Text and Photos by Ugo Baldassarre
translation: Google
The excess of digital retouching and the rampant abuse of technology in the creation of pseudo-photographic images are gaining general attention in recent weeks: AIs winning photo contests, AIs inventing breathtaking scenarios and situations, AIs enhancing/combining photos to achieve new “creative” peaks. Hearing about all this Artificial Intelligence (!!) just makes me want to pick up my camera and dedicate myself to a nice old-fashioned session, dedicating myself only to obtaining a good photographic result. A beautiful and bright pre-spring day in early March and my “light” equipment were an indispensable mix to pursue this purpose.
I hadn’t seen Marina for several months; the last time was during a photography class where she modeled for me. What began as a photographer-subject collaboration has become, over time, a pleasant friendship and so this time instead of meeting for a “classic” coffee, I proposed to have a chat between one click and another.
The initial idea was to do everything with the utmost simplicity: all the kit I would use had to fit inside my shoulder strap. In recent months, driven by the enthusiasm of the arrival of the OM System OM-5 (and also thanks to a few strokes of luck in second-hand). I had bought some new lenses thinking about a specific use with the OM-5 and this was the right occasion to put them to the test.
For this occasion I therefore used the M.Zuiko 45 mm f/1,8, the 75mm f/1,8 and the M.Zuiko 20mm f/1,4 Pro
I had never yet used the OM-5 for anything other than a photographic walk (or street photography if you prefer) or private/family use and I was curious to see it in action in this area: I certainly had no doubts about the results that the OM -5 would have provided but at the same time I also wanted to capture the feeling, not just the result.
What I didn’t know was just how much fun it would have been to get to the result using the excellent performance of the OM-5 in terms of AF and Tracking especially considering that I was not using – I stress it again – high performance Pro lenses.
The almost abandoned shopping center on the outskirts of the city is a location that I often use for sessions in natural light: it offers large spaces, a beautiful and diffused light and total aseptic background, a factor that allows you to give strength to the subject without great effort: the choosing an “easy” location is the first step in getting started on the right foot.
I always used the OM-5 in AF-C with face and eye detection active, deactivating it only for a short time in order to evaluate the effectiveness by comparing it with the manual management of the focus point but I immediately reactivated it: normally I use the management of the single AF point via the stick (on my Olympus E-M1X and OM System OM-1) but the excellent performance of the OM-5 in face/eye tracking made me decide otherwise. In the static shots, near the dark backdrop, the AF mode was quite irrelevant since the pose took place under my instructions and with very controlled movements; it was very interesting to increase the dynamism of the shots when, at the upper level, I asked her to move a lot, walk, turn around, as if she was parading while I rotated around her keeping myself constantly in focus on her face.
The OM-5 did an amazing job and it’s really exhilarating to see how much quality has gone into that inconspicuous body.
The session was carried out, as per my initial wish, using only the available ambient light, without using modifiers or other accessories/light that I normally use in my portrait sessions: the choice of the initial location and then where to shoot inside it were the only lighting choices made.
For most of the session I used the Monochrome mode to get a BW preview in the Live View and better understand the light and contrasts I was dealing with. It’s an operating mode that I often use when shooting on the street but that also comes in handy in situations of this type.
The final photos that you see accompanying this article are taken from the RAW with only a few very simple adjustment in the recovery of lights, white balance and conversion to black and white (Adobe Camera RAW).
I was extremely satisfied with the result obtained but even more with how nice and fun it was to use the OM-5 and my “light” kit in this context.
Between a chat and some nice photos, the hour we had carved out flew away without even realizing it, further demonstrating that the quality of the time spent together was satisfying for everyone.