10 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
THEAPPRENTICE
TOP GEAR #
Fast prime lensesREBECCA favours primes
over zooms for indoor
portraits. “I prefer Sigma’s
Art lenses. They’re just so
sharp, thanks to less
moving elements. I shoot
with an 85mm f/1.4 and
35mm f/1.4, and also a
Leica 50mm f/1.8, but that’s manual focus,” she explains. “When you’re
shooting indoors at this time of year, when the light levels aren’t as
bright, using a fast prime lens will give you plenty of benefits. As well as
better image quality compared to most zooms, with the wide aperture
you also get blurry backgrounds – so subjects stand out – and with
the resulting fast shutter speed you get sharp shots when shooting
handheld. On top of that, your ISO does not need to go much higher!”BEEP FOR FOCUS
WHEN shooting with such wide
apertures on prime lenses, your
focusing needs to be spot on,
otherwise part of your subject’s
face or the eyes can be soft.
“Leanne was struggling to focus
accurately on her EOS 200D, despite trying
my lenses on her body, so she swapped to using my 5D Mark III
backup body camera. We also made sure the Beep in the menu
was on so she knew for sure when her AF was locked on – this
gave her more confidence and her focusing improved.”EXPERT INSIGHT
EYE-TO-EYE CONTACT
“ONCE Leanne had her exposure set and focus
right, she could then concentrate on framing for
better portraits,” Rebecca explains. “Leanne
had an artistic eye for a photo, and just needed
to work on her composition. I got her to move
around so the
background
behind our model
was the best, and
change her point of
view. By getting up
high people have to
look up at you,
which can make for
an interesting pose.”TECHNIQUE
ASSESSMENT
Rebecca showed our Apprentice, Jessica,
how to set up her Canon for better portraits
SHOOT IN
MANUAL MODE
REBECCA gave
Leanne the
confidence to use
Manual mode, so
she could set her
aperture for the depth of field, and shutter
speed for sharp shots when shooting handheld
with her Canon. “By shooting in Manual she can
take better exposures for the individual model’s
skin tones, rather than shooting in Aperture
Priority (Av) mode, which can get tricked to
expose for bright windows or dark backgrounds
in the frame, rather than the subject.”
SELECT YOUR
AF POINTS
LEANNE’S 200D
only has 9 AF
points, whereas
Rebecca’s 5D Mark
IV has 61 AF points,
but you can use the different AF point selection
options in the camera’s menu to customize the
amount of active AF points to make things easier
to focus. “This means Leanne can focus on our
model Chantelle’s head, or eyes, accurately in
her frame for sharper shots,” says Rebecca.