Portrait Photography

ASK BRIAN: What lens for Portraits?

by Brian Smith on January 25, 2011

in Ask Brian Smith

Q: I really admire your work, so I thought you would be a good person to get your thoughts on Sony. I recently purchased a Sony a850. I’m very pleased with so far. I am primarily a portrait photographer and I’m planning on getting 85 f1.4 CZ next. Would you recommend this lens and which other CZ lens would recommend?
Best Regards,
Phil Sheridan
P.S. I share your admiration for Jack LaLane.

A: That’s a great combination. The CZ 85 1.4 is a favorite lens of mine – definitely the sharpest 85 I’ve ever used. Other great choices for portrait photography are the CZ 135 1.8 and Sony’s 100/2.8 Macro is also incredibly sharp and just the lens for really tight portraits.But my personal favorite CZ 24-70/2.8 since I tend to shoot a LOT of portraits in the 50-70mm range just to have a bit more intimate feel. The 24-28mm range on that lens is perfect for environmental portraits like the portraits of Jack LaLanne.

Sony CZ 85/1.4 lens
Sony CZ 135/1.8 lens
Sony CZ 24-70/2.8 lens
Sony 100/2.8 Macro lens
Sony a850 camera

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I’m extremely happy to announce that I’ll be speaking at WPPI 2011 about the ‘Secrets of Great Portrait Photography’ at the MGM Las Vegas on Tuesday, February 22. I’m looking forward to taking the show to Vegas. We had a full house when I gave this talk at PDN PhotoPlus Expo and I’ve added a lot of new images to the talk that will be shown for the first time in Vegas. WPPI is always a great show for the portrait and wedding photography industry and I get to talk about my favorite subject – capturing great portraits. I hope to see you there.

Secrets of Great Portrait Photography
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm
MGM Conference Center Room 313 – 316
sponsored by Sony
Pre-register: CLICK HERE!

Celebrity portrait photographer Brian Smith will share the lessons he’s learned over the past 30 years capturing the faces of the famous, infamous and unknown as a top magazine portrait photographer. Brian will discuss his approach to editorial and commercial assignments from concept to final images, and detailing his approach to lighting and problem solving on productions both small and large. He will also share secrets about how to quickly capture the personality of the people in your photographs. He will also discuss how personal projects can be used to generate editorial and commercial assignments, and allow your personal style to evolve and grow while generating assignments you love to shoot.

Brian Smith photographs Anne Hathaway for 'Art & Soul' with The Creative Coalition

Brian Smith photographs actress Anne Hathaway for The Creative Coalition's 'Art & Soul' project

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Happy Holiday’s to our troops in the Middle East. This year we took part in PMDA’s ‘Portraits of Love’ at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas photographing family members of military servicemen stationed overseas as a way to provide our troops with photos of their loved ones for the Holidays. Thanks to Sony’s Kristen Elder, Linda Barger and Kayla Lindquist, to Fazia Ali for Hair & Make-up, to Michelle Tramantano of PMDA, to Fuji for providing the prints, Manfrotto for grip equipment and Extra Special Thanks to Deborah Freedman for the beautiful backdrops that we used on our shoot! Here are a few of the photos:

Lisa Weitnauer with her dog 'Survivor'

Deanna Cordani with daughter Lillian and her Daddy Doll

Christina Westley and son William

Jordan Robert Marin

Meredith Hendricks and her daughter Braelynn

Leslie Irish and her daughter Morgan

Amanda Templon with son Ryan

Marietta Umbac with her son Ganriel-Martin

Jacqueline Carrales with sons Julian and Juan

Donna Queen with son William and daughters Athena and Elizabeth

Portraits of Love: Shelly Damo and her son Joshua Damo Sullivan at Ft Hood, Texas

Shelly Damo and her son Joshua Damo Sullivan

Jennifer Huffman

Holly Labadie

Holly Labadie

CREDITS:
Deborah Freedman Backdrops
Sony a900 camera
Sony Zeiss 24-70/2.8 lens
Sony Zeiss 85/1.4 lens
Profoto Acute 2 2400 Pack
Profoto Acute 2 Flash Heads
Elinchrom Octa Light Bank
PocketWizard Transceivers
Induro Carbon Tripod CT414
Acratech GP Ballhead

Photographer Brian Smith at Fort Hood, Texas to photograph PMDA 'Portraits of Love' project

Brian Smith at Fort Hood, Texas. Wanna look slimmer in a photo? Stand next to a tank...

New Seminars at PhotoPlus Expo 2010

by Brian Smith on August 30, 2010

in Seminars & Speaking

PDN’s PhotoPlus Expo is always the can’t-miss-event in the Photo Industry and this year is no exception. There are a bunch of cool new seminars at this year’s PhotoPlus Expo this October 28th-30th at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in NYC. Here are a few I got circled… including my first solo appearance on their big stage. Registration is open now.

 

Thursday, Oct 28, 2010 – 8:45 AM to 11:45 AM
Extreme Web site Makeover: Putting Your Website to Work for You
Speaker: Grover Sanschagrin, Vice President & Founder, Photoshelter Inc.

There’s not  another company that freely provides as much good information to photographers as Photoshelter. Grover really knows his stuff!

Thursday, Oct 28, 2010 – 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM KEYNOTE
Chase Jarvis Live: Creativity and The New Social Art of Photography
Speaker: Chase Jarvis

Chase is the only guy with more energy than the X-treme sport athletes he photographs and always a great and motivating speaker.

Thursday, Oct 28, 2010 – 1:15 PM to 3:15 PM
Publishing Your Photobook
Speakers: Darius D. Himes, Consultant, Publisher, Author, Radius Books
Mary Virginia Swanson, Consultant and Educator, M. V. Swanson & Associate

Swanee is THE Authority on the Fine Art Photography marketplace and she knows everyone in the photo industry. She and Darius ‘Sir Books-a-Lot’ of photobooks will be rolling out their new book. Can’t wait…

Thursday, Oct 28, 2010 – 3:45 PM to 5:45 PM
Secrets of Great Portrait Photography
Speaker: Brian Smith

Shameless Plug…I know, but I’m very excited for the chance to do a whole new presentation and spill all the secrets I can about shooting great portraits…

Thursday, Oct 28, 2010 – 6:15 PM to 7:45 PM SPECIAL EVENT
Legacy: Portraits of the Environment
Speaker: Colin Finlay

I love Colin’s work and he’s quite worthy of Special Event Status.

Friday, Oct 29, 2010 – 8:45 AM to 10:45 AM
Merge, From Photography to Cinematography: Case Studies on the Convergence of Still and Motion Images
Speakers: David McLain and Jerome Thelia

If you are a still photographer who is getting into video you’re going to want to come check this out

Friday, Oct 29, 2010 – 8:45 AM to 11:45 AM
The Big Picture: Editorial Photography Behind the Scenes
Speaker: Art Strieber

OK, OK…This is actually a repeat performance..What can I say…Art Rocks!

Friday, Oct 29, 2010 – 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM KEYNOTE
Strip Search: Albert Watson in Conversation with Laurie Kratochvil
Speakers: Albert Watson and Laurie Kratochvil

I got this one double-triple circled! A can’t miss event!!! Albert is one of my favorite portrait photographers and Laurie is an icon of the industry who gave me one of my first big breaks when she was at Rolling Stone.

Friday, Oct 29, 2010 – 3:45 PM to 5:45 PM
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Portrait Photographers
Speaker: Katrin Eismann, Chair, SVA

Katrin is the Pixel Diva. I learn stuff from Katrin just walking past her…

Friday, Oct 29, 2010 – 3:45 PM to 5:45 PM
New Media Marketing for Next Generation Photographers
Speakers: Jack Hollingsworth, Jason Moriber, Lindsay Adler and Rosh Sillars

Rosh and Lindsay really now this stuff. Jason does EP’s Social marketing and @photojack has more people followers than anyone in the photo industry…except for Polaroids’ Creative Director Lady Gaga...

Friday, Oct 29, 2010 – 3:45 PM to 5:45 PM
Institute Presents: New Directions in Storytelling
Speakers:  Elisabeth Biondi, Visuals Editor, The New YorkerGillian Laub, James Longley and Lauren Greenfield, Photographer & Filmmaker
Photojournalism isn’t dead – it’s just moving in different directions. See where they’re taking it.

Saturday, Oct 30, 2010 – 8:45 AM to 11:45 AM
Mark Seliger: Icons & Images
Speaker: Mark Seliger
I’m not sure who is more of an icon – Mark or the people he shoots, but this is bound to be good.

Saturday, Oct 30, 2010 – 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM KEYNOTE
Avatar: The Struggles of Indigenous People in a Modern World
Speaker: Cristina Mittermeier, Photographer & President, International League of Conservation Photographers
My Sony Artisan sister is the Mother Theresa of the photo industry – Saving the World One Pixel at a Time…

Saturday, Oct 30, 2010 – 1:15 PM to 3:15 PM
Platform Building: Using Online Video Sharing to Attract an Audience, Establish Creativity and Network
Speakers: Blake Whiteman, Director of Community and Product, VimeoPhilip BloomRyan Koo
and Vincent Laforet
I don’t really need to hype this one, you know you want to see these guys.

Saturday, Oct 30, 2010 – 1:15 PM to 3:15 PM
Demystifying DSLR: Beyond the Green Box!
Speaker: Me Ra Koh

Me Ra is loaded with energy. If you shoot kids, families or weddings stop by and hopefully some of that will rub off on you.

BIG THANKS to Kayla Lindquist and everyone at Sony for sponsoring my talk and Lauren Wendle and Moneer Masih-Tehrani of PDN for giving me the stage to talk on. Hope to see you all there!

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