Alpha 7 III

SEL20F18G Review: On the Streets With Bryan van der Beek

Aysu — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 08:04:43 +0000

SEL20F18G Review: On the Streets With Bryan van der Beek

Aysu Mon, 02/21/2022 - 13:34

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Street photography can be quite overwhelming when starting out. It is a genre that is all-encompassing, where trying to define it may end up limiting a photographer’s vision.

Alpha 7 III | FE 20mm F1.8 G | 20 mm | 1/160 sec | F1.8 | ISO 200

To veteran photographer Bryan van der Beek, it is about finding the right combination of composition and moments. He also avoids sticking to a one-size-fits-all photography style, and instead finds shots that play off each other, from combining complementary visual elements to the juxtaposition of backgrounds and subjects.

You could say his photojournalism background influences Bryan’s take on street photography. Storytelling steers the photographer’s creative process, landing his works in the pages of international publications, plus an exhibition in the National Museum of Singapore.

Alpha 7 III | FE 20mm F1.8 G | 20 mm | 1/640 sec | F4.5 | ISO 800

Go close and get wide with SEL20F18G

Bryan shares how traditional street photographers often use longer lenses, such as the 35 mm or 50 mm lens.

“Personally, I prefer to get up closer,” he defers. “Which is why the FE 20mm F1.8 G (SEL20F18G) comes in handy.”

Alpha 7 III | FE 20mm F1.8 G | 20 mm | 1/1100 sec | F1.8 | ISO 1600

Truly, the lens showcases excellent close-up performance, with a minimum focus distance of only 19 cm. This makes it easy to get close-up detail shots of the subject.

Alpha 7 III | FE 20mm F1.8 G | 20 mm | 1/125 sec | F2.8 | ISO 200

The SEL2F18G boasts great wide-angle optics, which Bryan says offers a new perspective in street photography. This lens allows a shallow depth of field, allowing the subject to pop out of a beautifully blurred background.

He shares that the shallow depth of field on this wide-angle lens is probably its best attribute. He is also impressed with how the aperture ring allows him to easily change the aperture on the fly to get different looks for different shots.

Alpha 7 III | FE 20mm F1.8 G | 20 mm | 1/100 sec | F1.8 | ISO 400

The Alpha Full Frame body makes a perfect match

Some of the best street shots happen in spontaneous moments that disappear in the blink of an eye. One needs quick responses and the intuition to anticipate a developing moment to excel in this field. Therefore, possessing photography gear that can keep up is definitely essential.

When paired together, the SEL20F18G maximizes the capabilities of an Alpha Full Frame body with Fast Focus Dual XD Linear Motor. Alongside its Eye AF, the lens takes advantage of the bodies’ full autofocus speed, precision and tracking potential for fleeting moments. Shooting with F1.8 aperture is also much easier.

Alpha 7 III | FE 20mm F1.8 G | 20 mm | 1/100 sec | F1.8 | ISO 400

Convenience at its best

Shoving a bulky lens into a person’s face is intrusive. Street photography requires some level of stealth where you capture fleeting shots. The SEL20F18G is perfect for this type of work, thanks to its small and compact size.

Additionally, the lens also comes with a custom button that Bryan has programmed to Eye AF, allowing him to quickly focus on his subjects when shooting from the hip level.

Alpha 7 III | FE 20mm F1.8 G | 20 mm | 1/60 sec | F4.5 | ISO 200

Final tips

For those aspiring to be street photographers, Bryan leaves you with this nugget of wisdom: “Instead of observing from afar, take your street photos to the next level by going in close and be part of the picture.”

Watch the video of Bryan mastering street photography with the SEL20F18G.

Disclaimer:The opinions expressed in this publication are those of Bryan van der Beek. They do not reflect the opinions or views of Sony Singapore.

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Street Photography

Learn the trade: Aisha Nazar shares her secrets to mastering Night Photography

Aysu — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 13:22:52 +0000

Learn the trade: Aisha Nazar shares her secrets to mastering Night Photography

Aysu Wed, 12/29/2021 - 18:52

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Unbeknownst to most, Aisha Nazar’s success as a professional photographer was born out of a whim.

“I stumbled upon a mirrorless camera and without giving it any thought, I purchased it,” she shared.
“I immediately regretted my decision and after many failed attempts of selling the camera, I finally decided to give it a go and found ways to improve my photography skills.”

Alpha 7 III | FE 55mm F1.8 ZA | 82mm*| 1/250 sec | f/1.8 | ISO 1600

Her impulse was proven propitious. Just last year, the Kuala Lumpur native bested hundreds of applicants in Sony’s ThroughTheLens competition. Her win granted an all-access pass to Sony’s covert technology lab, alongside a one-year apprenticeship with the tech giant.

Through Her Eyes

With this experience, Aisha divulged that she is definitely on the way to realising her dream as a travel and documentary photographer, a considerable leap from her past work life as a corporate underling.

Her photography style? Visuals that are able to tell a story. She strongly advocates putting depth into captured moments, as opposed to simply getting nice shots that remain as what they are — nice.

“Just knowing a little about something you’re photographing changes your perception of how you view things,” she advised earnestly. “This way, it will ignite your thought process to give you something to write about.”

Alpha 7 III | FE 55mm F1.8 ZA | 82mm*| 1/125 sec | f/1.8 | ISO 1600

Having picked her brain on the storytelling element of photography, Aisha moves on to exploring the technicality and creative process of night shoots with Sony’s Full Frame camera.

One unique aspect she gushed about is the manipulation of light in night shots. From psychedelic light trails to hauntingly beautiful street portraits, a mix of imagery can be achieved by locating the right light sources and toggling the settings on the camera.

“There is no right or wrong way of shooting in the dark,” she offered in conclusion.

Read on to find out how Aisha masters the art of night photography.

Aisha’s go-to photography gear

Why use Sony’s Full Frame camera for night shots?

Sony’s Full Frame camera is perfect for night shots because of its full-size sensor which lets more light in as compared to a cropped sensor. It also possesses a high ISO to retain high details and produce low noise images.

Alpha 7 III | FE 55mm F1.8 ZA | 55mm | 1/200 sec | f/1.8 | ISO 160

What are your commonly used night photography settings?

For night photography, especially for street, my cameras’ typical settings are:

Manual mode
F-stop: Shoot wide open with an aperture value of f2.8 or lower where possible
ISO: Shoot between an ISO 800 – 1600, depending on the lighting situation and what I would like my final image to look like. I’m never worried about getting a terribly noisy image with Sony’s Alpha 7 III. It holds up tremendously well in low light situations.
Shutter Speed: 1/80 – 1/160 sec
Shoot in RAW to get the most out of the details in post-production.

Tackling street photography

What is your experience with focusing during night shots? For street photography, how crucial is autofocus to capture that perfect moment?

Even in low light, Real-time Eye AF tracks almost immediately and locks on to my subject. Fast AF is definitely important in shooting street scenes because once a moment is missed, there's no going back. You need a fast lens for this so that it doesn't take too long to hunt and lock focus on the subject. A camera with a good sensor, like the Sony Full Frames, does so well in that aspect because of its superior low light performance and that in turn, allows better tracking.

Alpha 7 III | FE 55mm F1.8 ZA | 55mm | 1/125 sec | f/1.8 | ISO 1250

Share some of your tips for street photography at night.

Keeping a low profile is a must! The best way to go unnoticed is to not look out of place when photographing. Dress more casually so you blend in with the crowd. Consider using a considerably less bulky lens, like Sony’s 35mm or 55mm F1.8. You will be able to perform lightning-fast autofocus and capture dynamic street shots with high corner-to-corner resolution from a wide aperture, along with a smooth bokeh.
I also highly recommend shooting on silent mode - it doesn’t draw attention when the shutter goes off and allows you to capture genuine emotions. Limit the use of your Sony camera’s Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) and shoot waist or chest height so people don’t get conscious about themselves being photographed.

For shooting street portraits in the dark, make use of the available light around you. For instance, you can use the headlights of a passing car as a backlight for your subject. This creates an illuminating effect that outlines their figure or, you can even find light panels on the exteriors of most shops or restaurants as a light source for your subject.

Alpha 7 III | FE 55mm F1.8 ZA | 55mm | 1/125 sec | f/1.8 | ISO 500

How does one tackle the high image noise in photos taken at night?

Testing out your camera’s ability in holding up with high ISO is important. This way, you will know the limitations of your camera and you’ll know the best ISO to use for final images that are cleaner and sharper. Another way is to take advantage of a tripod, so that you can use a lower ISO and compensate it with a lower shutter speed.

It is also useful to utilise a wide aperture lens to get the maximum amount of light. Sony’s G Master lens is the perfect solution for this, where photos will remain crystal clear even at the widest aperture. Furthermore, the lens boasts a special coating to reduce flares that usually happen at night.

The right way to flash

How do you maximise a flash for an outdoor night shoot?

A flash such as Sony’s HVL-F60RM can be utilised as a light source to brighten up your subject in night portraits. I usually find on-camera flash to be a bit too flat and harsh on the subject, so you can play around with reflectors to bounce off light from the sides and towards your subject to get a more dramatic effect of highlights and shadows.

Achieving light trails

What makes a great light trail photo?

A great light trail photo is scoring a pin-sharp and smooth trail that suggests something which is out of this world. Personally, I find the smooth transitioning of light trails across the frame against a dark background sophisticated and sexy.

Alpha 7 III | FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS | 35mm | 5 sec | f/13 | ISO 50

What is your best advice to achieving a beautiful composition in light trail photos?

First, visualise how you want your final photos to be like. Then plan out your composition and framing, before finding an ideal spot with a tripod. Set your camera to manual mode by using these settings as a general baseline: lowest ISO, aperture of f11 - f18, shutter speed of 10-30 seconds. Play around with these settings until you settle on a combination that satisfies you.

What are some mistakes photographers may make when it comes to light trail photos at night?

Not having the right timing set. To get a light trail, it’s all about setting the right shutter speed to capture the motion of a moving subject with a light source. You will also need to practice before a good shot is nailed.

Perfecting cityscapes

What is your trick to getting a perfect shot of the cityscape at night?

You’ll typically want to find a good, high spot that eliminates obstructions from the view you’re planning to get. It’s all about exploring and also asking other photographers for suggested points.

Alpha 7 III | FE 55mm F1.8 ZA | 55mm | 25 sec | f/18 | ISO 100

Expanding your creativity

Suggest some ways to elevate the creativity in night photography.

One of the best things about taking photos at night is you can get creative with lights, where you bend the reality of how it really looks like to the naked eye. It gets really interesting when you dial down the shutter speed and see the different outcomes. One of which is creating light trails from moving objects, where your camera takes advantage of say, a panning motion to depict the speed of a moving object against a lit background.

Alpha 7 III | FE 55mm F1.8 ZA | 55mm | 1/10 sec | f/4 | ISO 125

Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not reflect the opinions or views of Sony.

* Equivalent to 82mm in APS-C mode

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Experimenting with Portrait Focal Lengths – 24 mm vs 85 mm

Aysu — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 08:37:26 +0000

Experimenting with Portrait Focal Lengths – 24 mm vs 85 mm

Aysu Wed, 12/29/2021 - 14:07

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Alpha 7 III

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When NOT to Use a 24 mm Lens for Portraits

While a 24 mm lens is a great focal length that has a lot of portrait applications, let’s start the discussion by pointing out the kind of portrait where I would AVOID using a 24 mm lens - headshots. The reason for this is because 24 mm is quite wide (particularly on a full-frame camera), and as such it suffers from the perspective distortion that most wide lenses exhibit. Specifically, it exaggerates distances, making close objects appear larger than normal and distant objects smaller than normal. This is more pronounced the closer you are to the subject, and when trying to get a close-up headshot it can really distort the human face. This distortion is not a pleasing look and gives a bit of a “Funhouse Mirror” effect, which is typically not what your clients will be looking for!

In contrast, a longer 85 mm lens has the opposite effect. Rather than distorting features, it compresses them, which actually has quite a flattering effect on the human face. This gives your headshots more of a realistic look and is why I primarily shoot headshots on 85 mm or longer lenses.

Let’s demonstrate this by having a look at the below images. We can clearly see the difference between two lenses here; the 24 mm lens results in a distorted look while the 85 mm gives a much more pleasing result. For this reason, I would avoid a 24 mm lens when shooting headshots.

With the above image, the 24 mm lens exaggerates distance, which is not flattering to the human face. And with the bottom image, by contrast, a longer 85 mm lens flattens the subject, which is generally flattering for headshots.

Benefits of a 24 mm Lens for Portraits

Now that we know when to avoid a 24 mm, when should we use it? The best application of a 24 mm lens for portraits is for environmental portraits. These are situations where you want to capture your subject in the larger context of the environment in which they are situated. This is as opposed to close-ups and headshots where we typically want to almost completely obscure the environment through the use of shallow depth of field and tight composition. Environmental portraits instead aim to tell a story about the subject; the environment can establish context about who they are, what they are doing, and generally provide more nuance than a standard headshot.

Whenever I want to tell a story via an environmental portrait, a 24 mm lens is almost always what I reach for. Because it’s wide focal length allows me to take a step back and pay attention to a larger field of view, it’s a great lens to capture the scene in which your model or couple is in.

A 24 mm lens is also great for those tight spots where you want to capture the full body of your subject and can’t use any longer focal length due to limited space. This can be common in restricted spaces, such as churches, indoor venues, and even portrait studios.

Let’s examine some images that I’ve shot using a 24 mm lens.

If I had attempted the above shot with an 85 mm, I wouldn’t have enough room to step further back and be able to capture the whole body of the couple including the bridge. So instead I used the Sony 24 mm F1.4 GM (on a Sony Alpha 7 III) to capture this shot, which allowed me to capture a wide shot of the couple with the bridge. And since I’ve put some distance between myself and the subject, we don’t see those distortion issues that we noticed on our close-up headshot examples previously.

Let’s look at some more examples, this time showing a few different shooting positions. In this case, we’ll look at one with full body and the other with half body. In the first image below, my back was completely against a wall and I couldn’t step back. I wanted to capture more of the environment and another focal length wouldn’t be wide enough to capture what I had envisioned. The 24 mm allowed me to include the lovely background imagery as well as a full-body shot without any distortion on the couple.

Below is the exact same posing, except that I stepped in closer for more of a half-body shot. This allowed me to still show the background but have the couple fill more of the frame. Notice how it still provides some nice separation between subject and background, which is why a fast aperture can still be useful on a wider lens.

The 24 mm also allows you to more freely capture creative perspectives when a longer 85 mm focal length would be more limiting. In the below image I was standing on a small ledge and stretching my arms out above the couple in order to show a different perspective than normal portraits. If using an 85 mm lens this would have required a dedicated ladder, or more!

The image below is a close up that was shot with the 24 mm. Now, this is close enough that I had to be careful about encountering the distortion that we discussed at the beginning, but it’s not too overpowering in this instance. If you carefully manage your positioning and angle, it can be possible to minimise this effect to some degree (although it will always be there). It’s something that I would recommend practising so that it becomes second-nature when on a shoot.

When Does an 85 mm Lens Excel?

Now that we’ve talked about the 24 mm, let’s discuss when a more traditional 85 mm lens can be the right choice. I love using an 85 mm when I want to get close, or when I want to achieve a very shallow depth of field. This is because a longer focal length provides a greater depth of field than a wider one, so an 85 mm lens will always be natively better at capturing a beautifully out-of-focus background than a 24 mm one. As discussed earlier, an 85 mm also gives you more of a realistic perspective of the persons face when shooting close up due to the compression of the longer focal length.

The below image was shot at a local park. The background had quite a few busy and distracting elements, but shooting at a wide F1.4 aperture on an 85 mm allowed me to blur those elements out, keeping the focus on the subject and creating artful background bokeh.

You can also use an 85 mm for full-body shots in a similar way that you might on a 24 mm, but you will have to be further back in order to do so. In this example I was on the other side of the pond from the model as I wanted to capture the water in the foreground. A 24 mm would be too wide in this situation, as the model would be far in the distance! The 85 mm allowed me just enough reach to show the environment and full body of my subject while also producing a bit of bokeh in the background.

In the image below I knew I wanted a blurry background, so I knew I needed to be close to the subject. However I also wanted a full-body shot, so I was careful about my distance in order to achieve both of these. You’ll notice that many of the full-body shots on an 85 mm involve the subject sitting or in some other non-standing position. This means that they don’t have as much height, which will allow you to get a bit closer in order to fill the frame and maximise the bokeh. Try experimenting with some more natural-feeling poses with a family member in order to get a feel for this type of positional posing. For more tips on this, read my article on posing techniques.

When discussing the 24 mm, we looked at a half-body shot with a couple. In that instance, the background was slightly blurred, but was still mostly visible because the 24 mm can only achieve a certain amount of bokeh due to its wide angle. Below is an example of a half-body shot using an 85 mm - notice how the background is almost completely blurred out, a vastly different effect than we found on the 24 mm. Of course, I was much further away from the subject in order to achieve this framing on an 85 mm than I was for the 24 mm shot. The takeaway is that even if you have the positioning freedom to achieve the same type of image in terms of framing, these different lens choices can still significantly affect the result! Neither is better, it’s just a matter of different styles for the job at hand.

A great example of where an 85 mm certainly excels over a 24 mm is in studio headshots. As studio backgrounds are often simply a solid colour, they tend to heavily emphasise the subject over the background, making them a natural fit for an 85 mm. In addition, you’ll often be using more complex flash and lighting setups in a studio, which can be easier to manage when you’re only focusing on how that lighting affects a model’s upper body vs their entire body. Here is an image captured with the 85 mm in studio which gives a perfect perspective of the model’s face while avoiding distortion.

Shooting portraits can be one of the most rewarding styles of photography, particularly if you enjoy working with people. While there are tried-and-true methods, using unusual focal lengths like 24 mm can lead to more creativity and experimentation, giving your portraits that “pop” needed to stand out from the rest. On the other hand, the 85 mm look has a lot of benefits as well, and is a classic for a reason. Mastering both styles can be a very exciting and rewarding experience!

This article was originally published on https://scene.sonyanz.com/

About the Photographer – Hanna Saba

Hanna Saba is a passionate photographer based in Sydney, Australia. Hanna specialises in a vast selection of photography categories; Weddings, Christenings, Special Events, Portraiture and Landscapes. He manages a broad range of thriving communities online, where he shares a variety of content to over 150,000 + members, with a large social media following which is continuing to grow. Running Photo walks & workshops with the Sony Alpha Sydney Facebook group that he runs. He is also a YouTube Content Creator and gear review contributor. He works alongside Godox, MagMod and more. Hanna recently became the Ambassador for Tenba bags Australia, Benro Australia, Spider Holster and a Sony Digital Imaging Advocate.

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