Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Using technology to make different stylistic choice

The A99ii is a very impressive camera, lots of pixels, good ISO and nice AF.
My recent client was really impressed at the photos I was able to pull of a crowd in a corporate lecture, sitting mostly in the dark.
I was using two remote flashes, using my latest favorite style of having a backlight and a side backlight to light people.

The dynamic range of the A99ii allows me to pull of this shots in a dark huge room.
Then again, that is probably the style I would use with the original A99. Sometimes incremental changes can make a good technique in to a terrific technique.
However, current Sony cameras are not just nice cameras, like the A900 was, with nice warm colors and good lenses. They also allow you to do things otherwise almost impossible in other cameras.
The eye auto focus is a good example. While hardly as good an implementation as in the latest e-mount mirrorless cameras, it still allows you to create a unique style of photography that I tried for the first time for this event, but it might be relevant for weddings.
Having good ISO (set to auto) for event photography means I can allow myself to shoot with a fast shutter and an aperture of 4.0-5.6 when shooting groups of people talking. I mostly use the great Zeiss 50mm 1.4  lens for that, knowing I'll get sharp and pleasant photos where people will not look all of a sudden wider if they stand at the edge of the frame as happens with most wider lenses.

This way I don't have to worry about people being out of focus or blurry hands when people talk with their hands or make a sharp movement for any reason.
However, that limits you to a very specific style of photography. I did use this "safe" style for a while and then I got bored with it and decided to experiment with Eye-AF and the aperture set at 1.4. As this lens is phenomenal I knew my photos would still be sharp where focused, especially with the lower ISO.



As you can see this way of shooting goes a long way to create a blurred background in situations where you have to think quickly and still hit the perfect focus. I hope to use this style in an upcoming wedding when I come back from my upcoming vacation.

No comments:

Post a Comment