This combination is great, especially with the beautiful, chameleon-like Thailands D’Lima behind the lens. Brazilian-born, LA-based, capable of many looks. Below is a pic taken through a fence in the studio of Gianluca Bertone in Los Angeles. His video/rental business is an incredible resource for west coast photographers.
This was taken during an experiment with the Nikon58mm Noct lens. pulls in, F-stop-wise at a nifty off-the-charts wide open value, of.95 making it one of the fastest lenses I have ever used. (This session was captured on the Instagram. A few people had questions and we were able to run the above photo.
Manual focus, wide open DOF, razor thin. Danger! There are tools that can help you avoid danger. These were shot with the Nikon Z 7 and I used the pinpoint mode and focus peaking to confirm what my eyes were telling. The little box turns green when the focus is right with the single or pinpoint area in manual focus. The viewfinder also has an instantaneous button that allows you to zoom to 100%. This allowed me to tell if the focus pull was correct. It was tedious, to a certain extent, and not practical for many jobs. However, the crystal sharpness and dreamlike drop in DOF are worth it, at least this time.
Another strategy? This shoot was done with a Gitzo Systematic, even though it isn’t too long. It does have some weight. On a ball head that I had loosely braked, a tripod was the best option. I would focus on my subject, then rock back and forth towards the camera while simultaneously shooting high on the power drive. It worked well and I accepted that I wasn’t going to be perfect all the time.
Thanks to Lynn DelMastro and Claire Piao who were the shoot’s producers, as well as Claire Piao a wonderful makeup artist from Los Angeles. All of this was done at.95 on Noct.
In a single day, light, lens, subject, and makeup all combine to create different looks. It was thrilling, but nerve-wracking to play at the edge of the cliff known as depth of field.