Portrait photography with the Fuji GFX 50Sii and the older Pentax 120mm Macro lens is.......too easy.
I tested the old, manual focusing Pentax 645 lens a couple of times this week, before I made the trip to my client's offices to make a portrait of a new associate. I worry sometimes about using older lenses because of hidden "gotchas" like focus shifting and issues that come up on site when an adapter causes problems. So I spent a few hours testing and testing --- just to make sure.
While I can't show the actual portrait until after the associate selects her file and it's uploaded to the company's website I did have this frame, taken from the correct position with the focus at 7 feet (subject distance for the portrait shoot) to share and I think it's apt as it shows very exactly what the bokeh is in the most common use for me of the lens. It's a 120mm f4.0 Macro lens and it's pretty amazing. In fact, it's one of the nicer medium format lenses I've used for portraiture; at least as done with the new Pixie Format of the GFX and latest Hasselblad XD cameras.
The only part of these portrait shoots on location that I chaff at is packing up to go and packing up again to come back home. It's the one time I miss having an assistant whose job it is to wrangle equipment.
I left the house to go downtown to the law offices around 10 a.m. and I was back home in time for lunch. Turns out that having done similar portraits in the same offices at least 60 times over the last five years means that I've practiced setting up and taking down gear so often I might be able, at some point, to do it blindfolded...
The firm I worked for today is one of my very favorite clients. In fact, when B. and I did some estate planning recently we went straight to the firms estate law expert and enlisted his services. I guess continuing to do work for the firm is my way of winning some of the money we spent back. I'm kidding, of course. I think having their people work on our estate planning was their way of winning some of their expenditures from the past five years back. Either way it smells like a win-win situation to me.
The ancient Pentax lens (circa 1980s? Early 1990s?) is still pretty much perfect. The focusing ring is smooth and glitch-free and the optics are brilliant and clear. The results, as captured by a 50 megapixel + larger format sensor are nothing short of delicious. Incredibly detailed but imbued with that Fuji portrait tonality and color that clients love.
Taking along a back-up camera and lens is so hard-wired that I can't help myself, even on a small project like today's, from taking along an extra camera and suitable portrait lens. But as most of my friends tell me that I'm a bit eccentric about gear I did shy away from logical choices and instead decided to back up the big MF camera with one of the M240 Leica rangefinder cameras and a Voigtlander 75mm lens.
Since I had both cameras at hand I did all the initial images with the Fuji and then asked if the portrait sitter had a few spare minutes in which I could try out some shots on the smaller camera. The view through an EVF-2 finder was atrocious by today's standards but it was good enough to confirm sharp focus on the subject's eyes. The rear finder screen image was a little better but certainly didn't inspire confidence --- at all. But I figured that my metering was good and I already had good medium format images in the can so what did I have to lose?
I "developed" (post processed) the images from the two cameras together in Lightroom Classic. The Fuji stuff, as expected, came up looking nearly perfect right from the start. I cooled down the images a bit and played with a nice preset for the images destined to be included in an online gallery. Then I dived into the Leica images. They needed some work. The color balance was way off even though both cameras were set nearly identically. The Leica files were also dark. More like the old school raw files from earlier in the digital timeline of things.
But, in the end I included about 15 of the Leica files in the final mix because, with a little work, they were a good overall match for the Fuji files and they provided a slightly different look and feel. Different formats and different lenses are like that.
But I have to say that the Leica M240 isn't exactly my first choice for studio work or highly controlled work. The raw files are tougher to get just right for me. I think mixed light really throws the earlier sensors for a loop. Not a loupe.
Nice to visit the law firm and see familiar faces. Nice to photograph someone new. I guess I'm settling into a new work rhythm based on only accepting short, fun sessions that don't interfere with swimming or an afternoon nap. It feels good to keep a hand in.
Now looking around for more old Pentax 645 lenses to adapt. I'll keep you posted.
Comments