I love these horribly-flawed photos: shooting a whole day at f/1.2

Okay, I've been recuperating from a badly broken leg , and this was my first photo shoot without a walker. I couldn't lug a big bag of gear around. (I've had my gear strapped to the front of my walker lately.)

I have always been a fan of available light photography, but I took a big risk and shot a whole day with just my 7D and 50 1.2...an 80mm effective focal length, and wide open f/1.2 for every shot. Walking miles of marble in Santa Fe, NM's Roundhouse and jawing with politicians on a bum leg demanded minimum weight...I'm still really uncoordinated too, so anything like a flash just raises the risk of my imminent injury lol. I could've taken my 24-70 I, but then I'd have to have a flash, so the 50 was really the default I was lucky to have.

Now, let's face it, if you don't shoot wide-open with a 1.2, may as well sell it and get a 1.4.

My client is running for higher state office, knows everyone, and is a blast to hang out with: best of all, he was totally game for the possibilities and risks of what I proposed. As you can see, he's quite gregarious and a really nice guy and the supporting cast of characters is pretty dang interesting and nice, so my job wasn't just easy, it was fun.

These photos are technically flawed, inconsistent, too grainy, and sometimes pretty soft, due both to the tiny DOF, and to the often-hurried nature of this kind of shoot, and the fact that they're's no controlling the lighting situation...there can be florescent lights on one side and incandescent on the other and even a skylight above. Then there's shadows that are pretty hard to deal with. A lot of people would be horrified to use these, they're too substandard in quality.

I just love them.

I love the feel of the photos, I actually like the filmic quality of the 7D's noise, and the way the 50 1.2 completely isolates my subject, even on a crop-sensor. I don't have to ruin the moment, waiting for someone who wants privacy to leave the frame...they're automatically anonymous. Besides, when you're promoting a public figure, it's nice having the impression of (unidentifiable) people all around them. I had used my 24-70 most often previously but its wide-open DOF and bokeh on the 7D wasn't nearly as sweet as the 50. Unless I was really close in, you could also identify people, if you knew them. The 50 has a case of the warm and fuzzies it just makes everyone look more pleasant in general.

I did pay a steep price in leg-zooming of course, but dang! I think it was worth it. Bottom line: I love them. The client, consultant and designer were thrilled, and they printed great.

BUT, you can see the obvious flaws in these photos, in the lens, in the camera's low light capability ...SO, why are they still lovable looks? Or do you think they're crap?

Just curious.

I'm using this is the same gear next time anyhow; for guerrilla candids, I think it rocks:




The Senate Sargent-At-Arms. If you don't get along with him, your latitude is ...hampered. He's a great guy.


A (big) 6-term Senator


Talking with Staffers


Senate President


Senior Sen.


Senior Sen. -note the oof


One of my faves, he's like this all the time...I recorded much more sarcastic looks than this one, but I liked it the best


Notice the change; while they chatted, they shifted back a foot, past a nearby light (and a serious look)


Major Domo


Another one of my faves, great public servant.


Senate Aide, pointedly ignoring me hehe.


A Rancher-Senator


I finally got this State Representative to giggle, because the House Sargent-At-Arms was threatening to have me escorted off the Floor, since I had ignored the 3rd warning that the House was in Session


Topped the day off with a late lunch with a former Governor; at 80 he's still engaging. The green chile smothered beef burrito at The Pink Adobe was really yummy too...the Gov had red chile on his burrito. ;-)

--
-Joe

Looks like you had an interesting day. Sometimes the technical limitiations bring out the best in our creativity.

I recently went to view an exhibition of photographs by Lord Lichfield, a famous celebrity photographer in his day and up until quite recently.

It was interesting to note that many of the images were technically quite poor, missed focus, grainy and so on and yet it does not detract from what is an engaging photograph of an interesting subject.

You hit on one reason I don't like fast lenses . Bad DOF , no IS [ shaky hands ] and to me just too expensive .

I have the 50 1.4 , AF is hit and miss and I get better shots with the 17-55 . If you try to crop to get someone in background you can't .

Thanks for the reference, I'll check out Lord Litchfield for sure!

Joe, you obviously know you're posting on a gearheads forum so you're bound to get a few very technically pointed replies despite your open admission of the flaws.

But, I really like them, they work as a series, a story telling set of your day. They don't pretend to be anything other than engaging photos of the people you met. Sometimes we just need to have fun with our gear and not worry about setting up for each shot and poring over them in photoshop afterwards. Well done.

Yes, it is fun to play at f/1.2. I have the Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 AIS on an adapter, and it is definitely amusing.

Dude! You have an f/1.2 lens. I would physically disable the ability to stop down - just in case I accidentally set it to shoot at something like a plebian f/4 or f/2.

holy color cast my friend

artistguy said:

Joe, you obviously know you're posting on a gearheads forum so you're bound to get a few very technically pointed replies despite your open admission of the flaws.

But, I really like them, they work as a series, a story telling set of your day. They don't pretend to be anything other than engaging photos of the people you met. Sometimes we just need to have fun with our gear and not worry about setting up for each shot and poring over them in photoshop afterwards. Well done.

Click to expand...

Yes, I find the yellow cast too distracting. Rather than saying this is gritty with character, it screams that the photographer is either clueless, doesn't care, or is color blind.

If you don't want to correct the WB, why not consider B&W. B&W, especially with portrait shots like this, really does bring out the character and emotion of the shots. And, most of all, it isn't distracting.