than to write about. And that's the long and short of it.

I have switched, over time, away from twin lights in softboxes to one big umbrella but this should give you and idea of the basic set up. The modifier on the right was used block light from bouncing off the yellowish wall and back onto the "fill" side of the subject's face. This image was done about four years ago... same just below.

the reverse.

Just going over in my head about what I need for tomorrow's sessions.

fun to be working.

An evolving methodology for using the Leica Q2. Different than what I expected.

 

When I first started using the Leica Q2 I think my brain was adamant in telling me that the thing in my hand was a glorified point-and-shoot camera and would be most effectively used as an "automatic" and "auto-focus only" device. A mental pigeon-holing of the camera into the "toy" column of cameras rather than the "working tool" category. 

From the outset I used the camera that way. I would set it for aperture preferred mode, set an aperture that I "knew" would deliver nice results, and then rely on the camera's autofocus to quickly nail focus for me. While the photographs generally turned out well and the camera was a breeze to operate I missed a bit of the friction I generally like to have attendant in a camera to make its use more...fun. 

I think it was the arrival of the M series cameras (M240, M240 ME) I've been buying over the last year that switched my thinking about the Q2. At some point, maybe just a few weeks ago, I started using the Q2 in a different way. I started setting my exposures manually. I started using smaller f-stops for exterior work and larger f-stops for interior work. (Yes, I know that makes complete sense, but for me it was a move away from just setting and then forgetting what I believed was the optimum aperture. I was living my life at f4.0 or f5.6). 

But the biggest change has been moving from depending on AF to relishing MF. Manual Focus. 

What I discovered when I really plunged into manual focusing on the camera was how good the entire system actually is for providing a near perfect manual focusing experience. And how convenient it is, in some cases, to rely more on zone focusing (or hyper-focal distance focusing) for quicker work. 

But I should back up and explain the camera I think. The Leica Q2 is the second camera of three in Leica's evolution of a full frame, fixed lens (28mm) take everywhere camera. It's compact, the external interfaces are very minimalistic and the camera and lens are very well built. The lens autofocuses and also has a traditional aperture ring near the front. It's lovely. The finder is an EVF and like other Leica cameras the optical configuration/construction of the eye level finder is superior to any other compact camera on the market. The camera has a leaf shutter which is mostly silent, but more importantly for flash shooters, it provides flash sync at all shutter speeds. Perfect for fill flash in full sun. 

The lens features a complete set of focusing distances etched (not just painted!) onto the lens barrel. This is an important aid for those who want or need to zone focus!!! The lens barrel also features an etched depth of field scale for the 28mm lens. Also a nice aid for zone focusing fans who don't want to carry around a book full of depth-of-field measurements. But the best thing about all this is that the lens, when switched into the manual focus mode, is a real manual focus instead of a focus-by-wire type where the focusing ring can turn and turn and turn. When you are in MF there is a hard stop at both ends of the focusing range. A hard stop at infinity and a hard stop at the closest focusing distance. That's an incredible relief for all manual focusing aficionados. It also means that when you set a specific distance in MF the focus point stays there until you move it somewhere else. You are completely in control. 

Of course none of this would matter if you had a hard time focusing with your eyes. Right? 

As soon as you touch the focusing ring the image in the finder is magnified by 4 - 12X and, if it's set in the menu, focusing peaking is also engaged. Combined, this makes focusing with your eye incredibly easy and incredibly accurate. As soon as you let go of the ring the full image shows in the finder. 

It's an elegant system and I'm now using it nearly all the time instead of depending on the autofocusing capabilities of the camera. 

While the image magnification and focus peaking are nearly foolproof for getting sharp images with most subjects there are times when I'll encounter a fast moving subject or I want to photograph in the street or in a crowd without bringing the camera to my eye. That's when I default to zone focusing. After all, it's a 28mm wide angle lens so why not?

If I'm walking down the sidewalk in a city and want to grab quick, candid shots I depend on an aperture like f8.0 or even f11, prefocus in the range I think I'll want to cover and find a shutter speed that gives me the third leg of the exposure triangle I want; along with the ISO. With the camera focused at a bit past six feet on the  focusing ring, and the camera set at f11, I can be reasonably sure that I'll have good focus on everything within a zone of about 4.5 feet to infinity. Since I'm generally photographing people from about eight feet away that set up means that eight feet is nearly the exact point of focus and so will be quite sharp and in focus. With a safety margin on either side.

One of the reasons I sold the two Fuji X100V cameras I owned was my frustration with the manual focusing set up with those cameras. There was no indication of focus distance on the lens barrel and one had to consult a small, linear scale in the EVF to watch while rotating the focusing ring. Turn the camera off or let it go to sleep and you lose the focus point. It's not an optimal camera with which to pursue zone focusing. Maybe Fuji has changed that on the X100VI. I haven't worked with one so I don't know.

One more note about using the Q2 professionally. I now have several of the Leica SCL-6 batteries and the difference between them and the previous SCL-4 battery that came with the Q2 is significant. Working with the camera in manual focus, and setting a power saving mode, I'm finding that I can get through a full, casual day of photography with one battery and an intensive day of commercial photography with just two batteries. The added bonus being that the new batteries are also less expensive. Win-win. 

I like the Q2 very much now. It's also changed my taste in focal lengths and I'm much more inclined to use wider focal lengths like the 28mm now. That's a change for me. 

The Q2 and the SL2 are both cameras I have absolutely no regrets about buying. They both fill their photographic categories quite well. And they travel well together. The larger camera for exacting work with longer focal length lenses and the smaller camera for quicker and more discreet work. 

In taking the camera down to its essentials: manual focusing and manual exposure, it works just like the cameras I grew up with and learned to work with. It's a comfortable way to work because you have at least the idea of being in complete control. And you'll likely feel more engaged in the process. 

The Q3 offers some things that many photographers might like. The flipping rear screen being one. But if I were to add another camera to the Q mix it would most likely be a lightly used Q2 as a back up or, for the novelty of it, a Q2 Monochrom. I seem to nearly always buy stuff one model back from the current newcomers. When I finally do pick up a Q3 a year or two from now it will still seem like a big revelation. 

Oh dear. No skyscrapers. No mannequins. No soliloquy to my desk chair or my filing cabinets. Just writing about how I personally use a popular camera.