Will we still remember everything we learned in school

Originally published 18 April 2022

Still be trying to break every single rule?
Not to scare you or anything but that song is 22 years old now =|

Speaking of graduations, I offered to take some graduation photos for my friend, Anna, since she was only considering the standard phone photos (although to be fair, phones have really good image quality these days). I’ve never done a grad shoot before. And I thought, I don’t really know anyone else who could graduate in the future, so this would be my only chance to do one!

To make sure we had some decent shots, Anna and I decided to do some location scouting. Of course, the Beehive and Parliament building would have been an iconic place to take some photos, but the whole area was closed since the protest. So a big shout out to Girl for suggesting a local park nearby that I had no idea existed.

A side-note: I did recently get the new OM System OM-1 camera. I have been mulling over going with a larger sensor for better low-light shooting, but the developments in the OM-1 camera made me try it to see if it’s a good enough improvement to minimise the need for a larger system. I’ll write some camera-specific thoughts at the end.

As much as I find the cliched shots less interesting, it’s true that you should still know the basics before you can be more creative. A typical shot is the long, whole-body shot wide open, which gets you the classic ‘pop’ of the subject against the smooth backdrop. There was a nice bench area on the left (you can see the wooden support posts) and a shallow pool (the low, raised stone structure) on the right. The edges of the gravel path are your standard leading lines to draw focus on the subject, and the trees complete the framing at the top.

*Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 @ 100mm, f/2.8, 1/250s, 400 ISO | OM System OM-1*

The shot above was with the Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 - I put it on during scouting as it’s a lighter tele-zoom, and I didn’t care about about the light just yet. It was mostly to see what different focal lengths looked like so I can decide what lens to use on the day.

In the end I went with simplicity, opting for the Sigma 56mm f/1.4. I figured that I can get away with it being long enough, and the wider aperture would make up for the more ‘compressed’ look of the background 100mm would get me. It definitely was the better choice sticking to one lens as I didn’t have to waste time changing lenses between different shots. It simply meant I had to physically move back and forth a lot more to “zoom”.

As you can see below, the shorter 56mm focal length gives a different look to 100mm. The posts on the left look further apart, and the shrubs behind Anna from before look farther away here. Less of the background is blurry in the photo below, but the 1.4 aperture still provides good ‘separation’ of Anna’s family against the background.

*Sigma 56mm f/1.4 @ f/1.4, 1/1000s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

We got lucky with the shot above as the sun managed to peek out briefly from the clouds, which gives the photo a bit more of a dynamic quality, compared to the more overcast scouting photo. This was the first shot we took that afternoon, which was looking ominously darker by the second later on. Regrettably I didn’t do a picture of Anna by herself in the same spot, it would have been a nice individual photo, I think.

The bench area itself had a nice, brick construction. I thought the colour would be a nice backdrop to do a closer portrait shot. The difficulty was that the brick finished only a few inches above Anna’s head when she sat down on the bench, so the background would have had a distracting element at the top. I had to get creative and make sure I was looking a bit downwards to fill the rest of the frame with the brick background. I also asked Anna to kneel a few feet in front of the bench instead of sitting down, so that A) the background will be blurrier, and B) it would be easier to point the camera down and achieve the look I wanted.

*Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 @ 93mm, f/2.8, 1/250s, 400 ISO | OM System OM-1*

The scouting picture above is the look I was going for - I was actually pleased I got it similar to what I imagined. I hope that means I’m learning how to spot good areas!

Alas, not everything can be perfect. Anna’s dress prohibited her from kneeling down, so she had to actually sit on the bench. As you can see below, the background is not as blurry since it’s closer to Anna, but I at least still managed to shoot low enough to only require minimal cropping to frame it the way I wanted.

*Sigma 56mm f/1.4 @ f/1.4, 1/200s, 320 ISO | OM System OM-1*

The next couple of scouted shots didn’t eventuate as the weather was markedly different on the day of the shoot. The first one had Anna up on a hill, with the sun behind her in the late afternoon. I wanted the backlight to outline Anna and separate her from the background, which did happen, but I wasn’t expecting the added benefit of the hazy look of the sunset to make the picture nicer. The hazy bit was purely accidental - I didn’t bother attaching the lens hood - so I would have missed out on a good shot if I “did things properly”.

*Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 @ 100mm, f/2.8, 1/250s, 250 ISO | OM System OM-1*

The rain that came meant we didn’t have time to complete that idea on the day of the shoot. The next one below didn’t eventuate either due to weather cutting our afternoon short. It was against this black building a few doors down from the park. I liked the minimalist background with the simple lines and the plain black colour. I was thinking of placing a flash behind Anna to have her backlit and differentiate black of the regalia from the background

*Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 @ 42mm, f/2.8, 1/320s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

A few quick pics: here’s a candid one of getting ready…

*Sigma 56mm f/1.4 @ f/1.4, 1/320s, 250 ISO | OM System OM-1*

And here’s one against a tree. There was some nice looking growth on the tree, but it was too high up to include a lot of it in the shot. You can see a tiny bit of it at the top of the frame. I was already quite a bit lower to the ground with the camera pointing up in an attempt to include more of the tree growth in the frame, but I couldn’t get any lower lest it made the shot look weird with Anna staring down at the ground.

*Sigma 56mm f/1.4 @ f/1.4, 1/800s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

A closer shot against the tree…

You can see the quality of the Sigma 56mm with the previous two photos. The details are really sharp and the background blur is really smooth. I have used the Sigma 56mm previously, I just didn’t write about it as it was more of a private family shoot for a friend. So the quality of the Sigma 56mm wasn’t really a surprise anymore.

A bit further into the park was a small courtyard area by some flower bushes. There was a spot in particular that had colourful flowers in bloom.

*Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 @ 42mm f/2.8, 1/250s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

Again, the Sigma 56mm shows its quality with the nice colours in the background while you can see the finer details such as Anna’s hair.

*Sigma 56mm f/1.4 @ f/1.4, 1/1250s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

Attached on the E-M1 ii was the Voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95. This was for the wider shots so I could do more of an environmental portrait. This is truly where I was being a noob. I had failed to check my camera settings before using it. The mode dial somehow was set to P mode - quite possibly the worst mode I could use in this situation.

P mode basically means the camera sets everything automatically: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Luckily the Voigtlander is a manual lens, so the camera couldn’t change the aperture by itself. The ISO, unfortunately, was left at 6400 instead of auto-ISO, which means the camera only had the shutter speed to control in order to correct the exposure. Unluckily, I decided to use burst shooting with the mechanical shutter (because I was trying to lighten the mood for more casual expressions, I wanted it to be less awkward with a completely silent camera on electronic shutter).

The mechanical shutter tops out at 1/8000s. So the whole time my settings were f/0.95, 1/8000s, 6400 ISO. It was cloudy in the afternoon, and though the sun was only somewhat bright, with 6400 ISO the camera definitely was compensating way more than it needed to. And because the shutter speed couldn’t go any faster than 1/8000s, that meant the pictures were all over-exposed. Rookie mistake.

Adjusting the exposure down in editing helped a little bit, but with it being on 6400 ISO there was less detail and dynamic range to work well with, so the next pictures look more washed out and too smudgy. It’s a look that I like, but at a way more subtle level.

*Voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95 @ f/0.95, 1/8000s, 6400 ISO | Olympus E-M1 ii*

The picture above was probably the best one I could salvage, it doesn’t look as bad unless you zoom in more closely.

Fortunately, Anna had a bit of time on a different day to continue the rain-affected shoot. I definitely learned my lesson this time, evidenced by the next shot. It looks sharper than the previous photos, but still gives that classic Voigtlander look.

*Voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95 @ f/0.95, 1/3200s, 200 ISO | Olympus E-M1 ii*

Speaking of the Voigtlander look, I also brought the 42.5mm on the second day. I thought it would be a good exercise to compare it to the Sigma 56mm. If you look at the respective photos, the Sigma is a lot sharper and “cleaner” than the Voigtlander 42.5mm picture. If you look closely on the boat in both photos, the Voigtlander one has a slight greenish tinge around the edges. Similarly, the edges of the boardwalk behind Anna, also have this imperfection.

Looking more closely at a tighter framing, again, the Sigma shows a much sharper image with the finer details discernable in the hair and even Anna’s eyelashes. The Voigtlander is much softer, though still sharp enough to know it’s in proper focus. And again, you can see a slight green tinge along the boardwalk edge.

Most people would say the Sigma is the technically superior lens with its clean quality, but I actually much prefer the overall look of the Voigtlander photo. I didn’t really know before what people meant when talking about the “character” of a lens, much less know whether I can even tell the difference. And even though I now know that character kinda sounds more like a euphemism for “faults”, I find the look I get from it more appealing than the clinical sharpness and quality of lenses such as the Sigma 56mm.

Does that mean I will get rid of the Sigma 56mm?

No.

Coupled with the OM-1’s much improved auto-focus system, with its much more reliable face/eye-detection compared to my older E-M1 ii, I am going to rely on the Sigma 56mm for when I need to have shots properly in focus (e.g. if I’m shooting with the intent of having someone else use the photos like in this shoot), I can simply focus on the composition and let the camera do the autofocus work. The Voigtlander lenses are fully manual in operation after all, so they will be used when I simply want to have fun and focus on the process of shooting rather than having the pressure of getting results.

Anyway, back to the shoot. Since we were on day 2 and we were basically getting extra shots to accompany the decent ones from day 1, there was less pressure for me to get good photos. So after getting a couple of “safe” shots with the Sigma 56mm at the boardwalk, I went with the Voigtlander 42.5mm for the remainder of the morning.

During scouting, we thought it would be good to do a shot near at the top of the stairs around the Michael Fowler area, with the orange building as the backdrop. The scouting location below was taken at about 6:30 in the evening, so it was fairly dark by then, hence the 12800 ISO.

*Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 @ 100mm, f/2.8, 1/250s, 12800 ISO | OM System OM-1*

But on day 2, the sun was out in full force. It’s usually not recommended to do portraits during midday due to the harsher lighting, but it was the only time Anna was free. So we had to improvise a bit.

The sun was coming from Anna’s left, so it would have created some deep shadows around her eyes and her nose if we recreated the same shot as above. So instead of the same spot, we went down the stairs and parked up in the shadows by a pillar.

The same building is in the background in the shot below, but as you can see it’s from a different angle, with more of the green on the ground in view.

*Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 @ f/0.95, 1/1600s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

In the next shot I wanted to try having a bit more of the sun on Anna. I asked her to take a step back from the pillar’s shadow so a bit of the sun was on her, but even a tiny bit still creates too much of a contrast between the lit and shadowy areas on her face. It’s a serviceable photo, but not the best.

*Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 @ f/0.95, 1/2000s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

There was some foliage on a wall around the corner so we thought to do one there. We were fully in the shadow here though, so the picture looks a bit flatter.

*Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 @ f/1.4, 1/200s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

The next photo is another classic with the backlight attempt. One of the things I’m taking away from the shoot, however, is the fact that I should learn some more posing ideas. As you would have noticed, we’ve basically had the same look with Anna’s posture in most of the photos. Variety would definitely help!

*Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 @ f/0.95, 1/640s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

The next one is a photo I quite like because I saw the potential with the leading lines of the pillars and the wall behind Anna. And, since nitpicking your own work is such a normal thing, I’m disappointed I didn’t pick up on the tassle being all over the place on Anna’s cap. But otherwise I’m happy with the photo going ‘as planned’.

*Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 @ f/0.95, 1/1250s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

Next one up was a spot we found by the TSB Arena. The glass building looked like it would make for a good background. A similar issue here as with the foliage picture, the photo looks less dynamic since we were in the shadows (not a Rasmus reference). Also I think stopping down the aperture would have made the lines on the glass more visible, but then I’d be losing out on the Voigtlander look at f/0.95. Creative choices I think they’re called.

*Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 @ f/0.95, 1/800s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

And lastly, I had been annoying Anna during scouting with my quest for a good brick spot. I wanted to do one since there were so many brick buildings around the waterfront. Finally I realised it might look better doing the photo obliquely, instead of shooting directly facing the brick wall. Anna’s smiling below because of the brick breakthrough - a “brickthrough” if you will.

*Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 @ 47mm, f/2.8, 1/250s, 500 ISO | OM System OM-1*

On the day of the shoot I decided to look from a different end since the arches looked better at that side.

*Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 @ f/0.95, 1/320s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

And then the next shot was one of the few times we tried to do something different with the posing. I did the usual looking up angle to include the buildings in the background, and I think it came off okay. Again, something to nitpick here is that I didn’t notice we could have done with fixing Anna’s hair. Not too bad though, but naturally you want things to be as good as they can be.

*Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 @ f/0.95, 1/400s, 200 ISO | OM System OM-1*

Of course, it wouldn’t really be me if I didn’t try and indulge my black-and-white bias. The next photo is my favourite out of the whole thing. In this one, you can see that the Voigtlander can still be sharp wide-open. You can see some of the individual hair strands while keeping that overall softer look. So yeah, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I really enjoy shooting with the Voigtlander 42.5mm!

Overall I’m pleased with what we got, especially since portraits are still quite a new thing to me. Definitely a lot of learning to take away from this project:

check your camera settings before each use
learn how to pose subjects
simpler backgrounds look cleaner
use the background elements to frame better
a flash as a filler light would have been useful in the harsher sun
overcast is good but not too much in the shadow

And I’m sure there’s plenty of things I’m forgetting currently.

Gear-wise I’m really impressed with the autofocus (AF) improvement on the OM-1. Previously I would simply use the focus point on the E-M1 ii and place it on a subject’s face, I hardly bothered with face/eye-detect. But the OM-1 is significantly more reliable in identifying faces and locking on. I’ve been getting more keepers for sure. It makes composing the shot with AF lenses quicker since I can trust the OM-1’s AF and frame the shot without having to manually move the focus point each time.

That’s all for now, it’s been a longer write up than usual - I think this may have been the longest one to date! So thank you for reading this far :)

Will we still remember everything we learned in school

I'm running with the wolves tonight

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