Portrait Lenses

One question I get asked a lot is: "What's the best lens for taking classical portraits -- head and shoulders?" My typical answer is: "it depends." Usually, when you take a head & shoulders portrait, you want to throw the background out of focus so the attention is on the subject and not on the overall image. However, the quality of the out-of-focus areas -- the bokeh as photographers refer to it -- is important. Smooth, buttery out-of-focus highlights will make your portrait itself smoother and more professional. For the shot of our puppy, Moxie, I used my Canon 200mm F2.8L lens and shot her at F5.0. You'll notice that she is in focus from the tip of her nose to the top of her head but everything beyond that is softly diffused.


The picture of the Cavalier, Chesney, on the right was taken with my Canon 50mm F1.4 shot at F2.2. My objective was to highlight Chesney's beautiful headpiece while letting the background go blurry. The shot was taken in a hurry in front of our house in an area that is actually not all the pretty in focus but looks wonderful when you use a lens with lovely bokeh and let it go diffused. This image was used in a stud dog package and got Chesney some action the very first time it was sent out. Naturally, I'm taking full credit :)

The wedding portrait to the left, a candid taken during the reception, was intended to show Jennifer and Ray in a special moment during an otherwise chaotic day. Here they are dancing in a room full of people but they might as well be completely alone. They were so totally into each other and so very much in love. For this shot, I used my Canon 85mm F1.8 at F2.2 and ISO 3,200. There wasn't much light in the room but I didn't think that using flash would capture the mood. Plus I wanted to shoot at a wide aperture to set them off against a creamy background. I think this shot captures the mood and the moment and using the 85 instead of the 50 allowed me to be far enough away from them to not intrude on their emotions.

Three situations; three different lenses; three similar results. I prefer to use lenses that are "normal" to telephoto in terms of focal length because wide-angle lenses can distort facial features and make subjects look wider than they really are. In fact, I tell everyone that my self-portraits were all taken with a very wide-angle lens :). The way these portrait lenses compress the features and diffuse the backgrounds makes them my lenses of choice for portrait work both in the field and in the studio.

The Image Of Rescue

That's Precious and she's an approximately 6-year old Rottweiler that as of yesterday was in Orlando Animal Control. Precious was found in an abandoned warehouse. She weighs about 65 lbs. and she's exceptionally sweet. She is also heartworm positive and needs treatment immediately.

This isn't the first time that Precious has been taken into Orlando Animal Control. Four years ago she was picked up on the street and was spayed, given her shots and placed in another home in not the greatest of neighborhoods. I met Ms. P when, as a Director of Gulfstream Guardian Angels Rottweiler Rescue, I was called to evaluate her and help determine her age (she was listed by OAC as 1 year old!). She greeted me with a firm, confident stare without a hint of either fear or aggression. She hates to have the slip-leash placed over her head -- I suspect it's happened far too many times -- but she only dodges until you finally catch her. And then, she's perfectly happy to walk with you. So, out to the yard we went for some photos, a physical exam and some puppy runs around the play area.

Precious came over to me when I sat on the bench and placed her head in my lap. I stroked her all over, examined her for injuries or scars and then checked her teeth. She never once complained. Of course, I also kept her supplied with vast numbers of Milk Bones. After the exam and the photo session, we slipped her leash back on and took her back to her cage. I wrote the other Board members and told them that although Precious is middle-aged, she is active, happy, and incredibly sweet with both people and other dogs. Despite the fact that it is difficult to place "older" dogs, I felt we should save this girl and attempt to get her adopted. Last night, the Board agreed and today, we took Ms. Precious out of Animal Control. She'll need to spend 2 weeks in quarantine because of the potential for illness coming out of OAC, but after that, she'll be listed on our website and I'll work personally to find her a good home.

Rescue is hard. For every dog we take in, treat and place there are 10 more that get euthanized in shelters every month. And we can't take every dog that gets picked up. They have to be good dogs. Adoptable, trustworthy and healthy. But when I meet a girl like Precious, and we manage to be able to save her and give her a chance for adoption, I appreciate what Rescue is really all about.

Jim

Pet Portraits

Pet portraits come in two flavors: studio portraits and environmental portraits. Here are examples of each.

Studio portraits have their own special lighting challenges plus you need to select the style of the backdrop and the overall "feel" of the image. This one, for example, is "low key" using black as the basic color from which we bring up the subjects in the portrait.

Environmental portraits often use available light or on-camera flash to create catchlights in the eyes of the subject. In this example, we also used a very fast lens (85mm F1.8) and opened it up to F2.2 to create the diffused background from which the dog "pops".

In both images, the dog's expression is very important. If the dog is comfortable in the studio or in the environment where the portrait is being taken, then the next challenge is to get their attention and bait them into giving great expression. You can use toys, food or make ridiculous noises with your mouth -- whatever works to get the animal to look at you and give you the expression you want. I sometimes think my greatest skill is not with the camera but with my ability to throw toys accurately with my left hand while I'm shooting with my right hand :).

Picture This!

This is my first post to our new blog spot at www.jimgarviephoto.bloggespot.com. The first thing to know about my photography is that I've been doing it for a looooong time! Over 40 years. Back when film was the recording medium and not CCD or CMOS sensors. And in all that time, the basics of photography haven't changed: you still have to expose the sensor with a certain amount of light for a certain amount of time to get properly exposed images. What folks may not realize is that back in the film days, it would be a week or more before we'd see our images so we learned quickly what combinations of amount of light (f-stops) for amount of time (shutter speed) would give us the best chance of getting usable images.

Today of course, we can see what the camera sees almost immediately. But the basics remain the same: you still have to expose your subject for a certain amount of time with a certain amount of light to get properly-exposed images. And sometimes, just placing the camera on "Auto" won't work. You have to know intuitively what combination is necessary for not only proper exposure but proper sharpness, proper depth-of-field, proper ISO to control the noise factor, etc. In short, being a "photographer" is more than having the right camera gear. It's a matter of what's between your ears and how much mileage is under your feet. The camera is simply a tool -- a very sophisticated tool but a tool nonetheless. The real creative force in image creation is the photographer him or herself. Keep that in mind when you think of hiring a photographer for your event or your creative project. Pick a photographer that knows how to create great images and not just how to set the camera properly.

Jim Garvie