Model shoot

[lakota]

I am doing a shoot with my new EM-1 soon, I have the olympus 45mm 1.8 60mm 2.8 17mm 2.8 50mm ed and 50-200 ed and panasonic 12-35 f2 what lens would you recommend to do glamour model shoot

I will be using 2 Bowens 550 studio lights triggers by pulsar radio trigger, not used the olympus EM-1 in the studio? previously used canon

any recommendations would be appreciated

many thanks

Roger

 

[mf100]

If it were me I'd go with the 45mm; fast AF, great IQ, f/1.8, focal length no too long and since you're in control of the subject matter no need for a zoom lens.

That said I have no real studio experience to speak of.

Need an assistant? ;-)

 

[Photodan1]

Roger,

The lenses you have will work fine but a couple of them are a little long on focal length for an in-studio setting. the 60 in particular may not let you move far enough away from your subject and the 55-200 I would think might not be the best. However, the 45 and even the 12-35 should serve you very well. The 45 is long enough to get a tight head or head and shoulders shot without having to get uncomfortably close to your model. The 12-35 will allow a full body shot even in pretty tight quarters. Both are very sharp and the 45 in particular can help you to throw the background out of focus if you need to. Indoors with a backdrop you may or may not want to do that.

The radio triggers may be ttl compatible with Canon so ttl with the EM1, ttl will not be an option but you can probably use them in manual. I prefer to shoot that way anyway so you can precisely control the light.

Sounds like you have what you need to get started.

 

[SpecFoto]

The FF 85 mm FOV is the most popular one for portrait photography, this length shows no facial distortion, so your Oly 45 is what I recommend. I shoot with models all the time and use the 45mm and 75mm Oly's, they are excellent at this, even at f/1.8. Suggest you bring the 45mm, 60mm and the 12-35mm. If you use the zoom for closeups, try to stay at 20mm (M4/3) and above, the facial distortion will not be as bad.

I have a couple of different lighting setups, triggered by 2 types of pocket wizards. Nikon PW ttl triggers work, in manual, on the EM5. Try to shoot at the highest flash sync you can, 1/250 on the EM1, and shoot manual. The EM1, even when it triggers the Pulsars, won't compensate for the studio flash of course.

My EM1 got here Wednesday, and I am using it first time for a model shoot tomorrow. The controls and dials are so improved, plus the locking feature on the dial is a big help.


Oly 45mm 1/250 @f/11 with 20 inch softbox on right and white bounce on left.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[lakota]

Thanks very much to all of you, thats made my life easier, will probably use the 45 most of the time, I always use manual so not a problem, Specfoto how did you get the background so black, I have backgrounds but they are the paper kind and always show light on them?

Thanks once again guys, appreciate it

 

[SpecFoto]

Three reasons. First it was a black drape background. But, I made sure to use a flag on the soft box at right so no light hit it. Finally, shooting at the highest flash sync speed your camera allows, in this case 1/250, means that the ambient light in the room is not really a factor. If I had shot at say 1/60, 2 stops lower and picked up some ambient light, the background would have been lit a bit by ambient and the white reflector placed to the left of her face.

Yesterday I learned a few tricks shooting with the EM1 for the first time. If shooting manual the EM1 will adjust the viewfinder screen darker or lighter, to follow the level gauge indicator of what the camera thinks your aperture should be. Shooting with a radio trigger on the flash shoe and the camera set to fill flash (the radio trigger would not trigger with flash set to off), my proper exposure was from 2 to 3 stops below what the EM1 felt it should be. But when the triggers fired the speedlites of course, the exposure was fine. However the viewfinder would really darken at negative 2 stops and was totally black at negative 3 stops. Very hard to see the model. It drove me nuts and I could not find any control for this in the camera menu.

When I got home after the shoot and opened the electronic manual I finally found the answer on page 92, Live View Boost. The Monitor brightness is set as a DEFAULT to track the indicator, you need to turn this stupid control to ON, so the monitor does not go dark when shooting manual and using strobes or speedlites. While I appreciate the dots and fraction value along the bottom of the screen telling me what the EM1 thinks is the proper exposure, this Live View Boost is a something, especially so hidden in the menu, that a PRO camera should NOT have as a default!

 

[lakota]

Thanks so much for the information, I was in the same situation i was shooting a snowman I have which I use for a model to setup lights and the EM1 was set to manual and like you I couldn't see anything and yet the resulting image was fine, just needed a little light adjustment, but would be impossible to work with a real model and not see anything because of darkness.
seems pretty typical of olympus doing pretty stupid defaults, I noticed that you have to turn to image stabiliser off in the menu to get it to work?

Thanks for your useful input, really appreciated by me and many others I would think.

best regards

Roger

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[pix530]

You cant go wrong with 45mm and 60mm.

I did some shoots also with 25mm and found it very good performing in some situations.

Would not consider 17 for sure and 12-35 is not as great as primes.