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The M8 and the non-traditional engagement portrait


Riccis

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While my wedding coverage is hands off in the way of posing and directing, my engagement sessions are all about doing portraits for the couple...

 

I just came back to town from shooting the following engagement session. I took with me two M8s and my new 28 cron and Noctilux. I know not everybody will like my colors but this is my signature palette/look.

 

Moderators - I know they are portraits, but please don't move to another forum since the point of this post is to show how I try to make the best out of whatever gear I have on my hands.

 

M8 and 28 cron, ISO 160, f/2 @ 1/45s

20080322-151546.jpg

 

M8 and 28 cron, ISO 160, f/2 @ 1/125s

20080322-153630.jpg

 

M8 and Noctilux, ISO 640, f/1 @ 1/60s

20080322-194208.jpg

 

M8 and Noctilux, ISO 640, f/1 @ 1/11s

20080322-200509.jpg

 

Enjoy,

 

Riccis

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William:

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

Great question! The reason for that is because those shots are actually portraits of the bride only (the first one not so much, but there is only so much room for a guy inside of those dryers :D). I do this a lot with my portraits in order to add more depth and maybe an element of intrigue to the image. This is 100% done on purpose.

 

Cheers,

 

Riccis

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I love it! The colors give a nice atmosphere. I have shot mostly photojournalistic work in the past but have become more enamored with portraits recently. Do you ever feel the M8 to be limited as a portrait camera? I know its wonderful for available light, but I was looking into possible taking workshops to better understand light, the use of strobes and flashes. From what I recall, you don't use any of these and wondered if you ever wish you could. Out of curiousity is your palette all produced from photoshop?

 

thanks,

Calvin

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Calvin:

 

Glad you like them.

 

You are right, I don't use flash or additional strobes at all (I actually shoot very few images with flash even on a wedding day). Because of this I am pretty comfortable using the M8 for portraits.

 

While I've seen a lot of beautiful work done with strobes, this type of coverage does not suit my shooting style since I am very hands off and like to blend a lot while shooting a wedding as I'm always on the move. I also shoot by myself and don't want to spend any time setting the lighting since I can miss beautiful moments that may be taking place right behind my back (my ability to document a wedding in a very unobtrusive manner is the main reason why my clients commission my work... I am also a pretty cool guy to hang out with :cool:)

 

While I have experimented with almost any action and filter on the market, I did not wanted my look to be too similar to everyone else's. After working on polishing my signature look, I created custom curves in PhotoShop that I can apply to shadow/highlight selections to give me the colors I want. This is actually all the post-processing work that I am currently doing and will stick to this simple technique.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks,

 

Riccis

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Calvin - Please ask as many questions as you want since there are no stupid questions and I'm here to help as much as possible.

 

Like I've said before I firmly believe in the less is more philosophy and apply it not only to my shooting but to my processing and design as well.

 

I bring all 4 of my M8s (but only use 2 every other wedding). I own the 28/2, 35/1.4, 50/1.4 and 75/1.4... Throughout the day I use either the 35 and 50 (either the summilux or Noctilux depending on the lighting situation).

I just purchased the 28/2 and really love it (to the point that I am seriously considering selling the 35 lux). The 75 barely comes out of the bag except for church coverage and maybe 5% of the reception. I work the hell out of the 50mm (even on the M8 crop) since this is my favorite focal length.

 

There are a couple of lenses that intrigue me and will look into (such as the 24/2.8 and 90/2) but since I will barely use them, they are not on my must buy list. Leica is sending me a WATE to test over the coming months and depending on how I like it, it may be my next purchase.

 

I just bought the Noctilux and don't have any focusing issues with it, although I am not your typical user that examines everything at 100% and what looks good to me may not necessarily be acceptable to other folks. BTW, I only shoot the Noctilux wide open.

 

DR - Thanks, man... It was a lot of fun gettting my clients in and out but they were so excited about trying some of my new concepts. You have no idea how lucky I am to be hired by folks that give me 100% creative input when it comes to documenting their special day.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Riccis

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Hi Riccis,

Looking at your first shot and the exposure chosen (ISO 160, f/2 @ 1/45s, with the 28-cron), is there a specific reason for the low-ISO? Are you concerned about noise in the files, or why not have a bit safer shutter speed at ISO 320 or a bit more aperture than the 2.0?

 

I remember you saying that the M8's noise at 1250 or 2500 works still OK for you (referring to specifically flash usage at 2500).

 

a) I am curious what your over all opinion on the M8's noise is in the context of your wedding photography?

B) How do you deal with focus shift on the 75mm's or Nocti?

c) How do you feel about skin tones on indoor shots with tungsten light? Any red-skin issues there? (That is one of my frequent problems despite IR-cut filters and custom white balancing; my DNG's from ambient tungsten light always require "post" and have a hard to remove reddish tone...)

 

Thanks for sharing,

Peter

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Mike - Thanks a lot... A little bit of info on that shot... He is a designer and she is a theater actress. That Nocti shot took place in the basement under the stage in a theater she used to perform (it is actually the trap door space under the stage).

 

The basement was about 6 feet tall and very dark (the only light sources were a couple of light bulbs in the middle of the walls)... The place was very moody and had something that looked like a wooden bed and some ladders and that's how I visualized the shot, I arranged them on the bed next to the wall and close enough to one of the lightbulbs to have the contrast between her face and his and I just got up on the ladder and shot down... I have a lot more cool shots that will be on my new site in a week or so.

 

Cheers,

 

Riccis

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Hi Riccis,

Looking at your first shot and the exposure chosen (ISO 160, f/2 @ 1/45s, with the 28-cron), is there a specific reason for the low-ISO? Are you concerned about noise in the files, or why not have a bit safer shutter speed at ISO 320 or a bit more aperture than the 2.0?

 

I remember you saying that the M8's noise at 1250 or 2500 works still OK for you (referring to specifically flash usage at 2500).

 

There was just very bright in that place and since I was using the 28 cron (that I can handhold very well) I did not bother to increase the ISO... I also like to shoot wide open regardless of how bright hence the low ISO. Trust me, even ISO 2500 with the amount of light on that laundromat would have looked pretty good.

 

I am not concerned with noise at all and, like I've said before, I sometimes add some noise to the files since digital cameras produce very clean files (I added some noise to the second shot for this reason). Once again, I am not concerned about using ISO 1250 and even 2500 if that's what it takes to get the shot.

 

a) I am curious what your over all opinion on the M8's noise is in the context of your wedding photography?

 

Neither me or my clients seem to have a problem with it... I really believe that you don't need a super high ISO with rangefinders in order to get a fast enough shutter speed and while the ISO 2500 can be improved a bit, I will be more than happy if they can make it as clean as the current ISO 640... Remember, we don't have mirror slap and we also have the benefit of shooting at f/0.95 or f/1.

 

I am not a technical guy in the sense that I don't obsess too much or overanalize my gear and as long as I have a camera that is ready to shoot when I see a shot, that is good enough for me. Just to add to this point, about 6 of my prints received awards in this year's WPPI 16x20 print competition and one of them was shot with a Holga.

 

B) How do you deal with focus shift on the 75mm's or Nocti?

 

I shoot and recompose all the time with the Nocti and 75 wide open. I am sure if there are focus shifts it is all my fault but like I've said before I never look at my prints at 100% and I am not interested in pixel peeping. If I was into tack sharp prints from edge to edge, I would bring tripods and plenty of strobes to all my events, nothing wrong with this approach but it is just not my style.

 

c) How do you feel about skin tones on indoor shots with tungsten light? Any red-skin issues there? (That is one of my frequent problems despite IR-cut filters and custom white balancing; my DNG's from ambient tungsten light always require "post" and have a hard to remove reddish tone...)

 

Thanks for sharing,

Peter

 

Until the AWB was fixed the only issue I saw with skin tones were due to the erratic color temperature. A friend of mine has coined the term "Dorito red" skin tone for the resulting color you get when shooting at high ISOs with no flash in very poor light (i.e. almost in the dark) but from what I've seen you'll get such results from any camera shot under the same conditions (I don't know if this is what you're referring to) ... Once again, I have my own look for my color work and have to post-process whether I use the M8, a D3 or a PhaseOne.

 

Hope this helps and feel free to post any questions you may have.

 

Thanks,

 

Riccis

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Riccis,

I like the shots very much (maybe #4 more since it is a simple but yet "natural" shot and I like the concept of kissing under the "street" lamp) I have always liked your work so appreciate you taking the time to answer all the questions. If you are ever in Japan, I will very happily buy you a beer.

 

best wishes,

Arif

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Riccis--great work as always!

 

Maybe it's because I'm a tall guy, or because the front-loaders around here aren't that big for the most part, but I have yet to stuff a couple into a laundry pair :) Very, very cool though, and I also love the kissing shot!

 

One thing to add about magenta skin tones under tungsten: I find this effect to be much, much worse from ACR / Lightroom than C1. I can only believe that's because of the DNG colour matrix and something funky in the "out-of-the-box" ACR engine when it comes to reds overall. You're right though: all digicams tend to mess up with tungsten and skin and require some correction (and this gets worse in mixed light).

 

(hey--it was great to see you in Vegas too; next time we'll get a little more time, maybe).

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