Portrait with the 180 and Elpro

Lovely portrait with great catchlights in the eyes,I have this lens on order,what is the AF speed like?I have the S120 but it hunts a little too much for fast portrait work…(pity Leica didn’t add a focus limiter to it)

I fully agree with you, the fact that Leica ommited to use a focus-limiter makes the 120 almost unusable for fashion and portrait (for me). Btw I wait for a “real” portrait lens like a Summicron 100 or so 🙂

This said, the 180 is much better for portrait, you get a faster AF, but due to the longer range you need a bit more light for shorter shutter speeds. Also, I feel that I get a bit to distant to the model. For me the Hasselblad HC 100 and HC 150 work very well for me too.

Here another one from this shooting with the 180 (without Elpro, of course)

I think the HC100 is a great addition (and you get automaticall “CS” with it) to the S-Lenses, and as the sensor of the S is a bit smaller you get the best out of the lens.

HC 100/2.2 and S 180 with Elpro

Sorry for the strong postprocessing but I don’t like to show my work without it (looks so unfinished)

Stephan, I really like the look of these images too. Care to share your secret sauce and tell us how you arrived at these colors and contrast?

nothing much to say about that 🙂

I do almost all my processing in LR. Depending on the subject (mood, tonality) I choose either a custom preset or modify an existing preset to my taste. It is rare that I use a cross-process but in this particular case I found it interesting because of the green grass and the graphic of the picture.

There are plenty of free presets available for LR that are a good starting point, so I suggest to look out for these and then adapt them to your taste.

Of course, every picture needs individual processing, cleaning the skin (sometimes, not always), brightening the eyes (sometimes), darkening or lighting parts of the picture.

For example picture 1 was for a punky girl with red hair, a hair tattoo and blue eyes, so I started with a preset that adds a bit of drama and blue saturation. Adding some contrast works well with this modell, as she has a very smoth skin. Some sharpnes can be added to the eyes and hair to make the look more intense. It may be necessary to add some brightness to parts of the picture to rebalance the overall look. (180 was used)

Picture 2 was a starting set for a nude shooting. Here I have choosen a warm preset (the same that you see in the portrait above), as I think this fits well to the summer heat that should be felt. But because of the greenish shadows I had to add some red. Also, the upper part (in the shadows of the tree) had to be lit up a bit (about 0,5 EV), and the legs needed a bit of color correction as they were lit by the grass in front of the tree. (HC 100 was used)

As you see, I process every picture differently, hoping to underline the mood that the model and the situation shows.

Nevertheless, I try to stay as close as possible to “traditional” photography, when we choosed a special film for getting the wanted results. I don’t like overprocessed or strongly softened photos, even if sometimes a lot of work is needed in some areas, especially in portraits of teenagers.