Looking for advice on portrait project

[GMB]

I would like to shoot portraits of owners of small shops and business in my area for an exhibition. Ideally, I would like to use the Leica S (006) with a 35 mm lens.

The shots will be inside their business. The subjects will be either sitting or standing. These will be full body shots and the shots will also show the space where they work. I do want to shoot with natural light. The reasons for that are that I do not own strobes etc. and do not know how to use them (admittedly, both points could be overcome) and that I think for the subjects strobes would be too intimidating. Thus, in order to achieve a sufficient depth of field, I would need relatively long shutter speeds. So camera on tripod and sitters asked to be still. To some extent, I am inspired by Thomas Struth's series of family portraits, which he shot with a large format film camera.

I did some test at home with my wife as the subject (or myself with self timer). I figured that if I go above ISO 400, quality degrades (800 may still be ok but 1600 is not really usable). I also noted that shutter speeds up to 1 second are normally ok but above that you likely see motion blur because it is difficult to keep the head still. In some situations, 400 ISO and max 1 second exposure may give me enough depth of filed but in some that may not be the case. I therefore wonder whether I would be better of with the M10 and the equivalent 28mm lens, as there I can crank up the ISO. But frankly, I would prefer the S.

Any thoughts on how to shoot this project with medium format?

Thanks.

Georg

 

[Paratom]

S007 or even better S3

 

[Paratom]

Could you use some reflectors to make better use of existing light?
My feeling is - if you really want a lot of DOF it will be difficult with keeping ISO at 400 with the S006.
Maybe you can arange the settings that you do not need to stop down too much.
Also maybe shoot the first set of images (with someone you know?)with both cams and see how it works out.
Some people shoot portraits with wet plates and have exposure times of several seconds.

One thought: If Thomas Struth can do it with large format film (which has even less DOF) you should be able to do it with the S006 Also its harder to "freeze" a whole family vs 1 person in a store.

 

[darr]

As I am unfamiliar with the Leica S, I do not know if the lenses are leaf shutter. If they are leaf shutter, I would consider using an off-camera speed light and shutter drag. This way you do not have to worry too much about blurring the subject on long exposure and can control the amount of ambient light in the background. I would look into this technique as an option for environmental portraiture as I always had great success with it.

 

[P. Chong]

The Leica S lenses may have leaf shutters, most do. Leica calls it Central Shutter.

As I am unfamiliar with the Leica S, I do not know if the lenses are leaf shutter. If they are leaf shutter, I would consider using an off-camera speed light and shutter drag. This way you do not have to worry too much about blurring the subject on long exposure and can control the amount of ambient light in the background. I would look into this technique as an option for environmental portraiture as I always had great success with it.

 

[GMB]

Thanks for the input. Unfortunately, I do not have the CS lenses. I will see how things can work out.

 

[Craig Stocks]

My experience is that most shop or business settings have pretty good light. In the old days (1970’s with film) my go-to exposure for office environments was ISO 400, 1/60th at f/5.6. Even at f/11 and ISO 400 you should be around 1/15th of a second.

I would also challenge how small you really need the aperture when you’re using a wide angle from full body distances, you should get quite a bit of DOF with reasonable f/stops.

You don’t need leaf shutter lenses to “drag the shutter” since that technique uses slow shutter speeds.

 

[Shashin]

I am surprised you are getting exposure times of 1 sec at 400 ISO. Arnold Newman did natural light environmental portraits and those seemed to be under 1 sec. My experience, particularly in stores and work places with 400 ISO film, I was shooting handheld under a lot of lighting conditions at around 1/30. I would open up your aperture. A 35mm on an S should give you very usable DoF at f/4 or f/5.6. But well lit interiors, you might be able to go beyond that. You can also use composition to limit the need for small apertures.

If you are evaluating DoF at 100% monitor view, that is not going to show how people will perceive a print. I would try a test print to see the results.

 

[Shashin]

I am sure you are going to get better lighting than in an old barn, but this was shot on 400 ISO film and handheld around 1/15s to 1/30s. I can't see your conditions being worse and you are shooting a smaller format with a wider lens--this is 6x6 with a 75mm lens.

I would try a few portraits and experiment with your exposure and composition in the location. I have found projects develop with experience. And as you go through each sitting, you are going to clarify the issues more.