Marie - For Diva, Zoomer, et al

Bilsen · August 4, 2011

OK all you Bokehmaniacs out there, here you go.

All on account of you, I left my 24-105 in the bag, jammed my 70-200 F4 IS on f4, waited for some nice Mr. Clouds to diffuse the 3:00 PM sun and here we go:

Fill OCF through an umbrella to camera right.

Nothing but Mr Sun diffused by some drive by cummulus clouds:

and NOW just for DivaMum, here's the 50mm at f1.8 all natural light. I have a lot to learn about f2.4 and wider cause I got a lot of blurry messes during this part of the shoot.

divamum · August 5, 2011

HA! You do make me laugh, and the idea of being included in the same SENTENCE as Zoomer

is a major ego boost

In any case, love me some bokeh

The winners of this set are 1 and 3 - especially 3, which I really like - although it looks to me like both could use some processing love to sharpen up the eyes and boost a bit of contrast (although take the latter with a grain of salt since my monitor needs recalibrating right now). I'm not digging two - her hair is in her eyes in a non-enhancing way, and the pose looks like you caught her mid-step rather than bumping the pose.

As for the ones with the 50mm .... they do seem soft at this size. Looks to me like you may not have nailed your focus point, even though to get 3/4 shots you should have been far enough away from them (maybe 10ft?) that it shouldn't have been hypercritical, even at 1.8. DOFmaster says that the 50@ 1.8 ~10ft on a crop camera gives you about 9" of DOF, so you should have had plenty to get her head in focus.

What was your shutter speed - could there be some kind of camera shake going on?

If ss were high enough, have you checked that lens for accuracy? My shots with the 50 1.4 in similar circumstances are a lot sharper than that. Fwiw, I've found that (for me) the sweet spot is about 2.2, but every lens will vary. Here are a couple taken with my copy:

F2.0 (shot from ~7ft away from subject; foliage bg about 14 feet behind subject)

This is a tosser of a shot, but shows the lens at 2.2 when I was no more than 4ft away from the subject (wall behind me, but I wanted to keep her pulled as far forward from the bg as I could so that I could blur out the door behind her). Her eyes are tack sharp, though.

One of the reasons I moved from the 50d to 7d was because I shoot shallow DOF all those extra focus points were a HUGE big deal to me - focus and recomp doesn't always cut it when you're shooting open (and close) as I often do. I do shoot shallow DOF using an xsi too, though (the first shot was taken with the xsi) so it's possible, it's just slightly harder work

But, if you're not already, definitely do take the time to move the focus point to the closest one. If you are already doing that with the 50mm lens, I'd consider having it checked, because those don't last two don't look as sharp as I'd expect it to give you.

Bilsen · August 5, 2011

Thanks Diva. WOW you shoot shallow DOF? I never would have guessed.

SS on both 50mm frames was 125 th @ f4. These were taken in a 5 shot burst in AI Servo mode. I always select a single focus point (I don't trust the camera to do it for me) and it's usually smack on the bridge of the models' nose.
I was probably 5-8 feet away from her so I should have been well within the DOF.

I'm gonna have to experiment a bit with this lens before I decide that it's the lens not the photographer.

On # 3 there is a very fine line between boosting contrast and blowing out her arms and forehead. I might do some selective darkening but I don't want to overdo it.

As for the poses, # 2 is actually one of my favorites. When I post more of Marie there are gonna be a bunch of poses some of you won't like a lot. I find that my European models (Russians, Poles, Czechs and Germans) all tend to strike different poses than my Americans. Marie is German and did a lot of commercial fashion work in Europe. She really does know her stuff but it's probably different from what we usually see here. We'll find out next week when I post more of her shoot.

divamum · August 5, 2011

Interesting about the pose. The hair is the real dealbreaker for me on that one (I don't mind "artistically" in eyes, but that just looks like it moved when she did), and I think it's the too-loose right hand which makes it look like it caught her striding; that hand isn't engaged with the rest of her body.

I wonder if it's the servo which is messing with your focus? I always shoot single shot, single point so I can guarantee it goes where I want. Sometimes I'll crank into drive mode, but still in "ordinary" rather than AI or Servo focus. Frankly, I don't even UNDERSTAND Servo (I need to for the rare occasions I shoot action, but as a general rule it's just not something I need to use).

With 3 (and, again, my monitor needs calibrating - it may be my end that's not seeing it right) IF there's an issue with the arms+contrast, what about some layers, one to brighten, one to darken? Or maybe a "soft light" layer on sheer opacity or any of the other techniques that might keep that from being a problem? Orr add a screen layer, reduce exposure and then add contrast? Just a thought. It's a really neat shot and very much has that fashion-mag feel to it, particularly with the long neck and gorgeous cheekbones that are presented. Like that one a lot

Marie - For Diva, Zoomer, et al

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