Samantha by the Food Truck – Austin, Texas

I’ve experimented with a lot of portraits lately. Partially spurred by my purchase of the Olympus 75mm f1.8 lens but also because the Drink and Click events are fun and easy places to practice. I used the 25mm f1.4 for this one, on the Olympus PEN-F.

Beyond the aesthetic styling of the PEN-F, I wanted to play with the film-like settings which are available at the twist of the front dial. After all, that’s one of the signature features of the camera. The high contrast black and whites are currently my thing and I’ve shot anything from architecture to street photography in this mode. But I think portraits can be interesting too. Especially if they evoke a mysterious and moody (in a good way) look.

I found that creating these portraits with deep blacks can be difficult, beyond the normal challenges of portraiture. You lose a lot of dynamic range and since these are shot in JPEG, there isn’t much latitude in post. Extra factors to make this kind of photography, all the more interesting.

Shooting a portrait by food truck light might be unorthodox, but I needed something to light up Samantha. The resulting look is certainly distinct but worth pursuing, if only to try something different. Portraits with Deep Blacks will fit right into my greater Deep Blacks exploration. It will take some effort to master but may be worth the effort.