Today I met with Cirecy for a quick shoot in Cabbage Town. We shoot close to Carrol St and the Oakland Cemetery for about 2 hours. The setup was pretty straightforward in anticipation of this summer’s work which will require me to travel light and shoot with a minimal setup.
As you might have realized in comparison to some of my earlier shooting posts, the perspective is a bit wider. This time I shot with 5omm rather than the usual 135mm to 150mm range. That shorter focal length is still ok for this type of work (in terms of perspective distortion if used correctly) and at the same time allows for the inclusion of meaningful background elements: we are getting into the realm of environmental portraits. What one has to extremely careful with is to not tilt the picture plane. Otherwise, given the lack of compression, perspective distortion will immediately kick in. While sometimes desirable, usually it will simply ruin the shot. Usually it also helps to frame the head a bit closer to the center – think rule-of-thirds lines. This will further reduce distortion from the 50mm. Note, that with a 50mm you will probably have a harder time for close-ups…
I shot natural light only. First that is my preferred mode of operation when not in a studio setup: more flexibility for moving around without setup time. Also, I don’t intend to schlepp lights or reflectors around the globe this summer, so better get into the mood already.
Enjoy your weekend—TSJ.
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Terence S Jones - a guy with a camera 