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All About the Photos Episode 2: Portrait/Engagement Session | Join Photographer Dustin Abbott for a little gear and technique talk, and a lot of photos from a recent portrait/engagement shoot. Visit the Blog Post: bit.ly/allphotosEDEM
Sony a7R3 Review Playlist: http://bit.ly/SonyA7r3da
Lite Scoop Review: http://bit.ly/scoop3DA
Metz 64 AF-1 Review: http://bit.ly/1BUd10p
Canon 35L II Review: http://bit.ly/35LIIda
Zeiss Milvus 135mm f/2 Review: http://bit.ly/milvus2135YT
Voigtländer 65mm f/2 Review: http://bit.ly/APO65review
Purchase the Sony a7R3: B&H Photo: https://bhpho.to/2D6ibNO or Amazon: http://amzn.to/2CNxOvH
Canon 35L II: B&H Photo: https://bhpho.to/2A8Boyx or Amazon: https://amzn.to/2pNA9Pa
Voigtländer 65mm f/2 APO-Lanthar Macro @ B&H Photo: https://bhpho.to/2zmz1cS or Amazon: https://amzn.to/2KUTI4n
Zeiss Milvus 2/135: B&H Photo: https://bhpho.to/2oF8NZh or Amazon: https://amzn.to/2pRSDhy
Metz 64 AF-1: B&H Photo: https://bhpho.to/2jmwFy9 or Amazon: https://amzn.to/2A6Nzvs
Yongnuo Triggers: B&H Photo: https://bhpho.to/2A6RxEl or Amazon: https://amzn.to/2RN1Zbh
Super Scoop Light Modifier: http://litegenius.com/abbott
Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at:
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0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today with another All About the Photos episode
0:10
Today I'm going to take you behind the scenes into a portrait shoot
0:15
And so fortunately I just did a portrait shoot a few days ago and the couple was kind enough
0:20
to allow me to feature them in this particular episode. And so this was a portrait slash engagement shoot
0:27
And so once again, as this series goes, and before I go further, let me just say thanks to all of you who were enthusiastic in your support of the first episode that I did and also gave me some feedback on how to improve it
0:40
I appreciate that, and I hope that those changes will be reflected in this episode here today
0:47
So the nature of this series is that it's mostly about showing you the photos that I took with the gear that I used on the particular day
0:54
and to allow you to see not just gear talk, but also a little bit of the technique and what I personally select out of my kit for a given setting
1:05
And so first thing I want to show you here today as far as gear goes, a couple of things
1:11
For this kind of thing, I often use this bag from Vanguard, which as you can see, it is handled
1:18
It's wheeled. It has room for a lot of gear in it. This is the AltaFly 48T
1:23
I did do a review of this bag back a while back, and it continues to be the one that I reach for a lot of times when I'm doing this
1:30
because it does have good handles all around, and so it's easy to get a hold of
1:35
And of course, if I happen to be in a place where I can use the handle and pull it along
1:40
it just saves me a little extra wear and tear throughout the course of the day. The other thing that I wanted to just show you is the setup that I will use for using flash
1:51
And when I shoot portraits, you know, kind of a pose type things, a lot of times I will do just a little bit of fill flash
1:58
It's rare that I do a big time strobing type setup. That's not so much my style
2:02
I prefer to augment the natural light, just allow a little bit more fill
2:07
And so what I'll do is, this is a pretty standard setup for me here
2:13
And if I'm shooting bigger groups, I'll just use more of these and more assistance to hold them
2:19
I used to mess with doing light stands and mounting them on a light stand
2:23
What I found is that, number one, I wasted a lot of time in trying to get the light stand set up
2:29
and then a lot of times there would be wind and they would be getting knocked around and stuff
2:32
would be getting damaged. And so I've just moved to enlisting human helpers. And so in this case
2:39
because it was just a couple, I only needed one assistant and one light setup. So what I've got
2:46
is I've got MET 64 AF1 flash units. I reviewed these years ago and they've continued to be my
2:52
go-to strobe units. And then I also reviewed the Light Genius Super Scoop 3. And this is what I
3:00
use as a flash modifier in this kind of configuration So what it does is it kind of shapes the light and so it comes out softer and so I just you know basically kind of direct my assistant where I want them to kind
3:15
of push the light to and shape it in that way. And then I just use I actually use cheap flash
3:21
triggers. I on these I use the Yongnuo YN622C and and so I have the flashes mounted to each one of
3:30
those. And then I use a master controller device, also Yongnuo, on the camera body that I'm using
3:40
And so if I'm using multiple camera bodies, I have multiple ones of these. And so the nice thing is
3:45
is this has allowed me to continue to use my Canon-based flashes, even when I'm shooting with
3:51
Sony or shooting a hybrid of Canon and Sony, because I am manually controlling flash output
3:58
anyway and so all it needs to function really as a trigger and and so I'm not
4:02
using any kind of TTL I am just manually configuring how much flash that I want
4:08
and and a lot of that is based on experience and with the setting and
4:12
again my preference is is that I don't want an over flash to look and so that's
4:17
what I do as far as the flash configuration so for this particular
4:22
event I only shot one camera body I kept it pretty simple and so I used
4:28
the Sony a7R Mark III, and as to why I reached for Sony instead of Canon is not a preference for
4:35
Sony over Canon per se, except for in this instance, I knew that I wanted to use some
4:39
manual focus lenses. And Sony a7R III is my favorite platform for shooting manual focus glass
4:48
Now, ironically for this session, I actually only used one Sony FE mount lens, and it is one of my
4:55
favorites, however, this is the Voigtlander Apolanthar 65mm f2 macro lens. It also doubles as
5:04
a beautiful, beautiful portrait lens. And I just, I love the clarity and the skin tones. You know
5:12
you've heard me sometimes dish a little bit on Sony color science. I find that this Voigtlander
5:18
lens and some other Zeiss type glass really helps to offset some of that. And so here are some of
5:23
photos that I took with the Voigtlander combination. Now, my other major kind of telephoto type look that I will use for this is I used the Zeiss
6:03
Milvus 135mm f2 This is another APO or apochromatic lens It a beautiful beautiful portrait lens in a similar way to the Voigtlander Of course it gives me a much different perspective more shallow depth of field and more of a telephoto
6:20
type compression to shots. And so my preferred adapter at this point is the Sigma MC11
6:27
It just seems to do the best job kind of all around. There are some applications where other
6:34
adapters work better. The MC11 is the best all-rounder that I've used so far. And of course
6:39
this is a the milvis is a beautiful beautiful lens and I really enjoy using
6:45
it on Sony because it's so much easier to visually confirm focus so here's some
6:50
of the photos that I took from this series with the milvis 135
7:09
Thank you
7:39
Thank you
8:09
So the final lens that I used in this session is for a little bit wider perspective was the
8:34
Canon EF 35mm F1.4L Mark II. This is, I believe, one of Canon's very best prime lenses that they
8:43
have ever made. And I continue to love it. And I use it probably as much as I do on Sony as I do
8:49
on my Canon bodies. I just really love it. And with the MC-11, it actually works quite well
8:56
And so here are some of the photos that I took with that combination. give you a little a bit of kind of advice now that you've seen the photos that I took about how I
9:51
handle the upfront with clients like Edward Nimely in this setting. In advance, I ask them to look up
9:59
some photos that they they like not because I don't have any ideas of my own but because I
10:06
number one want to get a sense of their own personal style what appeals to them. It also
10:12
gives us some working prompts during the session. A lot of times I'll take those ideas that they have
10:16
texted to me or messaged to me. I'll print them out on a sheet and it just kind of keeps us going
10:22
It also helps with people that aren't accustomed to posing all the time to be able to visually see
10:28
a pose in advance that you want them to go to. And a lot of times I will personally kind of model
10:33
where I want them to interact. So I'll get one person in place and if it's a couple
10:37
You know, it provides some laughs and lightens things up because I step into the role that I want them to be at
10:43
And I position myself, you know, sometimes, you know, with a hand around the waist or whatever of whomever
10:49
And so that they can actually visually see the pose that I want in that kind of setting
10:55
And so the byproduct of that is that it allows me to get a sense of style
10:59
And then I explain to them on the day of that we're going to make these shots yours
11:03
And so rather than just trying to perfectly imitate what somebody else has done, what feels natural to you in this kind of setting
11:10
And so as we begin to tailor those things, it makes them not just something that they have picked off of Pinterest or something and they have cloned
11:17
but rather something that is individually and uniquely theirs. And so it usually makes for a happy experience
11:24
I crack lots of jokes. We have lots of fun. And the byproduct is that customers walk away not only happy with photos that they got
11:31
but also with the experience that they had in getting them. And that makes them want to be returned customers
11:38
I'm Dustin Abbott. And if you'll look in the description down below, you'll find I do have a photo gallery
11:43
that I put together with all of these images. And so you can look at that blog post
11:48
You can look at some photos there if you'd like to follow up more. And of course, I will throw in the description down below linkage to some of the gear that
11:55
used and I mentioned as a part of that and of course if you search here on my
11:58
channel you can also find linkage to the reviews of every one of these things
12:02
that I have mentioned today I've reviewed all of them along the way and you can get more information about the gear itself there of course you can also
12:09
follow me there on social media you can become a subscriber and if you haven't
12:13
already please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube thanks for
12:17
watching have a great day