Learning Photography
Out of context: Reply #48
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- vaxorcist0
RE: Fashion and 85mm 1.2.... it's a TRICKY lens, able to easily give you "almost in focus, but not really in focus" images, and it has slow-ish AF....
Among some people, that lens is considered magic, as the F1.2 allows a very nice out of focus background easily in situations like weddings and art portraits,etc...
BUT people think "the magic lens" will make them a great photographer... a guy at a camera store I know calls these people "LBA's" or "Lens Buying Addicts"
On a high end fasion shoot, the lens is not nearly as important as the lights, MUA, model, stylist, art director,etc...
I used to be a digital tech on fashion shoots, and rarely was a lens like an 85mm 1.2 used, as the client generally need to show clothes, accessories, or jewelry that the model was wearing....
i.e. we were not shooting a medium telephoto at F1.2, we were usually shooting a medium or long telephoto at F5.6 or F8, sometimes F11.... and at 100 ISO...
F8 at 100 ISO means you have a lot of profoto or speedotron lighting blasting through softboxes, scrims, reflectors, etc... so it's not just "the lens" that gives a certain look....
One notable exception was shooting a model outside, out of focus trees in the background, we used a Hasselblad HD whatever-it-was with a 150mm F3.5 lens, which, being medium format, is probably the closest in that format to an 85mm 1.2 or 1.4 or 1.8.... and the photographer did this very, very carefully because shooting "wide open aperture" is a recipe for "almost in focus" but not "really in focus" when you're working even with a professional model, as they have to not move, and you have to have perfect focus... he shot more extras of this image than any other... and we lit it not with strobes, but with natural light mixed with old-school film style Fresnel hot lights to give it some depth....