A Portrait of an attorney. Done for one of my favorite clients. With two cameras. Find out which camera made the winning files...

 

I wrote yesterday about the process of heading downtown to one of my favorite law practices to make an environmental portrait of one of the firm's latest hires. I couldn't post any finished images because it's standard in our business to take two steps first. The first step is that the client needs to approve the take; the quality of the images and the results and then they need to select the image or the images they'd like to use for their projects. Once they approve of the session and select the images I need to retouch the images and fix anything I find aesthetically off. For example, if I made the background too light or too dark in relation to my main subject, or, if the vertical doors and walls are keystoned enough to detract from the intention of the image. 

The second step, after the images have been retouched and sent back to the client is to reach out and extend the courtesy of asking their permission to use the images in specific use cases. I want to make sure that the client's team member is comfortable with the use and, I'd hate to preempt any sort of "reveal" they may have had in mind. 

My client had selections back to me within an hour of me sending them an online gallery yesterday and I was able to do the work I wanted to do on the files this morning. I also got an answer to my usage request which was, "Yes."

When I packed up and headed off to make portraits my intention was to use the Fuji GFX 50Sii along with the Pentax 120mm Macro lens to make the "A" list portraits. I brought along a second camera as a back-up. As a lifesaver camera in case we had any sort of on site issue with the big, medium format Fuji. That camera was a ten or twelve year old Leica M240 rangefinder mated with a 75mm Voigtlander lens. Oh, and also one of those dandy and decidedly obsolete EVF-2 finders for the M240. 

The Fuji worked just as I thought it would. The preview on the rear screen was bright and color accurate. The lens had a perfect balance of sharpness on the subject but really nice fall off of focus for the background. When I opened up the files in the studio the preview images from the camera matched the monitor color and density perfectly. Exactly what I was looking for. We could wrap up the project right then and there. No friction in that shoot!

But...being the "eccentric" photographer with a willing subject in front of him I asked the client if we could play around with the second camera. Just for kicks. Just because it was so counterintuitive in this situation. And it was. The EVF finder image was dark, soft and greenish and, with the EVF enabled the time between shots was restricted to 3 or 4 seconds per shot. I was constantly jabbing at the shutter button to try to get the camera to work with me and get the great but fleeting expressions I was seeing. 

When I opened the DNG files back in the studio they were nothing like the clean and robust Fuji files. The Leica DNGs were darker, seemed underexposed and needed ample color correction. Almost like the early days of raw files before they got automatically tweaked by raw converter programs. 

But... I had the latest rev of Lightroom to lean on so I got to work and tried for a good "ballpark" match of the Leica files to the Fuji files. Since I was using LED lighting and trying to match existing light I was working at ISO 800 which is a walk in the park for the Fuji and the beginning of encroaching noise in the shadows for the Leica. I selected 40 different images (various poses and expressions) from the Fuji files and 12 images from the Leica files to tweak for an online gallery. The Fujis were mostly just drag and drop but the Leica files needed some slider-craft and looked better after I ran A.I. Denoise on them. The Leica files were also sharper out of the camera and not in a good way for portraits so I pulled down the contrast a bit and pushed down any sharpening. 

I didn't leave any obvious clues in the online gallery images which might identify either camera to the client. I just sent them along with a cheery note and a few instructions for I.D.ing the files they wanted enhanced for use. 

Imagine my surprise when both of the client's selections were from the Leica group of files. 

When I pulled the files into PhotoShop this morning I followed Abobe's basic structure which entails starting at the top of the corrections menu and working my way down. I set the color space, then the lighting (exposure) followed by color and so on. I did make a selection for the background in order to bring the color space of the area not affected by my front light into the same basic color family as the subject. 

The end use for one of these images is the firm's website. I still can't get over the habit of working on the full size, 16 bit RAW files and generating a finished, full size PSD file to archive. I also send a copy of the big file to the client along with three different sizes of Jpegs. Best to give them a choice so their designer doesn't need to make multiple size changes. 

Was I shocked about the Leica images being chosen? Not really. For most people the real choice boils down to pose and expression. Rapport and comfort. Your technique would have to suck a bit before people really notice it. And with any "modern" camera with the ability to generate raw files and 24 megapixels (and bigger) files any experienced post processing worker should be able to get good, usable files.

Now I'm pondering whether or not the friction of the less practical camera influenced my approach, my attitude or whatever. There's even the idea that an "old looking" camera is less scary looking or less serious and the lightening of the mood that results, from both the subject and the photographer, made a difference to the person selecting the final files. 

In a week or so I start another portrait project. This one for a national accounting firm. It's also comprised of environmental portraits but unlike yesterday's single lawyer I'll need to move a bit quicker and aim for a dozen (plus or minus) individuals per day for two days. The raw files from the Fuji MF are huge and slow down the post processing. Same with the SL2 raw files. I'm considering using one of the M240 cameras for everything. A little harder to work with but a fun challenge for sure. And more manageable raw file sizes.

Hope you like seeing actual work. This is kinda what we still do a lot of. And it's still a profitable undertaking. I do like to let you know that when I write about technical stuff it comes from actual experience and not conjecture or second hand info. Alright then. On to the next project.