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The "Love Story" Adventure The Essential Engagement Portrait - part 2 of 1 2 3

Published 01/12/1999

The photograph I saw at that instant when it was the most beautiful to me may have been gone forever, since I was only there for the day.

Field of View

I know it has been said that it's the photographer and not the equipment that creates a good photograph. I couldn't agree more but there are certain instances where you need to enhance the photograph by giving it the right perspective. For example, you're photographing a couple by the water and you see that you have a beautiful sky with dramatic clouds and that the surf adds to your composition. In this case, a wide-angle lens would give you an expansive perspective to add all the beautiful elements to your photograph. Or it may be just the opposite.

You found an area where the lighting is right but you need to get rid of the clutter. So, you switch to a normal or telephoto lens or even an extreme telephoto lens and by using a larger aperture you take the background completely out of focus. You may even want to capture the surrounding architecture

Equipment Choices

Owning many different lenses runs into a great deal of money. Like many of you. Eventually, I was able to afford a good medium format single-lens reflex. My camera of choice is Hasselblad for my location portraits and wedding photography.

I also believe in using a good tripod that is very sturdy, which needs to be dependable and quick to operate.

The lenses I use are the 30m The lens I use most often is the 100mm. It is equipped with a Lindahl Pro Shade. The filters I use often are Stephen Rudd's #2 Warm Soft, and a filter of my own design that I use when I want to add a misty effect and a touch of romance to the photograph. The Warm Soft filter is a beautiful tool that softens skin tones and adds a warm touch. In addition, I usually use a Leon Vignetter in my lens shade.

On my 80 mm lens, I may use the Pro 4 Shade which is equipped with two soft filters and my misty filter as well as a vignetter.

The Pro 4 shade is a quick way to change filters and you can even combine two filters to enhance the effect you're aiming for.

In addition to my medium format equipment I always take along my Contax 35mm loaded with Kodak's High Speed black and white Infrared film. Using this film has allowed me to produce some really beautiful results and also add variety to the couples' portrait session.

Kodak's VPS has been my film of choice for medium format. In low-light situations I use PMC rated at E.I. 250. Having been invited by Kodak to join their Pro Team, I got to test the new Portra 160 and 400 ISO films before they were released. The new films have incredible detail , excellent skin tone s and e ven have a bit more latitude for underexposure. I have already started making the switch to these new films for my portrait work. I also like using Kodak's T400CN black and white film.

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1st Published 01/12/1999
last update 09/12/2022 14:53:51

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