Ask any photographer what their preferred focal length for portraiture work is, and they will probably say 85mm or maybe 135mm. Certainly, few will say 35mm or something even wider. Do you think you could shoot portraits at 16mm? This fun video follows photographers as they challenge themselves to shoot a variety of subjects at an ultra-wide focal length.
Coming to you from Becki and Chris, this great video follows them as they shoot a wide variety of subjects, all at 16mm, with perhaps the most interesting being a series of portraits. An ultra-wide angle lens is probably the last lens any portrait photographer would reach for, as they can distort the features in unflattering ways. That being said, any lens can be used for portraiture if you learn to embrace its quirks and characteristics and work with them, as each focal length can tell a story. As you will probably notice, the group uses the 16mm length generally either for environmental work or for exaggerating perspective through wide angle distortion, creating some interesting looks that simply would not be possible with a more traditional portrait lens. It's a great exercise that can help you expand your creative capabilities; check out the video above for more.
Could you shoot portraits at ISO52000 through a dirty window with hard side light using an scratched up ND filter?
Minolta Rokkor 16mm f/2.8 worked for William Eugene Smith.
Picture: Tomoko In Her Bath, Minamata, Japan, 1971.
In the early 1970s, William Eugene Smith lived with Aileen Mioko Sprauge Smith, his wife, in Minamata, Japan.
William Eugene Smith took this photo, and together with the help of Aileen Mioko Sprauge Smith and Ishikawa Takeshi, a local photographer, many other photos were taken of the effects of long term environmental industrial mercury poisoning on the local population.
Here, on the Japanese Island of Kyushu, we see an image of an outwardly healthy mother bathing her fetal-poisoned 16 year old daughter, Tomoko Uemura, grotesquely deformed, physically crippled and blind since birth due to environmental industrial mercury poisoning in the local Minamata, Japan, water supply.
This may well be the first environmental pollution photojournalism. Note also the invariable comparison to Michelangelo Buonarroti's Pieta.
The photograph is from a series on industrial pollution by William Eugene Smith and Aileen Mioko Sprauge Smith for which they jointly received the World Understanding Award USA.
William Eugene Smith, who was severely beaten by goons hired by the offending chemical company, also received the Robert Capa Gold Modal USA for "photography requiring exceptional courage and enterprise".
Minolta 16mm f/2.8 Lens
Minolta SR T 101 Camera
William Eugene Smith, one of the world's greatest photographers, shows what can be done with what he calls the "difficult-to-use-intelligently" Minolta MF Rokkor 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye lens.
Yeah, 16mm.
More at https://www.oocities.org/minoltaphotographyw/williameugenesmith.html
Peter, thank you for sharing. It is a brilliant example. 👏
Gene Smith was one of my early heros. Great photo-documentarian.