Does gear matter?

How we choose to express ourselves as photographers often emerges from the tools we use - whether that be the camera, lens, lighting setups, backgrounds, or as I discussed in the last article, the studio (yes, I think of the studio as “gear” just as I do the camera). In this post, I want to talk about my camera setup and some of the most useful pieces of kit I use in the studio.

So to the camera, I use a Fujifilm GFX 50sii, which is a medium format digital camera released in late 2021.

The Fujifilm colours straight out of camera are really beautiful that need very little wrestling with in post to get them where I want them to be (something I have struggled with other camera brands). What that often means is that I can get a photograph straight out of camera that looks very pleasing to my eye, and I don't have a lot of editing work to get the colours right.

On the front of this camera I usually have one of two (vintage) prime lenses - either the Zeiss Otus 85mm 1.4 or the Canon FD 85mm L 1.2. Because they are mounted in front of a medium format sensor, the 85mm focal length is equivalent to 67mm in full frame terms. Both of these lenses are absolutely stunning, but for slightly different reasons.

The Zeiss lens is an incredible piece of engineering - large, heavy and robust - it’s made for studio work and not for carrying around (if I had to handhold this beast my back would be a lot worse than it is), the combined weight of the lens and the camera body is over 2kg. The sharpness of the lens, while outstanding, isn’t the main attraction for me - yes, zooming in 200% to the iris and being able to see the reflection of the studio in my subject’s eye is neat. But, what I really love about this lens is the character of the focal fall off - smooth, clean, delicate. The capacity it has to produce images with a real 3D pop when combined with the GFX is outstanding. I often shoot wide open (or nearly wide open), which means a significant part of the frame is intentionally out of focus, because of this its important to me how the lens I am using handles focus fall off and bokeh. Some photographers love their bokeh, some hate it,

The Canon FD 85mm lens is an outstanding prime lens from the 1970s and 80s, a classic portrait lens that delivers excellent image quality, very pleasing fall off and gorgeous character. This lens just makes me want to take photos - it’s a little smaller and lighter than the Zeiss, but still substantial enough to feel it. It feels a little bit more artistically characterful. And in a way, this is part of my signature look. What's lovely about these two lenses, they're not wildly different in the way that they they render an image, which means that they can both sit side by side in my portfolio and look quite good. I also have a number of other lenses that I use, on occasion, the Canon FD 55mm SSC, lens. A beautiful lens, perfect for more environmental portrait shots, portraiture in locations. But with this lens, there seems to be a lot of bloom of the highlights, especially when wide open. What that means is that you tend to get a lot a lot of distortion in the image in a way that can be really beautiful, but it does mean it looks substantially different from the 85mm Canon or Zeiss lenses - which means its out of place in my portfolio. And I also use the Zeiss Otus 55mm - another great lens in the Zeiss line up that performs as well as the 85mm - but with slightly less coverage on the sensor, so there is a slightly heavier vignette on the frame.

All of these lenses are manual focus, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have used autofocus lenses in the past and even have some excellent examples of Fuji lenses that employ a (slightly slow) autofocus system. But I just don’t get on with a computer doing my focusing. Where you choose to focus is an active choice and for me, having that control is paramount. When I’ve used auto focus lenses in the past, they will often focus on the eyelashes or the outside of the eye, rather than the iris/pupil of the eye. So if I’m shooting at wide open apertures, I find that the bit that I really want to in focus, which is the the iris or pupil of the eye, that's out of focus, and it's just the outside of the eyes in focus. From a distance, that doesn't look too bad, but when you look closer you can see the missed focus and for me, that just doesn’t look anywhere near as good as getting the actual eyeball in focus. Now, of course, sometimes you do miss focus with manual focus, and it's not the worst thing in the world, but I find that being able to use a manual focus means that I have more control over where I point my viewer’s attention. And it feels more intuitive to turn the lens to have that control rather than interact with the focus on a screen or with a joystick.

In the studio I use a range of constant lights from Nanlite and Apurture - bi-colour and full colour lights respectively, which means I do have completely control of the colour temperature and also, using LEDs I have a variety of colour options available to me. So I can add little tint of, say green or blue, to a frame, perhaps adding a kick light in orange to cast a faint glow on my subject’s cheek. In this way, I’m not making radical colour alterations but just adding a hint of something that might indicate an off camera incandescent light source - giving the sense of being in a real scene rather than just a studio. I always want it to feel like the photo could be a real place to some degree - with a little expressive use of lighting you can add in texture, space and dimension to an image.

To modify and shape the light I use a range of umbrellas, soft boxes and parabolic modifiers from Godox and Pixapro. I really love the umbrellas with a white internal surface because they give very good wrap around light to the face. Some of my favourite portraits are shot with this modifier.

One thing I always get asked about is the way I mount my camera - instead of using a tripod, which I always feel is precarious, I use a Pixapro studio stand on wheels. It has a heavier, more solid base and allows me to easily move it around the studio and make minute adjustments as I’m shooting. It truly is one of the best things I’ve ever bought for the studio.

One thing thats worth mentioning is my use of hand painted backdrops, these range in colour but I mostly use muted tones - greens, browns, greys and blues. They add a depth and dimension to my work that I really like - and one thing I always say, is you can never have too many backdrops - having the capacity to alter the image so significantly with a background change really adds value. And the five main brands that I use are Backdrop Canvas, Hand Painted Backdrops UK, Artery, Gravity and Zoom.