Base Line Quality
My ”high stress” portrait shoot the other week went as well as I could hope. Proving that word of mouth can trump any form of online promotion, I skipped the cue and scored the gig for the Telstra Australia CEO and board headshot and group photos for their annual general meeting and other uses. I am still not sure who recommended me, but it was a school contact, so many thanks who ever you were.
Something that came out of it, not totally unexpected, but reassuring none the less, was the inherent quality of the M43 system at its best.
At normal size, quality is pretty much a given with almost any system, especially with controlled and plentiful light. This is a “straight” shot, not “softened” like the submitted ones.
In close, the true quality is revealed. Big enough, even without software applied for large reproduction.
Fluke?
Nope.
The camera was a G9, chosen on a whim the night before (only used for video up till then), based on the skin tones and extra brilliance it produced under these lights. The lens, the Olympus 75mm at f2.8 is to be fair one of the systems best, but the reality is, I have a half dozen lenses that get very close and there are at least a dozen more available in this landscape.
Yes processing was applied, but it was within very basic parameters. No special programmes or techniques were used, only some mild touching up and increasing of basic sliders, all well within C1’s remit. No sharpeing was added past the import base. I find C1 does sharpening and noise just about right.
One of thousands taken over a six hour football carnival. Out of 3000, 2000 were worth keeping (I do not shoot bursts, so each is not the best of several), of which 500 were submitted, spread over six teams.
Again, plenty of quality to burn.
So, both extremes of the genre, from random fast action to controlled, no excuses studio work are within the systems comfort range, as they are for most modern systems.
One of the things I really appreciate about C1 is sharpening and noise reduction, my two bugbears from Adobe where they were always in conflict. They are now not even a consideration most of the time. If noise is a real issue (underexposed 6400+), or sharpening is to be added to something that is actually soft due to depth of field or movement (C1 can fix this), then I will use the brush tool with Clarity and Sharpening or No Noise as needed.
In the real world, people do not react to the theoretical potential of your gear, only the end product and I am more confident than ever that M43 gives me and anyone on my field more than enough tools to do the many roles it is pressed into.