Nikon 85mm f/1.8 AF-S G still my favourite Portrait Lens!

Every time I shoot this gem of an 85mm lens it embeds itself more firmly as my favourite portrait lens regardless of whether I am shooting head and shoulders or full length portraits. (For full length I just stand further back...) This portrait was shot at f2.8 on my crop sensor Nikon D300s and the backgrounds are just wonderful!

It is also not at a ridiculous price point and would generally be within affordable reach of most people who spent much more than the price of this lens on a new Nikon dslr body anyway. The small(ish) expense is certainly worth the jump in IQ that it provides.

Have speedlights, will Portrait...

The best way to improve your portrait photography is to invest in a Speedlight... or two, and a wireless trigger system to be able to fire those flashes off camera. I use a cheap but reliable Phottix Strato system combined with two Nikon Speedlights and it has never let me down. Just make sure to have the batteries fully charged before you start and keep some spares handy too.

In this shot I have a Nikon SB700 to camera right shooting through a 105cm white umbrella set to 1/16 power and behind the model I have a Nikon SB600 on 1/64 power with no light modifier at all. My camera is at 1/200s, f2.8, and iso 200, handheld. I hate trying to shoot portraits on a tripod preferring to be able to adjust to my subjects movements freely.

Keeping the Lighting Simple for a Street Portrait

When you have a lot of lights and like to work in a studio set-up utilising at least three of those lights for portraits (sometimes more...) then it can be very liberating to get out into the open air and do some portraits on the streets of LA (affectionate term the locals give to our small town of Landskrona) and be restricted to using a simple single Speedlight set-up. I have a Nikon sb700 on a light stand shooting through an umbrella to camera right and a little higher than the subject. Everything is on fully manual for consistent control. The sb700 was set to 1/64th power and triggered wirelessly with a Phottix trigger system. Camera was set at 1/200s, f2.8, iso 400 and I used my favourite portrait lens, the Nikon 85mm f1.8. For good measure, here is a pull back shot of the scene showing the light firing:

A Portrait using Window Light balanced with Off Camera Flash

First off, my apologies for not posting a whole lot over the last few months, I have been busy with several new directions in my professional life and there just never seems to be time!

Today I had the pleasure of photographing my good friend Murtaza who needs a few portrait photographs for a series of interviews, websites and a news channel to display on-line and via television. He specialises in ground breaking techniques in treating drug addiction and it seems a lot of people are interested in what he has to say on the subject!

For the session I travelled light and did the "strobist" thing with two Nikon Speedlights balanced with ample beautiful soft window light streaming in through a large window. The window is to the left of camera, an SB-700 at 1/64th power is shooting through a large white umbrella to camera right and elevated somewhat higher than the subject, and finally an SB-600 at 1/16th power is shooting against the wall behind subject from it´s position on the floor. Of course I used my favourite go to lens for portraits, the Nikkor AF-S 85mm f/1.8 G which is a class piece of glass! The pic above was taken wide open at f1.8.

Nikon's Fluorine Coated Lenses in action.

Another reason to love and use Nikon/Nikkor!

Sunset over the Öresund

I took this photograph from the crest of a hill overlooking the Öresund between Sweden and Denmark with the island of Ven between the two on the left side of the photograph. Below is a picture taken with my cell phone camera of the camera on a tripod and my bicycle waiting patiently for me to get finished and take it back home.

Park in down town Malmö Sweden.

Jetty on the Öresund

Long exposure photograph during the day made possible through a combination of an overcast sky, a small aperture, an ND8 neutral density filter and a good tripod. Still only managed to squeeze out 13 seconds, but it was enough to totally smooth out the water.

Long road to nowhere...

Daar tussen niks en nêrens! ;-)

Die Ou Melkery

An old abandoned milking shed/dairy on a friends farm in the Freestate province of South Africa.

Rocks against the Öresund

Storm Damaged Jetty

Borstahusen Sweden.

Blue and Yellow Flowers

I posted a sunset a few days ago so now I have to post a picture of flowers. It's compulsory! ;^)

Have a great weekend everybody!

Fireworks over Landskrona's Harbour Area

Another one from New Years Eve where the slow shutter speed and steady prevailing breeze caused the fireworks to streak into interesting shapes.

Landskrona Watertower at Night

Taken at 22.50 on a warm Swedish summer night there is still plenty of light in the sky to provide a really lovely blue. Trapped in the depths of winter, as we are now, I look forward to late night cycle rides with my camera and tripod once again!