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5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

18 Dec

I live in London and it’s a pretty big city with an array of location choices when it comes to portrait photography. There are beautiful parks, many are vast and rolling, dotted around the city; you almost feel like the country is never more than an hour away. There are canals and rivers with boats and ships within easy reach. There are hilltops offering astounding views of the rising skyline and various parts of the city. And of course, there’s architecture that’s so impressive weaving itself across the city, the fabric of London life with a culturally diverse population traversing the criss-cross of alleys and roads. It’s a fast and busy place.

Some of my couples prefer such busy locations that remind them of the hustle and bustle of the place or of icons and landmarks that they love. Here are 5 tips for you on how to photograph a portrait while walking through a busy city. Embrace the buzz of activity, the age-old structures and new glass skyscrapers that loom over you as you go about your daily business of life, work, and play.

#1 Scout out the location and look for pockets of photo spots

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

Communicate with your portrait clients and give them some location ideas and options from which they can choose. Get them involved in the process as this helps them get excited, look forward to the photoshoot and own it too!

This is also a good opportunity to discuss outfits, as clothing is really important to the overall look and feel of the images. For this photoshoot, we had an area in mind, but with two very different locations in terms of ambiance and style.

Originally the couple wanted an old ruined church which has stunning walls and old architecture and some greenery. This also gave a really cozy country feel, soft light, and almost enchanting ambiance. However, they had already decided on their outfits and had bought them specifically. I felt that these outfits would work better in a fun city walk photoshoot rather than the old church ruins.

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

Match the location to the subjects

Just a stone’s throw away was the Leadenhall Market. It is built-up, old, colorful, busy and with a very city-feel, yet smart too. I suggested to them this would be the perfect location and after thinking about it they agreed. The forecast was also rainy and the market is a covered area so that was a good option for shelter.

The main idea was to walk the streets in this part of town and find pockets of photo spots that appealed to them. I know the area well as I shoot quite a few weddings in the city, so I was able to lead them to areas where I thought there were interesting spots to make portraits.

It’s a nice experience walking the streets, being part of the everyday goings-on, the mundane and the special alike.

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

We were also specifically on the lookout for British icons and landmarks as the couple was visiting from America. So we asked Waterstones, a British book retailer if we could take some pictures inside. They agreed. This leads me on nicely to my next tip…

#2 Incorporate icons and landmarks

We chose boutique shops and food stops that were traditional and well-known in the area and used their shop windows as backdrops. Incidentally, the guy’s name is Tom and we passed this quaint Bar called Old Tom’s Bar – just a perfect location for him.

It’s important that you know a little about what your couple likes so you keep your eyes peeled for anything that appeals to them. In this case, Tom is English and he likes his beer so we stopped by the Tavern for a drink!

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

Get permission

There are places where it would be wise for you to ask permission first before going in for some photos. Usually, the shopkeepers are helpful and allow you to do so if you are quiet, non-disruptive and quick. However, others refuse and that is perfectly fine – don’t take it personally.

In the market, there was a lady shining shoes. She had a traditional shoe-shine set-up which would have been perfect for some photos, but she refused consent so we didn’t push. Other places are public and open and you can take snaps, just like any tourist would, to your heart’s content. The spot on the left is one such place. The photo on the right was taken from across the road, a fair distance to the building as permission is needed if you go too close!

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

#3 Leverage the busy-ness

There is just no getting away from people on crowded, busy streets. Often, it’s a waiting and asking game. You either wait for people to walk past and clear your space, or you ask them to move away. Again, politely and with great gratitude, if they happily oblige.

You can leverage this busy-ness by incorporating motion into your images such as this one below. It could take several attempts to get it right as this can be a very difficult setup with no planning ahead or anticipation of what is to come.

Of course, if things don’t go to plan in shots such as this, there is always Photoshop!

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

Adding motion with a long exposure and blurred moving objects can add a sense of the hustle and bustle of the city to your images.

#4 Do something fun and quirky

Keep the photoshoot lighthearted and fun by finding some unusual spots and asking your couple to do some quirky things if they are open to that. Like this image below standing in between the huge exhaust installations with the BEL-AIR sign in the background pretending to get blown away! Don’t forget to capture some safe, normal shots too like the one below it, just in case.

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

We found this old chapel with sculptures (below) and thought it would be funny if they copied the poses of the sculptures as another quirky shot. This turned out to be one of their favorite spots from the day too.

The photoshoot is more than just taking pictures, it is an experience as well, so aim to make it easy and fun.

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

#5 End on a high note

As you are shooting, don’t forget to include “indicators” in your conversations as to how far you are into your photoshoot, what other plans you may have in terms of location or shots such as individuals, action, walking away, etc. Tell them how far along you are into your plan, if you are are already nearing the end of the shoot, whether this is this your last location and your last shots, and when it’s a wrap.

Couples appreciate knowing where the markers are in the photoshoot. Some people just cannot handle more than half an hour so markers and indicators help them through it. Others like long photoshoots that could well run beyond the agreed duration and you need to keep tabs on your time so these markers work well for you too. As much as possible though, do not look at your watch!!!

Lastly, end on a high note with lots of laughter if possible. If you achieve this, it greatly helps in reinforcing good photoshoot memories so that there will be a “next time” for another photoshoot with you! Your couple will look back at this day and remember good vibes, not so much the other trying parts like the weather, how cold it was, the hassle of waiting for people to get out of the way, and so forth. When you show your couples their image gallery, end with happy photos too! And that’s a wrap!!

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations

I hope you enjoyed this little article and do share any tips you may have which have not been covered above!

The post 5 Tips for Doing Portrait Photography in Busy Locations by Lily Sawyer appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

14 Dec

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Like it or not, 2017 is the year that background-blurring Portrait Modes gained major traction in smartphone photography. Apple and Google both offer improved versions of the mode in their latest devices, making for better-looking results all around. But the two manufacturers take somewhat different approaches to the process, each with different limitations and strengths. Take a look some side-by-side shots to see how they square up, and learn about some of the underlying technologies in the accompanying text.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/60sec 4.459mm ISO 382

Because the Pixel 2 back cameras use both a depth map (stereo) generated from the split pixels as well as ‘segmentation’ (which uses machine learning to identify people / faces vs. background), both subjects in this photo are largely in focus. This is a result one wouldn’t expect from real optics, since the person behind should also be blurred. This doesn’t always happen with the Pixel 2, but sometimes it does if the subjects are close to one another and both identified as people / faces. Sometimes it’s actually desirable, but at other times it can feel unnatural.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/40sec 4.459mm ISO 400

Because of the F1.8 lens and HDR+ noise averaging (with alignment of images), the Pixel 2 can take photos of even slightly moving subjects in low light. Again note the progressive blur here: the back of the baby seat is only slightly blurred as are the switches in the background but the trees against the sky very far away are far more blurred.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/120 6.6mm ISO 80

Here the iPhone’s longer – albeit slower (F2.8 vs. F1.8) – lens renders the background blurrier than the similar Pixel 2 shot. Note the odd dark/light patterns in the out-of-focus highlights though. This is commonly seen in out-of-focus highlights on iPhone shots, but not on the Pixel’s shots.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/209sec 4.459mm ISO 50

The background is a bit less blurred vs. the iPhone shot, probably largely because of the shorter focal length. Note the algorithm has mistook the bike’s steerer tube as part of the background (or foreground). Note the slightly darker centers in the out-of-focus highlights. More on this in the next photo…

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/209sec 4.459mm ISO 50

Lenses in smartphones have complex aspherical elements in them, which can lead to somewhat unpleasant disc-shaped blur that lends itself to things like donut-hole and generally ‘busy’ bokeh. Portrait mode helps mitigate this effect by blurring background and foreground pixels enough that these odd effects are essentially ‘evened out’. But not perfectly: the pixels in the dark rings in the center of each OOF highlight are still replaced by translucent (larger) discs of the same color, meaning there will still be some dark translucent circles in those areas. It’s subtle, since most of the pixels in those OOF highlights are light, not dark, but it’s still there if you look for it (in the previous photo).

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/120sec 6.6mm ISO 320

Two things of note in this iPhone shot here: (1) note the patterning within the out-of-focus highlights (it’s not a uniform disc) and (2) the blown highlights on the wood since HDR is shy to activate in Portrait Mode. Often tapping on the bright overexposed portion in your preview will darken the image enough to force the iPhone to turn on its HDR mode, but results can be inconsistent. The Pixel 2 cameras in comparison are always operating in HDR+ mode, even in Portrait mode, and are less prone to this.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 89

Note the far better exposure vs. the iPhone: HDR+ ensured the wood in Portrait mode shot did not blow out.

Also, note the brightest out-of-focus highlight, just to the left of the plant. It does *not* have a darker middle as we saw in the bike shot. This is because in the original shot (next photo), this highlight is completely blown, so the algorithm isn’t starting with the donut-hole disc we saw in the out-of-focus yellow lights in the bike shot. Completely blown out-of-focus highlights will look smooth and uniform – more so than with the iPhone 8.*

*It’s important to keep in mind that since the blurs are largely algorithms, some aspects of the bokeh may be updated simply by software updates. The comments we’re making throughout here are only really applicable for the software versions we shot the images with.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 89

Note the three major out-of-focus highlights just to the left of the plant. The darker ones show donut-hole bokeh but are dim enough that they get completely blurred into surrounding pixels in the Portrait mode shot (previous photo). The blown out-of-focus highlight to the left of them gets blurred to a pleasing uniform disc, without a dark center (which was not the case in the yellow out-of-focus highlights in the bike shot, which had slightly darker centers).

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 218

Sometimes, with very close-up objects, we’ve noticed the Pixel 2 cameras do not blur the background much, if at all. Compare this Portrait image to the original image (next photo).

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 218

Non blurred version of previous image. It’s not much different. We haven’t noticed this issue with the iPhone.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/120sec 6.6mm ISO 200

The sprouts in the back cause artifacts in this image (see next image for comparison). This can happen with dual camera setups, since the two cameras often see very shifted stereo pairs for close objects. If the two cameras see two different things at what it thinks is the same location in the shot, this can cause artifacts not as easily caused from less separated stereo pairs (although lower separation comes with its share of issues as well).

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 127

The Pixel 2 cameras’ stereo pair viewpoints are less than 1mm apart (roughly the diameter of the lens), and appear to have fewer issues with artifacts when shooting close-up objects against farther backgrounds. Since overall stereo disparity in the pair isn’t drastic, there’s less of a chance that the two perspectives see different things at the same image location. Note the sprouts here don’t get blurred oddly as in the iPhone image.

Also note the progressive blur in the bread, with the closer parts of the bread less blurred than the further parts. This is because Google uses the stereo pair of images to generate an actual depth map. The subject in focus shows no stereo disparity, objects progressively behind show more and more disparity while objects in front show more disparity but in the *opposite* direction. This is how the algorithms can generate essentially a ‘heat map’ of further and further behind the subject (or in front) from which it decides how much blur to apply to each pixel.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/60sec 6.6mm ISO 320

The iPhone version of this shot has more blown highlights than the Pixel 2 version, presumably because HDR did not kick on automatically.

Also, there are more depth map errors around the subject’s hair, again possibly because of how close to the camera she is (where the two cameras are likely to see different things at the same image location).

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 147

The Pixel 2 version of this shot has far fewer depth map errors around our subject, particularly her hair.

Also, since HDR+ is always active on Pixel 2 cameras, the captured dynamic range is far higher.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/120sec 6.6mm ISO 32

We found the iPhone to struggle a little more with autofocus in backlight and low light, but it did nail focus here for the most part.

Interestingly, the iPhone appears to preserve more of the out-of-focus highlights in the background than the Pixel 2 (next photo).

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/867sec 4.459mm ISO 50

The Pixel 2 appeared to struggle less with autofocus than the iPhone 8 Plus, nailing it here.

Of note though is that the Pixel 2 appears to have preserved fewer of the out-of-focus highlights (‘bokeh balls’ as we call them here around the office), or at least dimmed them compared to the more obvious ones in the iPhone shot. We wonder if this has something to do with the HDR+ algorithm, but are purely speculating.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/60sec 6.6mm ISO 250

Often, the iPhone 8 Plus in Portrait Mode would overexpose high contrast scenes, instead of activating HDR mode. HDR seemed reticent to activate in Portrait mode, leading to the blown highlights on faces here.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/120sec 6.6mm ISO 160

Tapping on the blown highlights resets dims the exposure and often forces HDR mode to activate. The Pixel 2 phones don’t have this issue, as they’re always operating in HDR+ mode.

Once exposure is adjusted though, the result is a very well-lit image with nice colors and convincing background blur.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 52

Since the Pixel 2 cameras are always operating in HDR+ mode, blown highlights are well-controlled here resulting in a well-exposed image. Sometimes with very high contrast scenes, though, HDR+ images can start looking a bit ‘crunchy’ (the same thing happens in HDR merging software depending on the ‘radius’ setting).

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/120sec 6.6mm ISO 25

Here the iPhone 8 Plus produces a more pleasing result, with fewer depth map artifacts. It also preserves the warm tone of the sunset scene. Auto White Balance was generally stable and produced desirable results across many different shooting scenarios on the iPhone 8 Plus.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/1560sec 4.459mm ISO 86

The Pixel 2 cameras often show rather extreme variation in White Balance from shot to shot. Quite often, it neutralizes color casts too much: for example, here, it should have chosen a white balance closer to Daylight instead of neutralizing the warm sunset tones.

Also, when tones in the background and foreground are very similar, depth map errors can result. Note the errors around the hair of our subject, which might have been hard to distinguish from the dark trees in the background.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/1560sec 4.459mm ISO 61

Another example of depth map errors due to objects possibly appearing to similar to one another. Look at the artifacts around the hair on the right side of our subject and around her sunglasses. Next, look at how these regions might appear similar to one another in a lower resolution depth map by comparing to the un-blurred image (next photo)

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/1560sec 4.459mm ISO 61

You can see the areas of the blurred photo (previous) that contained artifacts are regions where the foreground and background (the hair vs. tree branches; the sunglasses vs. the dark background) might appear indistinguishable as you try and build a lower resolution depth map.

Another possibility is errors in segmentation, the process of identifying the entire foreground subject using machine learning.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 281

For such a complex scene, the Pixel 2 did remarkably well, choosing to blur more than the iPhone in this case (next photo).

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/60sec 6.6mm ISO 800

The iPhone also does well, but here keeps more foreground leaves in focus before extremely defocusing the farther background.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 281

Note the progressive blur: objects further in the background are blurred more than objects closer. This is because the depth map is generated from actual stereo measurements of how far an object is from the focus plane.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/60sec 6.6mm ISO 500

Apple quoted with the iPhone 7 that it calculates 9 different layers when making its depth map. It presumably does so by a process of precalibration, where certain stereo disparities from the focus plane correlate with certain distances from it. We wonder if this might be why sometimes the subject looks somewhat cut-out from a far away background, if there aren’t enough objects behind the subject that fall within those 8 layers (or however many Apple is now using) before that 9th (hyperfocal or infinity) one.

Either that or the masking in this photo makes the subject look somewhat cut-out (see around the hair).

It’s impressive though that the arm rest in front of our subject is properly blurred.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 207

The blur in this image looks more natural and progressive to us. The colors leave a bit to be desired though, with somewhat desaturated, greenish skintones.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 159

This looks more natural to us than the ‘cut-out’ look of the iPhone image, interestingly. However, what’s odd is the color tuning, which is different from the front-facing camera (next photo).

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/60sec 6.6mm ISO 400

We can’t help but feel our subject appears more ‘cut out’ against the background here. We wonder if this has something to do with the number of layers of depth mapping, or a suboptimal masking process (around the hair particularly).

Skintones are more pleasing than with the Pixel 2 image, though.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F2.4 1/60sec 3.38mm ISO 149

The front facing camera oddly has a different color tuning than the back camera and, arguably, a bit more pleasing. Skintones are more magenta as opposed to the cool, sometimes greenish skintones with the rear camera.

It’s worth noting the iPhone 8’s front camera cannot do Portrait mode. The Pixel 2’s front camera does not have a dual-pixel sensor on its front camera, so performs this blur simply through a process of segmentation. That’s where machine learning comes in. Google trained a ‘convolutional neural network’ with nearly a million images of people (‘and their hats, sunglasses, and ice cream cones’ according to Principal Engineer Marc Levoy) to learn which pixels belong to people vs. not.

And impressive result, given the lack of a depth map. You won’t get the progressive gradual blur you get with the real camera, but for selfies this is probably ‘good enough’.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/60sec 4.459mm ISO 382

I’ve included this here because I just wouldn’t have expected a smartphone to generate an image like this if you were to ask me just a year or two ago. In low light, dual-pixel AF got focus (it’s a little soft because Portrait mode uses a digital crop, then upscales), and foreground and background blur are both well controlled. Look at the progressive foreground blur on the right side of the plastic food table.

The image remains clean thanks to multi-image averaging, while using 1/60s indoors to ensure at least some sharp shots of even a toddler.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/60sec 6.6mm ISO 1250

The iPhone’s F2.8 aperture in Portrait mode (and smaller sensor), and likely the lack of the 9-frame image averaging HDR+ uses on the Pixel 2 results in many unusable Portrait mode images in low light. Compare this shot to the Pixel 2 one next…

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/60sec 4.459mm ISO 258

The use of a faster aperture (and likely larger sensor even after the digital crop) and 9-frame image averaging of HDR+ generally yields far more pleasing low light portraits on the Pixel 2 than on the iPhone 8 Plus.

HDR+ uses intelligent tile-based image alignment that can keep even moving subjects sharp by selecting appropriate ’tiles’ from the sharper images of the subject within the 9-frame buffer used for a single shot. That’s right, the camera is constantly shooting 9 full-resolution images at a minimum of 60 times a second – which also ensures zero shutter lag.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2
F1.8 1/60sec 4.442mm ISO 213

We’ve found some depth map errors can occur around high contrast edges. Note the dark rails surrounded by light backgrounds can cause problems. Still, this is a heck of a pleasing image of constantly moving toddler… taken indoors on a smartphone.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/3344sec 4.459mm ISO 51

Running toddler. Focused (well enough). Isolated from the background. Taken on a smartphone.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/294sec 6.6mm ISO 20

This is a good example of progressive blur with the iPhone 8 Plus. Note how the grass only a bit behind the subject is less blurred than the grass far behind the subject.

Furthermore, in this scenario, HDR did kick in in Portrait mode quite often, resulting in even exposures.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/5848sec 4.459mm ISO 61

This is another good example of the progressive blur thanks to the depth map on the Pixel 2: while all the grass and the background looked pretty much in focus in the original, the grass nearer to the subject is blurred less than the grass further away.

There are some artifacts around the subject’s hair, but that’s not surprising considering she was running toward me while I was running backward. The Pixel 2’s superior Dual Pixel AF allowed me to get the right moment more easily – it’s often as fast and responsive as a high-end ILC – while the iPhone 8 Plus would often experience a re-focusing lag after pressing the shutter button.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/585sec 6.6mm ISO 20

The extra telephoto reach of the iPhone is useful for further compressing foreground and background (and magnifying the background), which can be useful. The iPhone 8 Plus also tended to render more pleasing blue sky tones, and saturation generally.

And remember, since you’re shooting HEIF, you get extra storage space savings, and the advantages of 10-bit files with support for more colors thanks to the wide gamut P3 capture. Encoding in P3 gives the cameras a wider color palette to work with after Raw capture.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/2342sec 4.459mm ISO 51

Naturally there’s less compression with the Pixel phones due to their wider angle camera used in Portrait mode, but I quite like wide-angle portraiture.

Note the overall lower saturation, and somewhat bland skies. This is up to personal preference, but one thing to note is the Pixel cameras only output sRGB images. This means the color palette with which the camera can ‘draw’ is limited compared to recent iPhones. Google probably chose this method for now because sRGB is a good standard for most people, and Google doesn’t have a key advantage Apple has: a proper ecosystem. Apple is implementing P3 displays in all its devices, from its iPads to its Macbook Pros to its iMacs. That means you’ll actually be able to enjoy those extra colors in those P3 images – if they’re there – across all Apple devices.

The movie industry has already accepted P3 as the new standard (think of it like Adobe RGB but with more saturated reds, yellows and greens, but a little less cyan-green and cyan saturation). The video industry is eventually aiming for an even larger gamut: Rec.2020, which is only a bit smaller than ProPhoto RGB, and it’s great to see Apple pushing the stills industry to adopt it as well.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Sony a7R II
F1.8 1/4000sec 55mm ISO 100

Just for fun, we’ve included this full frame 55/1.8 shot. On a high resolution screen, or viewed at 1:1, the quality is obviously far above what either smartphone can produce. But flip to the next image and view it at an image level. For many people, the Pixel 2’s result is good enough. Especially for a device you have on you at all times that requires just one button press to take a well exposed, focused photo.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/4673sec 4.459mm ISO 62

Compared to the full-frame F1.8 previous shot, for many people this result will be good enough. Especially for a one button-press device you always have on you. Just be careful: don’t pixel peep.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/168sec 6.6mm ISO 20

The iPhone’s result is smudgier with more artifacts around the hair, but the blur and colors are quite pleasing.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/252sec 4.459mm ISO 51

Compared to the iPhone 8 Plus shot of this same scene, the Pixel 2 retains far more detail than the iPhone shot. This is likely due to its HDR+ mode that is always using multi-image averaging, therefore requiring less noise reduction. The iPhone shot (next) in comparison looks like it’s had a lot of noise reduction applied to it, at the cost of detail.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/120sec 6.6mm ISO 160

The smaller aperture on the iPhone combined with the less (or none at all) multi-frame image averaging in Portrait mode than the Pixel 2’s 9 shots means the iPhone 8 Plus uses more noise reduction than the Pixel 2. The result: a far smudgier image under the same (yet bright) conditions with far less detail.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/17sec 4.459mm ISO 413

In low light, HDR+ on the Pixel 2 ensures decent noise levels by aligning and averaging multiple images.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 8 Plus
F2.8 1/60sec 6.6mm ISO 1250

The combination of F2.8 and the requirement of 1/60s to avoid camera shake (no OIS on the telephoto lens), and possibly not as advanced multi-frame noise averaging as the Pixel 2 leaves a lot to be desired in low-light portraits on the iPhone.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone 5c
F2.4 1/20sec 4.12mm ISO 50

This is in here to remind us of how far smartphone cameras have come. Compare this iPhone 5c image to the Pixel 2 image (next)…

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/120sec 4.459mm ISO 215

Indoors, but only what should be blurred is blurred! The subject is sharp and in focus, with a blurred background, thanks to a fast shutter speed, HDR+ multi-image averaging with alignment so not much noise reduction is required, and a proper depth map to gradually blur subjects further from the focus plane.

And having this sort of a camera in your pocket at all times means you can capture fleeting moments like when your daughter doesn’t want you to leave for work.

Imagine what’s to come…

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

iPhone X
F2.4 1/60s ISO 320

We’ll leave you with one final comparison to whet your appetite for our next shootout: the iPhone X vs. Pixel 2. This is an iPhone X shot and it’s immediately obvious that the camera on the X does a better job at ‘cutting around’ hair, people and objects than the 8 Plus. Our best guess as to why is that perhaps it generates a higher resolution depth map, but that’s pure speculation. It’s repeatably better, though, at making heads look less cut out from the background.

Compared to the 8 Plus, OIS and F2.4 (compared to F2.8) on the telephoto lens both help Portrait mode on the X. Compared to the Pixel 2 shot of the same scene (next slide), the out-of-focus highlights are rendered more specular, and the colors are more pleasing.

Portrait mode shootout: iPhone 8 Plus vs Google Pixel 2

Pixel 2 XL
F1.8 1/60sec ISO 233

The Google Pixel 2 XL shot of the same scene results in a far more candid portrait. Not only is the image sharper with more detail than the similar iPhone X shot, it’s closer to the shot I wanted. I was able to capture this fleeting hug instantaneously due to the fast autofocus. The previous iPhone X shot looks more posed and less candid because inside the Apple Store here, lighting was dim enough that the iPhone X was often slower at acquiring focus.

To our knowledge, Apple’s ‘Dual PDAF’ technology only dedicates roughly ~4% of its sensor’s pixels to AF. The Pixel 2’s Dual Pixel AF technology uses most of its sensor for AF, pixel binning to read out a low resolution, but also low noise, set of ‘left-looking’ vs ‘right-looking’ images. The 9-frame HDR+ buffer also helps reduce the noise for these sets of images, making autofocus in challenging situations vastly superior to any other smartphone we’ve tested.

The colors, on the other hand, leave a lot to be desired, with greenish skintones. The out-of-focus highlights are also not as specular as the iPhone’s result.

Stay tuned for an in-depth shootout of the Pixel 2 vs. the iPhone X…

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Tips for Planning and Capturing a Creative Portrait

11 Dec

There is saying, in the photography world, that an image can be taken in a hundred different ways. This is especially true, as you have probably already noticed when capturing portraits.

Portrait photography is probably the most popular genre, within the realm of the diverse world that is the art of photography. People take portraits so frequently, snapping selfies or photos of their loved ones, with mobile phones or cameras. In any case, this is pretty much what portrait photography is all about, capturing people’s faces.

However, as photographers, you will always be striving for higher excellence, whatever the style of your photography. It’s a natural cause, this is one of the reasons why photography is artistry. The drive for capturing better images, in the field of portrait photography, will eventually lead you to a higher dimension where you won’t be satisfied with just capturing a face, but rather the soul of your subject.

creative portrait of a woman

Lonely young and beautiful woman seating in a bar, next to a piano and a bottle of champagne, of 1920s time period. The woman is dressed in 1920s black evening dress and Gatsby-style diadem on her hair, there is a large old rusted window in the background where blue evening light invades the scene.

This dimension in photography is where creativity lay hidden. It waits to be unleashed by forces such as knowledge and the inspiration gathered along the way, as you were growing as a photographer. So let’s embark on a quest which will help you harvest the power of creativity in photographing portraits and escape the ordinary.

In the list below, you’ll learn the main ingredients that will help you harvest this creative force and take you to another level with your portrait photography.

Equipment

Know the equipment you work with well. This is the baseline from where you need to start. Technical knowledge may not seem connected to art at first, but let’s examine the image below.

creative self portrait

Self-portrait with creative lighting involving a continuous light and a studio strobe.

This image was captured with a single exposure and there weren’t any alterations applied to it in Photoshop. A second curtain flash technique with slow shutter speed created the effect here. Camera White Balance was set to tungsten and the key light colored with CTO – to balance the colors with gels.

Self portrait lighting diagram

Surely you have noticed how technical knowledge and art correlate. Be it your camera settings, lens, or strobe lights, the more you know about your equipment the more options you’ll end up having to explore in bringing your artwork to realization.

Selecting the right faces, exploring your model’s hidden potential

Most photographers create their best work by working on personal projects. When working on a personal project, you’ll have the full control to choose the model sitting in front of your camera – you are the Art Director.

There are faces full of potential, although they are not faces of professional models (it could be people you see in the public transport or the streets), revealing great characters and features. You need to be able to see this potential and invite such people for a portrait photo session.

Keep in mind that although a person looks great, he or she may not feel comfortable sitting and posing for you at first. This will obviously affect the overall quality and purpose of the photo session.

Remember, as a photographer, it’s your job to bring a good vibe and mood to the set, in order to help your model relax and being able to explore his/her best features.

creative portrait of a man

Low key portrait of a black man wearing glasses and a black leather jacket, having his hands and fingers very close to his face.

In the first image above, is a man who booked a personal creative portrait session. It took four hours of working with him in order to reach a point where he was finally in the right part of his own creative universe, feeling free and exploring himself. He had never had such an experience before and was feeling quite nervous and shy at first.

The second image below is a good representation of working with a great character.

creative portrait of a man

Portrait capturing a model dressed in WWII pilot outfit holding Cuban cigar in his mouth. The creative look of this portrait has been achieved by the use of multiple strobe lights.

Lighting

Light is the very reason why photography exists. Think about light, study light – how it spreads, how it bounces, how it is reflected, its specularity, etc. There is so much to light. Light is what will be rendering the reality in front of you, by reflecting and bouncing back into your camera lens.

Light has a quality which is defined by the source, intensity, size, and color temperature of the light. The best part is that you have full access to controlling any of this. Main sources of light for photographers are:

  • Ambient light
  • Strobe light
  • Continuous light

But as you move on to the next topic, you’ll see that there is much more to light than just being available in some form.

creative portrait setup

Photographic studio setup for a portrait session, the image features Bowens strobes, a white backdrop and light modifiers.

In the image, above, can be seeing a studio strobe lighting setup for a portrait session. Some characters may require really complex lighting in order to capture their personalities. Others just require one or two light sources – it will be up to you as an artist to determine this.

creative portrait of a man

Low key portrait of a man with a ginger beard and leather jacket, the scene features dramatic and creative strobe lighting.

The portrait above was photographed with only two strobe lights – portraying very well how the most appropriate lighting was selected to illuminate and capture the mood and personality of the person. While for the image below involved the use of six strobe lights.

creative portrait of a woman

Portrait of young woman on blue background wearing a purple dress – with a creative, multiple lighting setup and approach.

Shaping the light, light modifiers

All artists use different sort of tools that help them shape the fabric of their own inspirations and bring creative ideas to life. It is the same for us photographers too.

First, there’s the light, ambient or strobe, which is the raw material you work with. But this material needs to be softened or shaped, helping you in the process of reaching deeper dimensions of your subject’s features and character.

Light shaping tools will help you define your own creative realm – the realms of Game of Shadows, Game of Highlights and Game of Midtones, where you are the master controlling and balancing what sort of reality your light will render.

creative portrait of a woman and man

Tattooed rockabilly, demon, barber holding razor blade in his dark and demonic barber shop with pinup model as his evil assistant on the background next to a bottle of Jack Daniels.

For the creation of the image above, several light shaping tools were used and some of them were even further modified in order to produce the quality of light needed in this particular situation (the image was shot at 10 am in the morning but the idea was for dark – Sweeney Todd concept)

Studio, location, and features

Another very important ingredient to the process of building unique and creative portrait images is exploring what is around you. What is available or what you can build, light and create on location or in the studio?

Although portrait images are characterized by very tightly cropped frames, around the subject’s face – attention needs to be given even to the smallest details. Such details will greatly contribute to the overall contrast within the scene you are capturing.

An example of this is when you are shooting in a studio you can use a snoot, or another light modifier, and create a spot of light or perhaps colorize your background, by placing color gels. Do not limit yourself to only thinking of the face you intend to capture, but rather on the grand scene of everything that will be captured in your composition/frame.

Following the same flow of thoughts and principles – you can turn even a simple room into a professional studio like has been done on the image below – photographed in a bedroom.

creative portrait of a man

An image featuring the founder of Vialucci media, Theo X photographed on a white background.

Things even get more challenging and interesting when shooting environmental, wide-angle portraits. A location can reveal so much about the personality of your subject and also contribute greatly to the level of creative quality in your images. All you need to do when you’re at a great location is help stylize the scene, frame well (appealing creative composition), bring the strobes in and work out the best of your models.

Props, makeup, and hair

This is a very challenging step that eventually one day you’ll take, but it is also very rewarding. By reaching the point of employing props, makeup, and a hair stylist – it will be solid evidence that a line was crossed with no option of turning back. This is the stage where you’ll be seeing beyond the ordinary qualities of your subject and looking to reach a deeper dimension – a state of creative vision.

creative portrait of a woman

A conceptual scene of a four-handed Queen seating on a throne receiving scripts from her Demon servant, and pointing at a Victorian style globe. The scene is lit by several light sources with different colors, rendering the whole scene in a very creative and original light.

creative portrait of a man

Creative portrait composite representing WWII pilot in the cockpit of his aircraft engaged in an aerial battle, with the enemy aircraft in the background.

The images above illustrate very well, the level of creativity obtained by employing props, makeup and hair into the photoshoot.

Editing and retouching

Processing or editing images has always been an integral part of the whole creative process. Although having all the advantages and power of digital technology, you shouldn’t abandon the universal rules and laws of aesthetics.

Think of retouching and editing as a process that helps you enhance the high-quality photographs you already capture and bring your creative vision to final realization. This is achieved without overdoing and diminishing the quality of your photographs.

The two images below are good examples of a photograph captured with simple lighting setup and processed just enough to clear and strengthen the subject’s appearance.

Creative portrait photography before

Before processing.

Creative portrait photography after

After processing.

Conclusion

Capturing creative images involves innovative and creative thinking – seeing things differently, thinking differently. That is why you always need to be on your own small quest for creativity, not bound only by what was covered here or elsewhere.

Come up with your own new solutions – in the process of which you only will add and improve your portrait photography.

The post Tips for Planning and Capturing a Creative Portrait by Nikolay Mirchev appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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How to Blur the Background of a Portrait Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Photoshop

25 Nov

Have you ever taken a portrait and wished that the background were just a little bit more blurry? You can address background blur in-camera by changing either your aperture or the distance of your subject from the background. However, there’s also a relatively quick way to make slight adjustments to background blur in post-processing. In this article, we’ll be walking through how to use the Magnetic Lasso tool in Photoshop to slightly blur the background of your portraits and people photography.

Getting started

First, open your desired image in Photoshop, and duplicate your background layer (Layer > Duplicate Layer). Next, select the Magnetic Lasso tool. If you’ve not used this tool recently, you may need to right-click on the original lasso tool and then click on the magnetic lasso tool from the fly-out menu.

How to Blur the Background of a Portrait Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Photoshop

Selecting the subject

Using the Magnetic Lasso tool, begin by clicking at any point right next to your subject. You’ll notice that the magnetic lasso tool begins to “stick” to what it thinks is the outline of your subject. Continue to click your mouse to create anchor points periodically all around your subject.

If the magnetic lasso tool jumps somewhere you don’t want it to go, press the delete button on your keyboard to return to your last anchor point.

How to Blur the Background of a Portrait Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Photoshop

Definitely be aware that once you’ve started using the Magnetic Lasso tool, you’re pretty committed! You won’t be able to do much else with Photoshop until you’ve either completed the lasso loop by connecting your endpoint to your starting anchor point or until you hit “Esc” on your keyboard to delete all your anchor points.

Once you’ve closed your lasso loop, navigate to Select > Modify > Feather (or Shift + F6) and feather your selection by 5-10 pixels.

How to Blur the Background of a Portrait Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Photoshop

Feather your new selection 5-10 pixels.

Invert to select the background

Next, you’ll want to invert your selection so that you’ll be blurring the background rather than your subject. To do that, navigate to Select > Inverse (or Ctrl + Shift + I). If you see a dashed outline appear around the border of your image, then you’ve correctly inverted your selection.

How to Blur the Background of a Portrait Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Photoshop

Notice where the marching ants are – if they appear like this around the outside of the image you’ve correctly inverted the selection.

Adding the blur effect

After you’ve inverted your selection, it’s time to blur the background of your image. Click on Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Next, play with the radius slider a bit.

Please keep in mind that this technique isn’t designed to take a tack sharp background and transform it to the creamy bokeh of an 85mm lens. Rather, it’s designed to slightly enhance the bokeh that you’ve already got going on in your image. As such, I usually select a radius of 5-10 pixels for the blur filter.

Don’t be afraid to play around with this a bit. Utilize the preview check box, and see what your image looks like when using different amounts for the radius!

How to Blur the Background of a Portrait Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Photoshop

Gaussian blur added.

Finishing up

Once you’ve run the Gaussian Blur filter, press Ctrl + D to deselect your image, and you’re about finished! If there are any parts of your image that are blurry and shouldn’t be, go ahead and add a layer mask to your top layer, and mask off any of those blurry areas, and then you’re finished!

How to Blur the Background of a Portrait Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Photoshop

Original image on top; image blurred with magnetic lasso tool on the bottom.

As you can see, this technique is subtle, and helps to soften (but not eliminate) slightly distracting elements from the background of your image. I most often find myself using this technique on one or two person portraits, including newborns. It’s a really simple trick to have in your tool bag!

Have you ever utilized the magnetic lasso tool for people photography? What’s your favorite way to use it? Chime in below and tell us in the comments section.

The post How to Blur the Background of a Portrait Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Photoshop by Meredith Clark appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Portrait of a robot takes 3rd place in prestigious Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize

23 Nov

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 Winners Announced

A portrait of an android woman has beaten over 5,700 pictures of humans to take third place in this year’s prestigious Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize. The portrait of Erica secured Finnish photographer Maija Tammi the £2,000 third place in the competition, as well as the £5,000 John Kobal award for a photographer under the age of 35.

First place in the contest was awarded to Spanish journalist and documentary photographer Cesar Dezfuli, who received £15,000 for his striking portrait of a 16-year-old Malian migrant, Amadou Sumaila, rescued from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya. The picture was taken as part of a project covering the activities of a search and rescue vessel working in the central Mediterranean looking for migrants in trouble.

A similar theme runs through the second placed picture, taken by Abbie Trayler-Smith. She was working for Oxfam outside Mosul as the population was fleeing the crisis in the city caused by the so-called Islamic State. Her image was shot as part of a series documenting the effect of war on women, called Women in War: Life After ISIS.

Tammi’s 3rd placed portrait of the android Erica was taken in a research laboratory in Osaka University. Erica is a highly advanced robot with artificial intelligence that is said to extend to the expression of a range of emotions. The picture is part of a series called One Of Them Is Human, which compares robots to humans and explores what it means to be alive. The judges were not told that Erica is a robot until after the winners were chosen.

As part of her John Kobal award, Tammi also gets to shoot a commission for the National Portrait Gallery.

This year’s competition attracted entries from 2,423 photographers across 66 countries and 5,717 images in total—59 of those, including the winning pictures, will be shown in an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London until the 8th of February. Full priced tickets cost £6, while gallery members get in for free.

For more information see the National Portrait Gallery website.

Press Release

CÉSAR DEZFULI WINS TENTH ANNIVERSARY TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE 2017 FOR HIS PORTRAIT OF A RESCUED MIGRANT

César Dezfuli has won the Tenth Anniversary Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 for his portrait of a migrant rescued in the Mediterranean Sea off the Libyan coast, the National Portrait Gallery has announced. The £15,000 award was presented to the Spanish photographer at an awards ceremony on Tuesday 14 November 2017.

His sitter Amadou Sumaila, a sixteen-year-old from Mali, was photographed in the Mediterranean Sea, in international Waters 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast. He has since been transferred from a rescue vessel to a temporary reception centre for migrants in Italy. The portrait was taken as part of Dezfuli’s work as a freelancer, documenting the search and rescue of migrants on board an NGO vessel in the Central Mediterranean Route.Dezfuli, who was born in Madrid of Persian descent (10.01.1991), works as journalist and documentary photographer, and focuses on issues of migration, identity and human rights.

‘I think Amadou’s portrait stands out because of the emotions it transmits,’ says Dezfuli. ‘He had just been rescued by a European vessel, apparently fulfilling his dream. However, his look and his attitude show fear, mistrust and uncertainty, as well as determination and strength.’

Judges’ comments: ‘Against the balance and precision of Dezfuli’s composition, the directness of Sumaila’s gaze is striking and unsettling. The portrait powerfully conveys his loss, solitude and determination.’

The winner of the £3,000 Second Prize is Abbie Trayler-Smith for her photograph of a girl fleeing ISIS in Mosul, Iraq. Trayler-Smith was there undertaking a commission for Oxfam documenting the camp where the charity was providing aid, talking to women who had lived under ISIS who were prepared to be photographed.

The winner of the £2,000 Third Prize and the John Kobal New Work Award for a photographer under 35, is Maija Tammi from Finland for her portrait of a Japanese android called Erica. This is the first time in the competition’s history that one of the photographers shortlisted for a prize has also won the John Kobal New Work Award which offers a cash prize of £5,000 to include undertaking a commission to photograph a sitter for the Gallery’s Collection.

The winning portraits will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 exhibition from 16 November 2016 to 8 February 2017. While the photographs are judged anonymously from prints this was the first year in which the competition permitted digital entries for the initial sift.
The prize-winning photographs and those selected for inclusion in the exhibition were chosen from 5,717 submissions entered by 2,423 photographers from 66 countries.

£3,000 Second Prize: Abbie Trayler-Smithfor Fleeing Mosul from the series Women in War: Life After ISIS

Abbie Trayler-Smith (20.05.1977) is a documentary and portrait photographer born and raised in South Wales. Travelling extensively her work covers women’s rights, social development and the aftermath of conflict. Her shortlisted photograph was shot outside Hasan Sham IDP camp in Northern Iraq. Trayler-Smith was there undertaking a commission for Oxfam documenting the camp where the charity was providing aid, talking to women who had lived under ISIS who were prepared to be photographed. A convoy of buses arrived from Mosul, bringing people to safety who had escaped the battle just hours before. ‘I just remember seeing her face looking out at the camp,’ says Trayler-Smith,’ and the shock and the bewilderment in her’s and other’s faces and it made me shudder to imagine what living under ISIS had been like. To me the uncertainty in her face echoes the faces of people having to flee their homes around the world and references a global feeling of insecurity.’

Judges’ comments: ‘The colour and texture of the portrait has a painterly quality, created by the mud-streaked glass through which the young woman is framed. Her haunting expression quietly suggests the unimaginable horrors of life under occupation.’

£2,000 Third Prize and £5,000 John Kobal New Work Award: Maija Tammi for One of Them Is a Human #1 (Erica: Erato Ishiguro Symbiotic Human-Robot Interaction Project.)

The winner of the Third Prize and the £5,000 John Kobal New Work Award is Maija Tammi(05.06.1985) a Finnish artist, with a background in photojournalism, whose photographs engage with science and aesthetics. Tammi’s work has been exhibited in Europe, North America and Asia. She regularly works with scientists and is currently finishing her studio-art-based doctoral thesis. Tammi’s sitter is Erica, a highly advanced robot, programmed by her creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, to understand and respond to a range of questions and is able to express different emotions via dozens of pneumatic actuators embedded beneath her silicone skin. One of Them Is a Human #1 is part of a broader series which presents androids alongside one human and asks questions about what it means to be alive. The photograph was taken at Ishiguro Laboratory, Department of Systems Innovation at Osaka University, in an experiment room where researchers work with Erica. ‘I had half an hour with Erica and a young researcher in which to take the photograph. The researcher told me that Erica had said she finds Pokemon Go scarier than artificial intelligence.’

Judges’ comments: ‘During the judging process, only the title of each portrait is revealed. It was unclear whether the girl was a human or an android, and this ambiguity made the portrait particularly compelling. Tammi’s portrait offers a provocative comment on human evolution.’

The John Kobal New Work Award is given to a photographer under thirty-five whose work has been selected for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition. The winner receives a cash prize of £5,000 to include undertaking a commission to photograph a sitter connected with the UK film industry for the Gallery’s Collection.

The annual Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition is one of the most prestigious photography awards in the world and showcases new work that has been submitted by some of the most exciting contemporary photographers. Since the international competition began in 1993, it has remained a hugely important platform for portrait photographers and offers an unparalleled opportunity for celebrated professionals, emerging artists and amateurs alike. The competition is in its tenth year of sponsorship by Taylor Wessing.

The competition judges have no knowledge of the identity of the entrants, and the diversity of styles in the exhibition reflects the international mix of entries as well as photographers’ individual and varied approaches to the genre of portraiture. For the third time, photographers were encouraged to submit works as a series in addition to stand-alone portraits, and there was no minimum size requirement for prints. For the second year running, the rules also allow photographers to submit photographs on different supports to the competition – to encourage the demonstration of a range of different photographic processes.

Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery, says: ‘Many congratulations to all the prize-winners and selected photographers for their remarkable portraits. I hope that visitors to this tenth anniversary Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize will enjoy this exhibition of the very best contemporary photography from around the world.’

Tim Eyles, Managing Partner, Taylor Wessing LLP, says: ’Our huge congratulations to everyone shortlisted in this exceptional exhibition, and most especially to the winners. As a law firm we believe strongly in the importance of creativity in bringing solutions to our clients’ business challenges. Encouraging creativity in all of us is at the heart of our philosophy, and what better way than through immersion in the arts. We are privileged to be able to support the Gallery and this remarkably talented community of artists and look forward to doing so for many years to come.’

The competition was judged from original prints by Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Chair (Director, National Portrait Gallery, London); Dr David Campany (Writer, Curator and Artist); Tim Eyles, Managing Partner, Taylor Wessing LLP; Dr Sabina Jaskot-Gill (Associate Curator, Photographs, National Portrait Gallery, London); Fiona Shields (Head of Photography, The Guardian) and Gillian Wearing (Artist.)

The exhibition also features an In Focus display of previously unseen prints from a new body of work by the photographer, Todd Hido, who is known for juxtaposing mysterious and cinematic ruminations on the American landscape alongside portraits of women, which together speak of a fragmented and personal memory of the past. Hido will be the third In Focus artist, selected by National Portrait Gallery curators, following Cristina de Middel in 2016 and Pieter Hugo in 2015. In Focus is an annual showcase for new work by an internationally renowned photographers.

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017

16 November 2017 – 8 February 2018

Tickets with donation Full price £6 / Concessions £4.50; Tickets without donation Full price £5 / Concessions £3.50 (Free for Members and Patrons) Supported by Taylor Wessing #photoprize

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 Winners Announced

Photo by César Dezfuli

AMADOU SUMALIA

César Dezfuli
From the series Passengers
Inkjet print, August 2016
First Prize £15,000

On 1 August 2016, more than one hundred people were rescued from the Mediterranean Sea, twenty nautical miles from the Libyan coast. On board the rescue vessel, photojournalist César Dezfuli was documenting the plight of migrants as they tried to escape war, persecution and poverty. The portrait shows Amadou Sumaila, a sixteen-year-old from Mali, who was later transferred to a reception centre in Italy. ‘I think Amadou’s portrait stands out because of the emotions it transmits,’ says Dezfuli. ‘He had just been rescued by a European vessel, apparently fulfilling his dream. However, his look and his attitude show fear, mistrust and uncertainty, as well as determination and strength.’

César Dezfuli (b.1991) graduated in journalism and audio-visual communication from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain followed by a postgraduate qualification in photojournalism. His work documenting human rights issues has been published in numerous magazines and has been seen in group exhibitions in 2017 including First Prize in the Head On Photo Festival 2017 Portrait Category, and awards at the International Photographer of the Year Awards and the Moscow Foto Awards.

Judges Comments: Against the balance and precision of Dezfuli’s composition, the directness of Sumaila’s gaze is striking and unsettling. The portrait powerfully conveys his loss, solitude and determination.

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 Winners Announced

Photo by Abbie Trayler-Smith

FLEEING MOSUL

Abbie Trayler-Smith

From the series Women in war: Life after ISIS
Colour coupler print, November 2016
Second Prize: £3,000

This portrait by documentary photographer Abbie Trayler-Smith was made outside the Hasan Sham camp for internally displaced people in northern Iraq during an assignment for Oxfam. A convoy of buses had just arrived, bringing people to safety from the intense fighting in Mosul. She says, ‘I remember seeing the shock and bewilderment in the woman’s face as she looked out at the camp from the window. It made me shudder to imagine what living under ISIS must have been like.’

Abbie Trayler-Smith (b.1977) studied law at King’s College London. In her photographic career she is best known for covering stories concerning women’s rights, social development and the aftermath of conflict for national newspapers, charities and NGOs. Her work has been seen in numerous publications and in group exhibitions. She won First Prize in the Ideastap Magnum Photographic Award 31+ 2014, Second Prize Staged Portraits in the World Press Photo Awards 2014 and won Fourth Prize in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010.

Judges’ comments: The colour and texture of the portrait has a painterly quality, created by the mud-streaked glass through which the young woman is framed. Her haunting expression quietly suggests the unimaginable horrors of life under occupation.

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 Winners Announced

Photo by Maija Tammi

ONE OF THEM IS A HUMAN #1 (ERICA: ERATO ISHIGURO SYMBIOTIC HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION PROJECT)

Maija Tammi

Inkjet print, December 2016
Third Prize: £2,000 and £5,000 John Kobal New Work Award

The winner of the £2,000 Third Prize and the John Kobal New Work Award for a photographer under 35, is Maija Tammi from Finlandfor her portrait of a Japanese android called Erica. Erica is a highly advanced robot, programmed by her creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, to understand and respond to a range of questions and is able to express different emotions via dozens of pneumatic actuators embedded beneath her silicone skin. Tammi wanted the judges to consider the advancements made in artificial intelligence and the rapidly blurring lines between man and machine. ‘I wanted to question what it is to be human and what it is to be alive,’ says Tammi.

Maija Tammi (b.1985) undertook a Master of Social Sciences in visual journalism and is currently studying for a PhD in art photography at Aalto University, School of Arts Design and Architecture, Finland. Her work has been seen in group exhibitions in the US, Germany and the UK and her solo exhibition White Rabbit Fever has toured to Finland, Italy and Japan.

Judges comments: During the judging process, only the title of each portrait is revealed. It was unclear whether the girl was a human or an android, and this ambiguity made the portrait particularly compelling. Tammi’s portrait offers a provocative comment on human evolution.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Simple Tips for Positioning Your Portrait Subject to Leverage Natural Light

06 Nov

When I’m on a photo shoot, I always carry two flash guns with me. However, when it’s a family outing or holiday, the flash guns are left behind in favor of kiddie stuff I need to lug around and I shoot using purely natural light, without even a reflector to help. It does help that I carry a prime lens that opens up to f/1.4 should I need or want to shoot indoors.

Here are my tips for making portraits using purely natural light.

On a sunny day, there is so much light that it makes it quite hard to take portraits, contrary to what many would think. I generally don’t like taking portraits with the sun directly hitting the face of my subject, so that makes the job even harder on such a bright day.

Simple Tips for Positioning Your Portrait Subject to Leverage Natural Light

The first thing to be mindful of is the direction of light – is it coming from overhead, at an angle of 45 degrees or higher or lower? As you cannot physically move the sun, you are going to have to move your subject instead. Think of positioning your subject as leveraging natural light to make a pleasing portrait.

Outdoors

Here are some outdoor scenarios where you can position your subject and avoid direct bright sunlight.

In the shade

My go-to (and easiest) spot is a shaded or sheltered area. Ideally, find a large enough shaded area so that your entire subject is covered in shade. You don’t want dappled light or parts of the body overexposed by being in the sun while the rest of the person is in the shade.

Areas of shade could be under a tree or in the shadow of a tall structure such as the wall of a building as in the photo on the left below. This gives you even lighting over a large area and even exposure too with no hard shadows.

Compare the left photo to the right one where the subject is wearing a hat. I metered on her face and because she was furthered shadowed by the hat, the exposure increased a tad and the rest of the image then got brighter. This can be evened out quite easily in post-production by adding a soft vignette.

Simple Tips for Positioning Your Portrait Subject to Leverage Natural Light

With a very bright backlight

Sometimes you find yourself at a location that doesn’t offer enough shade or there is a lack of large structures to provide shelter. You would end up shooting in a bright wide-open space and your only option is to shoot backlit or at least provide shade to your subject’s face.

The difficulty with shooting backlit is that you would need to have ample fill light to compensate for the very strong backlight. You can either use your camera’s built-in flash or use some kind of reflector. That could be a light-colored piece of cardboard or a natural reflector in the vicinity, such as a bright path or wall that reflects strong sunlight back onto your subject’s face.

Shooting in an open or semi-open space, like the black and white photo above, where the backlight is a lot stronger than the light illuminating the subject it gets complicated. Unless you are using a flash to counteract the backlight, the background will be blown out. Even if you shoot with a small aperture, the difference in the amount of light between the subject and the background will be too great to get an even exposure without using a fill flash.

Natural reflectors

In the photo below, this was not taken in a fully open space but the shade there was weaker. The hat provided more shade to her face and you can see the left side is a little darker than the right. That makes for a nice gradation of light and shadow as opposed to a flatly-lit portrait.

I leveraged a natural reflector here which was just to camera right – a light colored parasol which reflected the sun onto the girl’s face. You can also see that the background was a lot brighter and more washed out compared to the first photo above left. But it is showing some foliage compared to the photo above right, hence there is more detail rather than just a white blown out sky.

When I find myself in situations like these, I make sure my main focus is the subject’s face and I don’t mind the background being blown or washed out. After all, I am after a portrait of the subject.

Simple Tips for Positioning Your Portrait Subject to Leverage Natural Light

Light from above

Compare the two photos below. The left photo is shot with fairly flat lighting on the face. I made sure the subject was in full shade and the light coming from both the right and left sides was even.

The photo on the right is different in that I asked her to look up a little, thus using the light coming from above and creating a slight gradation of shadow on the right side of her face. Simple positioning of the face in relation to the light source makes a big difference in how your photos look.

Simple Tips for Positioning Your Portrait Subject to Leverage Natural Light

Indoor lighting

In comparison to outdoors, there is usually only a fraction of the amount of light indoors, even with a window present. However, this works to your advantage. The light source is usually one-directional unless you have many windows, and therefore you can use this it to sculpt your subject’s face as it were, choosing where the shadows will fall and creating a moody portrait.

The light in the photo below left was coming from a big window, high up at about 30 – 45 degrees to the subject. You can see the shadow falling on the opposite side of her nose and cheeks creating a darker, moodier feel to the image compared to the photo on the right shot outdoors. Even with just a single light source indoors, you have enough light to play with and create the ambiance you want to portray.

Simple Tips for Positioning Your Portrait Subject to Leverage Natural Light

Over to you

Whether indoors or outdoors, it is always important to be mindful of where the light is coming from, how much light there is, and if there is any contrast of light and shade in the space. Knowing how to leverage the natural light allows you to create the type of mood you are after in your portrait.

Understanding this and practicing how to use available light will make you a better photographer.

The post Simple Tips for Positioning Your Portrait Subject to Leverage Natural Light by Lily Sawyer appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Video: The story behind Albert Watson’s iconic Steve Jobs portrait

31 Oct

Albert Watson is one of the best, and best-known portraitists in the world, and in this video by Profoto he tells the story behind one of his most iconic shots: THE portrait of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

It’s a photo that you have no doubt seen—be it on the Apple homepage the day Jobs passed, or on the cover of Walter Isaacson’s biography of the tech giant—but the story behind it takes just 2 minutes to tell. Watson explains how he instantly earned Jobs’ cooperation, how he got Jobs to look into the camera with his trademark intensity, and how the portrait came to adorn the Apple website on the day Jobs passed away.

Hear the story from Watson himself in the video above.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

24 Oct

Macphun’s Luminar is a versatile beast. While a lot is made of processing landscapes and cityscapes, you find it also happens to be a very capable portrait editor. Follow along with this walkthrough to see how I use Luminar to edit a portrait.

Getting Started

Open your photo in Luminar. As you’ll be using more of a layer based workflow than presets for now, turn off the presets panel by clicking on the second last icon in the upper right of your screen. You’ll get more space and more of the image to work with this way.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

For your first layer (as well as with further layers), you’ll need to click the Add Filter button to add controls. You can have as many filters as you like on one layer.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

Image Tonal Balance

Your first step is to improve the overall tonal balance of your portrait. This one is a little dark, but at the same time, there’s no true black in the photo. If you look at the histogram, there’s a gap at the top (right side) where the wall could be whiter. There’s also a gap at the bottom (left side) where areas like the eye pupil could be darker.

The best filter in Luminar to fix this is Tone. You can select this from the filter list that appears after you click the Add Filter button. You can also just enter the name of a filter in the Search field to find it faster if you know the name of the filter you want.

Notes: As you get comfortable with Luminar’s filters, you’ll probably find yourself using several of the same ones frequently. To make them even easier to find, click on the “star” to the left of the filter name to designate them as “favorites”. Thereafter, choose the Favorites category at the top of the Add Filters panel for speedy access to your most-used filters.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

For the dark part, you’ll drag Blacks slider down (left) to taste. For the brightness, you should use the Smart Tone slider. This really neat slider allows you to brighten the image while protecting highlights, or darken while protecting the shadows. This is better than Exposure, which will clip highlights and shadows.

The remaining sliders should be adjusted until you feel the photo looks good. You’ll see there’s a small change in Highlights and Shadows here, along with a tiny amount of Whites. The settings will, of course, be different for every image.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

At any stage, you can check your progress by clicking on the eye icon to preview, or click the Before/After view to reveal a slidable Before/After preview.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

How to preview your edits using the before and after slider.

Removing Blemishes

I know you’re thinking that my subject’s skin is flawless, but in close, there is work to do. You may have more or less to do for your portrait, but the same principles apply. You find the Clone tool on the right panel in Luminar. Clicking it will render a new layer to edit. As this is a rendered layer, it effectively means you’re not working on a raw file anymore, but as you’ve got a good balance of tones to edit, this is fine. You may want to leave this step until later if this bothers you.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

The Clone tool is on the right-side panel in Luminar.

Once the render is complete you’ll be presented with the cloning screen, asking you to “Click to set the source” (as seen below). The source is the location you’re copying to fix the area you need to work on (which is the destination). To set a different source after this, hold down the Alt/Option button and click where you want the source.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

Cloning

Next, fix under the eyes by setting your source point to the cheek below. You can quickly change the brush size, using the square bracket keys [ and ]. For adjusting the brush softness (feather) hold the shift key with the square bracket keys. For certain areas, you don’t want to eliminate the destination completely (e.g. you still want some of the lines under the eyes to look natural) so drop the opacity a bit. 50% is a good place start if you’re not sure.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

To completely wipe over an area, set your opacity to 100%. Set the brush size to just slightly larger than the blemish. Choose an area that matches both the texture and brightness of the area around the blemish as your source point.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

An old retoucher’s trick is to set a low opacity (like 20%) and then brush over the image slowly, removing blemishes while sampling different areas. This can smooth out texture too much, so just take care while you do it. Click Apply when you’re done.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

In the case of my example image, there are one or two areas still to fix, but I’ll clean this up at the end of the main retouch, before applying a final finish.

Soft Glow

Next, you’ll need a new layer, as you’ll be masking off the filters you use on this layer. Masking allows you to hide areas you don’t want to be affected by the layer. Click the + sign in the Layers panel and choose Add New Adjustment Layer.

How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar

Choose Soft Glow from the Filters list for this layer. As you increase the Amount of glow, you’ll notice that it also increases the brightness of the portrait, so use the Brightness slider to reduce it. You can also increase Smoothness to taste. Portraits can also usually benefit from some added Warmth.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

Masking

You only want the effect on the skin here, so right-click on the layer and choose the Mask>Invert Mask menu. On the top right of the screen, below the Hand tool, you’ll see the Brush tool. Click it. Turn on the Eye icon in the brush controls to see where you’re painting the mask. Just paint the skin and avoid areas of detail like the eyes, eyebrows, nostrils, and mouth.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

You can paint at 100% opacity because you can decrease the overall layer opacity later if you need to.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

Eyes

Next, let’s retouch the eyes. Consider renaming layers as you work for ease (as you can see I’ve done below), but it’s not essential. Create a new Adjustment Layer and add the Details Enhancer filter. Boost each of the details sections to taste. I’ve expanded the filter section to make it more visible below (it’s not something you can do in the app).

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

Again, right-click on the layer and choose Mask>Invert Mask. Then use the Brush to paint in the iris only. If the effect is too strong, bring back the opacity of the layer in the Layers panel.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

Dodge and Burn

While it’s not a preset or filter, you can easily dodge and burn in Luminar. You need to set them up as two adjustment layers and mask them off.

Burning (darken select areas)

For burning, create a new adjustment layer and add Curves as the filter. Grab the middle of the curve and pull it down a little to darken the image. Change the Blend Mode of that layer to Luminosity. This stops the curve from adding saturation as well as contrast. Don’t forget to name the layer so you know which one it is.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

Next, you need to invert the mask as with other layers: Right-click on your Burn Layer and choose Mask> Invert Mask. The areas that you need to burn are the areas that are darker in the photo naturally or things you want to minimize. Burning helps things recede while dodging will bring them forward.

For faces, areas to burn are around the edge of the forehead, the area below the cheekbone, the neckline, the sides of the nose and the brow bone near the nose. Below shows the active mask with the areas I have burned. You want to paint with a low opacity brush (10% or so) and build up the effect. Keep turning the layer off and on to ensure you don’t overdo it. The effect should be subtle.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

If you brush in the wrong area, just hold down the Alt/Option key to turn it into the eraser temporarily. You can click the hollow circle to select the eraser tool.

Dodging (lighten select areas)

Dodging is also a new adjustment layer with a Curves filter, go ahead and add that now. But, this time you raise the middle of the curve a little.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

You can probably guess that you need to invert this mask as well! Great, you’re getting the hang of using Layers in Luminar. For dodging, you need to paint in the areas that you want to come forward. The forehead, above the cheekbone, the chin, and the front of the nose.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

If you find the effect too subtle still, raise the curve a little more. The combined dodging and burning will give more contour and shape to the face. As the last bit, you can also dodge a small crescent shape into the bottom of the iris. For my image, I’m going to do a little more cleanup with the Clone tool.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

Finishing the Look

For the final look, consider the elements of the photo and what can enhance it. This portrait is a little too saturated, so on a new adjustment layer add a Saturation/Vibrance filter and lower the Saturation to taste (I used -16 here).

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

Even though you set the Blacks right back at the beginning, fading this image would also look cool. To do this, add a Curves filter to the layer and raise the left point a little. Add a second point to restrict the effect to the darker parts of the photo.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

The final thing you can do is add the Grain filter. A small Amount will give you a little texture to give a more organic feel to the shot.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

Saving the Image

Saving the file from the File>Save menu saves a .lmnr file, which is a fully editable file, with all your layers intact. You can even save your history into this file.

To share the file with others, you have a few options. On the left of the top bar, you’ll see the standard share icon (a box with an upwards arrow). If you click it, you’ll get the available options. Export to Image will create a rendered image, while the icons available allow you to share to Email, Message, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Smugmug or 500px.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

Selecting a service will bring up a dialog for that service.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

If you choose Export to Image, you get the standard operating system browser dialog. You can choose from JPEG, GIF, JPEG2000, PNG, TIFF, PSD or PDF output. The other options change to reflect this. For web sharing, an sRGB JPEG is the best option.

How to Edit a Portrait Using Luminar

Conclusion

So that’s been a look at a variety of the tools available in Luminar to aid with editing a portrait. You can download a free trial here and give it a go. Feel free to post your results in the comments.

Disclaimer: Macphun is a dPS advertising partner

The post How to do Portrait Retouching With Luminar by Sean McCormack appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Leica is resurrecting the soft-focus Thambar 90mm F2.2 portrait lens from 1935

18 Oct

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Leica is getting into the lens resurrection game, announcing earlier today that it will bring back the Thambar-M 1:2.2/90: a portrait lens from 1935 that’s famous for exceptional spherical aberration that creates extremely soft images. The Thambar-M will be an accurate reproduction of the original lens, only this time around in the M mount instead of the L screw mount.

The lens features a 20-bladed iris that produces round, out-of-focus highlights, and only four elements arranged in three groups. Its softness comes about through uncorrected spherical aberrations that are more obvious when the lens is used wide open, and which can be emphasized via the use of an included centre spot filter that prevents axial light passing through the construction.

With the light from the centre of the lens blocked, the majority of image recording light comes from the edges where the aberration is at its strongest.

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Without the centre spot filter the lens is still soft, but becomes sharper as the aperture is closed and the aberration subsides. The barrel of the Thambar has twin aperture markings that show in white the reduced aperture values when the spot filter is used, as well as the recommended range of apertures that can be used with the filter in place.

Originally made only in a run of 3,000 in 1935, this new version will be much more widely available starting mid-November, and will cost you £5095/$ 6495. For more information see the Leica website, or read this article on the Leica blog.

Press Release

Leica Camera AG presents a modern renaissance of the classic lens – the Leica Thambar-M 1:2.2/90

A legend reborn: following the Leica Summaron-M 1:5.6/28, Leica Camera AG has further expanded its lens portfolio with the Thambar-M 1:2.2/90, the modern renaissance of another classic lens. Just like its namesake from 1935, the contemporary incarnation of the lens is distinguished by its characteristic soft-focus effect and unmistakeable bokeh. Its focal length of 90 mm is suitable for photography in a multitude of scenarios and is as good as predestined for capturing portraits with a uniquely aesthetic atmosphere that cannot be reproduced in digital postprocessing. The new Thambar-M is thus an exciting addition to the existing Leica M lens portfolio and brings photographers entirely new possibilities for creative composition.

The optical design of its ancestor remains almost unchanged in the new Thambar-M 1:2.2/90. It has therefore also inherited the characteristic properties of its predecessor. The only difference is that the four elements in three groups that make up the design have now been single-coated to protect the glass against environmental influences and surface corrosion. The 20 blades of its iris deliver a unique bokeh with perfectly round rendition of point light sources.

The soft look of the Thambar is the result of intentionally accepted under-correction of spherical aberration. This under-correction increases towards the edges of the optical system with the consequence that not only the depth of focus, but also the degree of softening can be precisely controlled by means of the stepless aperture setting. The effect is more pronounced as apertures increase, and is continually reduced as the lens is stopped down to smaller apertures.

The design of the original lens has been almost completely preserved in today’s Thambar-M 1:2.2/90. The black paint finish, the proportions of the lens and its aperture engravings in red and white correspond to the appearance of the original. In addition to this, slight modifications have been made that bring the lens into line with the current, minimalist design of modern M-Lenses. These include the knurling, the lettering and scales and the specific use of sharp edges and bevelling that underline the precision of the lens design.

‘The name Thambar has always been preceded by the adjective ‘legendary’ – rightly so. It portrays people with a wonderful aura, in a romantic way – but landscapes too are raised to a higher, incomparably aesthetic plane. The addition of a new incarnation of this classic lens to our selection of vintage lenses was one of our greatest wishes – to my great delight, this wish has now been fulfilled.’ emphasises Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, majority shareholder and chairman of the supervisory board of Leica Camera AG.

As is the case with all Leica lenses, the Leica Thambar-M 1:2.2/90 is also manufactured in strict compliance with the most stringent quality criteria. The use of only the best materials in its construction guarantee the familiar long working life of all Leica lenses. As was the case with the original lens, the lens hood, the ring of the centre-spot filter and both front and rear lens caps are made of metal. Even smallest details, like the felt lining of the lens hood and the front cap, contribute to the exceptional perceived quality of this lens. The design of the rigid lens keeper in ‘Vintage Brown’ leather is identical to that of the original from 80 years ago in almost every respect and, as in the past, the centre-spot filter can be safely and conveniently stowed away in its lid.

The Leica Thambar-M 1:2.2/90 will be on sale from mid-November 2017.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Google unveils Pixel 2 phones: Adds OIS, Dual Pixel powered Portrait Mode and more

05 Oct

Ever since the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X were announced, we’ve been waiting for Google’s response. When the original Google Pixel came out, it quickly became one of the most raved about smartphone cameras in the world… would the Pixel 2 follow suit? The short answer, at least according to Google, is yes.

Just this morning, we sat down in the SF Jazz Center and, after an hour of other updates, Google finally unveiled the 5-inch Pixel 2 and 6-inch Pixel 2 XL.

The new phones house a 12.2MP sensor with 1.4um pixels, Dual Pixel phase detect autofocus and an F1.8 lens on the back, and an 8MP camera with 1.4um pixels, fixed focus and an F2.7 lens on the front. The newer 1/2.55″ sensor is smaller than the previous-gen’s 1/2.3″ sensor, but the brighter aperture nearly perfectly compensates.* Video specs for the rear camera max out at 4K 30fps (sorry, no 4K/60p like the new iPhones) while the front camera can do up to 1080p at 30fps. The camera units are now raised above the back glass surface, which remedies the nasty flare issues the previous Pixels had.

As we hoped, the whole phone is encased in an IP67 water and dust resistant aluminum unibody, and is powered by the latest and greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.

More impressive than the base specs are how Google uses its hardware in concert with software and machine learning technology to deliver a better photography and video experience.

Instead of opting for a dual camera on the back of the phone, the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL uses just one camera, and combines this with Dual Pixel technology (split left/right pixels) and computational photography to create the now-ubiquitous fake bokeh Portrait Mode effect. And since stabilization is incredibly important, they’ve worked out how to use both optical and electronic image stabilization at the same time when you’re shooting video, which should deliver incredibly smooth footage. (more on that from San Francisco shortly…)

Unfortunately, in our brief time with the cameras so far, we discovered that Portrait mode is still not rendered live on either camera… it seems there are downsides to using a single camera instead of a dual cam setup, or in Google’s (we think correct) choice to use a more computationally intensive ‘lens’ blur as opposed to the more Gaussian (smooth) blur that Apple opts for.

Finally, no modern smartphone is complete until you look at the display your photos and videos will be viewed on.

Unfortunately, Google made no mention of color management or proper display profiles—which caused issues with the previous Pixel smartphones—but the new AMOLED (for the 5-inch model) and pOLED (for the 6-inch model) displays are wide-gamut. The Pixel 2 claims 93% DCI-P3 coverage while the Pixel 2 XL claims full 100% coverage of the same standard.

We bring this up because last year’s Pixel phones also offered a wide color gamut and high contrast ratio, thanks to their OLED display technology, but often displayed wildly inaccurate colors due to the lack of color management. It’s still possible the displays will come calibrated properly for the P3 or sRGB color spaces, but without any explicit mention of calibrated display modes that the OS automatically switches between based on the color space of the content (as Apple claims to do), we remain skeptical.

The lack of any talk of HDR display of video or photos was also a disappointment after the announcement of iPhone X’s support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision video, and HDR display of photos. The latter should make HDR photos pop on the bright contrasty OLED display of the iPhone X, rather than give them the flat tonemapped look we’re often used to. It seems Google has chosen to go the traditional method of compressing a high contrast scene into a flatter image, rather than take advantage of the HDR display capabilities of its OLED display.

We’re currently spending some time with the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL in person today at the Jazz Center, so stay tuned for our hands-on impressions as the designated photography nerds at this event.

In the meantime, you can find out more about either of these phones on the Google Store, check out our Live Blog to see what we were thinking as the announcements were going up, or argue about your Apple vs Google allegiance in the comments.

* At least for low light performance, but perhaps not dynamic range. The discussion is complicated by the use of computational photography, of course, so it’s difficult to speculate on the overall impact of the smaller sensor / brighter aperture.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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