It just so happened that I recently took a group of portraits of lively girls with a sense of life, and I will talk about the topic of portraits again non-stop. The original intention of this shooting was to reflect the sense of life, and I chose the roadside and streetside boulevards with a sense of daily life as the shooting location to record the natural and comfortable life of the characters.
canon eos r8+rf 24-70mm f/2.8 iso1250 f/2.8 1/320s
During the shoot, the model was recorded taking a pleasant walk after the rain and enjoying the fresh and humid air after the rain. The equipment I recommend this time, and also used in the shooting, is the Canon EOS R8. One of the main reasons for the recommendation is that the R8 is small and lightweight, and the original lens is a 24-50mm sleeve, and the lens itself is very lightweight, suitable for traveling, and you will not get tired of shooting for hours in your hand. To guarantee a better bokeh effect, I also chose Canon's RF 24-70mm F 28 and EF 85mm F12. It is used as an outdoor portrait shooting equipment.
Returning to the subject, from the perspective of a portrait photographer, there are several major functions during the shooting process, which I think need to be paid special attention to in the process of selecting equipment.
First of all, human eye focus is one of the most necessary functions, especially when shooting a portrait with a lively and flexible style, the model's expression and position are fleeting, which requires excellent capture power, testing the photographer's ability to capture, in order to make the capture speed faster and more efficient, the focus must keep up, especially the human eye focus, the camera automatically recognizes the human eye and automatically completes the focus, so that the photographer only focuses on the composition and emotional capture when shooting, bringing an efficient shooting experience.
canon eos r8+ef 85mm f/1.2 iso500 f/2.8 1/1250s
canon eos r8+ef 85mm f/1.2 iso500 f/1.2 1/800s
canon eos r8+ef 85mm f/1.2 iso500 f/1.2 1/800s
canon eos r8+ef 85mm f/1.2 iso1250 f/2.8 1/320s
I was very pleased with the R8's focus performance during this shoot. Fast drive, high precision, and fast focusing. In the human eye focus, you can set the left eye and right eye priority, so you can quickly lock the model's eyes and not miss any dynamic moments.
Secondly, continuous shooting and image quality are also factors to consider in portrait shooting. We know that if shooting Allah is to shoot people, how to capture the smile of the character, various emotional expressions are very important. The R8's electronic shutter has a maximum continuous shooting speed of about 40 frames per second, coupled with the blessing of 24.2 million pixels, it can record the model's high-speed, instantaneous play or frolicking movements and emotions, and ensure the high quality of the picture, which is very suitable for outdoor play, travel shooting, and recording happy moments of life.
canon eos r8+ef 85mm f/1.2 iso800 f/1.2 1/640s
For example, in the following set of coherent actions, I asked the model to pick leaves, and at the same time as the "leaf picking" action was carried out, I asked the model to give me some smart laughter and blinking expressions, I only need to set up the high-speed continuous shooting function in advance, and I can easily record a complete action process with one key continuous shooting.
canon eos r8+rf 24-70mm f/2.8 iso1600 f/2.8 1/640s
The high-speed continuous shooting function allows the character to record every smart moment of self-release more completely. The faster the continuous shooting, the richer the emotions of the characters that can be captured, the higher the chance of capturing good expressions, and the time and energy cost of repeating trial and error back and forth. I adjusted the shutter speed to 1 640s to avoid blurring the image in motion and capture sharper moving portraits.
canon eos r8+ef 85mm f/1.2 iso500 f/1.2 1/640s
canon eos r8+rf 24-70mm f/1.2 iso800 f/2.8 1/400s
canon eos r8+rf 24-70mm f/2.8iso400 f/2.8 1/320s
The following is a shot of the model walking on the boulevard after the rain, I asked the model to walk towards my camera from far and near, telling the model to enjoy the distant scenery and the comfortable fresh air after the rain, in the process of recording the model's pacing, smiling, leisurely mood and state, the model only needs to enjoy the moment freely, the R8 electronic shutter is about 40 shots per second, which allows me to easily capture the expression of the character at every moment.
canon eos r8+ef 85mm f/1.2 iso500 f/1.2 1/640s
High sensitivity is also one of the most important concerns of camera enthusiasts when choosing a camera.
When shooting portraits, you need to always consider the changes in outdoor light due to the outdoor environment. The impact of ISO sensitivity on image quality from the lowest to the highest in low light conditions, with the increase of ISO sensitivity, the picture will have problems such as loss of detail, decreased sharpness, increased irritability, and color shift, so good high sensitivity performance is one of the important criteria for testing camera performance.
The following is a picture taken with different ISO sensitivity values, which will be magnified several times in the later stage to test the high sensitivity performance of the Canon EOS R8. It's not hard to see that the R8 can still record clear, clean, and bright images with high ISO in low-light environments.
When we zoom in 150x on the original ISO 3200, we can see that the details on the face are still clearly visible, and the low image quality and irritation problems caused by the high ISO are almost not visible.
Having said so many parameters, in fact, what I like the most in terms of experience is the design of the flip screen. In the past, when taking pictures, the camera position was too high to see the screen, and the low camera position was too uncomfortable to lie down. The Canon EOS R8's flip screen allows me to shoot in a more relaxed position, shooting foliage in high places, just tilting the direction of the camera lens, and no longer requiring me to raise my arms.
The screen also supports 360 degrees, rotate in any direction, and when you turn to the same direction as the lens, you can** Set up the 10-second timing shooting function,** Don't be in a hurry, it's not too easy The shoulder strap is also very practical, and when you don't want to lift it, it's very easy to carry it on your shoulder
As a portrait photographer, I often have the problem of recommending the most suitable camera for portrait shooting, but I have always believed that the most important thing is to find the right camera for your style and operation. At present, the EOS R8 has both the advantages of lightness, high continuous shooting, high-quality high-sensitivity performance in low-light environments, fine high image quality, etc., allowing me to easily hold the camera for a long time, easily capture dynamic portraits, and record high-quality images even in low-light environments.
Other films: Canon EOS R8+RF 24-70mm F28 iso1250 f/2.8 1/320s
canon eos r8+ef 85mm f/1.2 iso1250 f/2.8 1/640s
canon eos r8+ef 85mm f/1.2iso1250 f/2.8 1/640s