Lympa Log Leica Olympus E-330 50mm Summilux-R Portrait

Lympa Log - Leica R lenses on Olympus E-330 DSLR

Oct 7, 2007

Prime Lens Portraits Follow-up

Leica Summilux-R 50mm f1.4

The Leica Summilux-R 50mm f1.4 lens was such a fine performer (see Prev page), that I put it on the E-330 last night and went downtown, where I was hosting an exhibit of 70 photographic color and black and white prints for Eureka's "First Saturday Night Arts Alive!"

Anna was there preparing refreshments and helping me and the band outside to set up for the evening. Once again, the 50mm prime lens on the E-330 turned into a fine portrait lens!

In the office kitchen, the setting sun was right behind Anna, glowing through a fabric window blind and reflecting off the walls of the small room. The light was perfect.

I asked Anna to stand still, and she was patient enough for me to focus with the Live View Mode B 10x magnification feature, which filled the screen with her left eye. I was able to focus perfectly with the LCD.

"Don't move," I asked. With the camera braced solidly on the doorway, I carefully pressed the shutter for a few shots. Although the inside light was dim, it was balanced as nicely as any lighting setup in the studio.

Exposure at 1/15th, either f1.4 or f2 (?), 100 ISO, using RAW capture with Live View Mode B, camera braced against the doorway for both photos here.

With such bright backlight, oddly, I only needed to compensate exposure by + 0.3 EV. However, I think that the E-330 tends to overexpose with any manual lens set to wide open. That overexposure was needed anyway with such bright window backlight influencing the metering. In any case, the exposure looked great and so did Anna.

In such a dimly lit situation along with glare behind the subject, the 10x magnification feature of the E-330 was absolutely essential for a sharp photograph with the Leica Summilux-R 50mm manual focus.

After a few shots, Anna turned her head for a profile shot, which lined up the side of her face at the same focus distance as her eyes in the previous photo. Her exact expression was difficult to see with so much backlight. Intuition said this was the shot . . . click. . . .

Who says you need a fancy studio for portraits? Look for good light in any situation and take advantage of it. A versatile camera and good lens help, as also does a lovely young woman like Anna.