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Street Portraits with Shallow Depth of Field

Robert Watcher

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
A rainy day in the afternoon today, didn't stop me from heading out onto the streets of Xela, Guatemala - - - - but it did mean getting a little wet and taking a few coffee and sweets breaks here and there.

It also inspired a different approach for me today. Instead of my normal grungy, stylized method of shooting and processing my images - my choice was a cleaner Black and White look with shallower depth of field. The breaking clouds with sun peaking through at times, contributed to some nicely lit images.

My choice of gear then was to use my Olympus E-M1 with the 45mm f1.8 attached, and shoot in Monochrome (Black and White) mode in-camera. One I returned home and Imported the files into Lightroom, about all that I did to get to my final images, was fine tune the crop and tweak the contrast. For focusing I set the camera to Single Focus Point with the 9 Grid and Face and Eye Detect Enabled. I used Silent Shutter.




AP-20160912-PEM11262.jpg



AP-20160912-PEM11291.jpg



AP-20160912-PEM11298.jpg


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Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Robert Watcher said:
A rainy day in the afternoon today, didn't stop me from heading out onto the streets of Xela, Guatemala - - - - but it did mean getting a little wet and taking a few coffee and sweets breaks here and there.

It also inspired a different approach for me today. Instead of my normal grungy, stylized method of shooting and processing my images - my choice was a cleaner Black and White look with shallower depth of field. The breaking clouds with sun peaking through at times, contributed to some nicely lit images.

My choice of gear then was to use my Olympus E-M1 with the 45mm f1.8 attached, and shoot in Monochrome (Black and White) mode in-camera. One I returned home and Imported the files into Lightroom, about all that I did to get to my final images, was fine tune the crop and tweak the contrast. For focusing I set the camera to Single Focus Point with the 9 Grid and Face and Eye Detect Enabled. I used Silent Shutter.
Click to expand...



AP-20160912-PEM11262.jpg




​


AP-20160912-PEM11291.jpg



AP-20160912-PEM11298.jpg



I like the dynamic feeling here. When everything is so clearly in am focus, the mind is not given priorities. Here we immediately meet the denizens and it's so enjoyable.


I really commend the use of the 45mm and the sallow depth of field, a winning combination. Also, the workflow is so efficient that it must save many hours of processing.

Thanks for setting up this series!

Asher
 
M

Maggie Terlecki

Moderator
I love these, Robert. They subjects are so clear and yet there is just enough background to give context. Just Fantastic! Love to see more in this style.. they look great!
 
Doug Kerr

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Robert,

Robert Watcher said:
A rainy day in the afternoon today, didn't stop me from heading out onto the streets of Xela, Guatemala - - - - but it did mean getting a little wet and taking a few coffee and sweets breaks here and there.

It also inspired a different approach for me today. Instead of my normal grungy, stylized method of shooting and processing my images - my choice was a cleaner Black and White look with shallower depth of field. The breaking clouds with sun peaking through at times, contributed to some nicely lit images.
Click to expand...

These are wonderful. The shallow DoF serves these very well. But is still your eye that is your best tool.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug
 
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