Bike Week Candid Portraits with an Olympus EM1 MKII by Christian Delbert

July 5, 2018 Featured, GEAR, Guest Post, Guest Review, IN USE, Inspiration, Mirrorless, Misc Reviews, News, Olympus, Portraits, Street Photography, User Reports 7
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Bike Week Candid Portraits with an Olympus EM1 MKII

by Christian Delbert – See more of his work HERE

Hi Steve,

Every year Father’s day comes along and it is time for me to go up to Weir’s Beach, New Hampshire, to sample the local flora and fauna. I use to ride myself until a few years ago when I noticed that all these drivers were more busy looking at their phones than the road.

Anyhow, I now drive up there in my car and spend a few hours practicing my people photography. I used to use a Leica M4 with 35mm f/2 Sumicron. I now use my Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II with the very good 12-40mm f/2.8 lens. I could use my 17mm f/1.8 but it would not be as good for portraits. These photos were “almost” posed unlike my usual Cartier Bresson, decisive moment attempts.
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Of the many people I photographed, only one requested that I not take his photo. Actually, many of these people could be Wall Street people! But dressing the way they do, they want show off and welcome attention by a photographer.
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I used various post processing techniques to bring the photos a little closer to my pre-visualization. As Ansel Adams use to say, “ The RAW file is comparable to the composer’s score and the psd it’s performance,” or to that effect!
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One of the problems I encountered was the tight crowds. Tough to compose without a very distracting background or some walking in front of you just as you’re taking the photo. Also, contrast problems on sunny days around noon. The dynamic range of newer camera solves that problem and post processing tweeks finish it off.

Overall, I extremely happy with the Olympus products and sadly, my Nikon gear is gathering dust in my safe!
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Take care and keep up the great work, we need interesting blogs……..

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7 Comments

  3. I like these until the Nik Software border images appeared. These borders should be banned from all photography. Still nice images non the less. Thanks for posting

    • Steve,
      I think the borders are a 50/50 thing. 1/2 the people like them, 1/2 don’t. Personally, I like them for certain images, so I used them.

    • Because you don’t like them, you want them banned….Others like them, so guess you can move along and look at what you like.

  4. Excellent candid stuff – nice with the fitting vignetting touch.
    Your home page esp. with the vintage years is astonishing.
    Best wishes
    Michael

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