Low light photoshoot with the Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f1.8

[@dannyly]

I like that you’re shooting portraits with MFT. Not very many people are doing this

[@holdmylenscap7241]

They're missing out on the fantastic Zuiko lenses and the joy of using an Olympus camera.

[@jeffslade1892]

Great for portraiture. Olympus have a history of portraiture, think Bailey.

[@user-xn2iu6yg9j]

I do. It's upon the lens.
The majority use their smart phones for portraits unfortunately, which is miss use of the tool.

[@StrangelyIronic]

Shame too, this lens or the pana 42.5 1.7, Sigma 30/56mm f1.4’s, and Oly 75mm f1.8 all offer fairly affordable great portrait lens options for MFT.
If you have some money to invest, you can find the 42.5 and 25/45mm f1.2 lenses used all over, sometimes for a great bargain. I’ve had clients from all over love the output of the cheaper lenses as much as these pro ones.

[@playcheapguitars]

Just found you. I've had a Sony a-6000 since 2016. I've always been an Olympus fan but switched to Canon for shooting Weddings/Portraits. Canon was late with mirrorless so in 2014 I bought an Olympus Pen e-pl3 and a Sony C3. I no longer shot for $$ so I wanted light. Well the decision went to Sony vs the M-10. I happily shot the Sony A6000 until 2020 when I picked up the M-10 mk II for real cheap. Within 6 months I had an M1 mkII. I have 4 Oly lenses and 3 Panasonic. I'm an old man having more fun with a camera than I have since the 1970's. Subscribed!

[@holdmylenscap7241]

Exactly! With the Sony I always find it hard to decide which lenses to take. With the Olympus I just take all of them without hesitation :)

[@ridealongwithrandy]

The EM5 Mkiii is also a steal these days with the same sensor of my EM1Xs. I use it for my TH-cam videos. I consider it my mini EM1X. Cheers!

[@realpain84]

One of best lenses oly ever produced! Cheers😊

[@ridealongwithrandy]

As we say in the desert southwest USA say, "nice shootin Tex"! I shoot dual EM1Xs, and this is the same sensor of your camera and it has never let me down. My Flickr feed of the same name proves my point! Cheers!

[@holdmylenscap7241]

Thank you, will have a look at your Flickr :)

[@jakobsoegaard1886]

Love to Watch your work flow…very inspering

[@holdmylenscap7241]

Thank you so much!

[@fabscams4136]

So good to see some Micro Four Thirds use - I too like that Olympus lens, however I switched to the Panasonic 42.5mm and I think it's even better!
I really enjoyed your editing walkthrough too, awesome video!

[@holdmylenscap7241]

I had a look at the Pana as well, but the Olympus won my heart with it's looks :) But maybe I will get that Pana as well and do a comparison video

[@Bollywoodhollywood2023]

It’s a little gem ❤

[@holdmylenscap7241]

it is. can't believe how small and cheap this lens with a performance like this! It's a must have for all M43 users :D

[@petertham2528]

Found the channel due to Micro Four Thirds content. Keep up the good work! Looking forward to more…

[@holdmylenscap7241]

Thank you :) We will, both Micro Four Thirds and Full Frame :)

[@CWHsu-zc1yp]

hope that 75mm f1.8 is the next lens!

[@lensman5762]

This is very good. One or two points to consider. The good MFT lenses, which this 45 is one of them, are usually at their best just one stop from wide open. They almost universally show the onset of diffraction from F8~F11 because of the pixel size. Due to the size of the sensor of an MFT camera the depth of field is far greater than either an APSC and even greater then an FX sensor. I won't go into the science of it, but take my word. This extra depth of field is about a full stop over APSC, and over two stops compared to an FX sensor. This 45 is superb wide open @ F1.8, but to get a feel of the DOF compared to an FX camera you'd need to imagine shooting @ F4. This is great for landscape, cityscape, street and other types of photography, but it is not ideal for taking protraits if you are after all that bokeh malarky. So you need to get close to the subject and here you can throw the background out. The IBIS is also highly effective to about 1/5s with this 45mm lens, so the use of high iso is not necessary. Great to see this MFT cameras being used. Thank you.

[@holdmylenscap7241]

Well to be exact, a 45mm f1.8 from the same distance would give exactly the same Depth Of Field on Full Frame. But due to the crop factor it would give a much wider field of view. The same composition would be achieved by either using a 90mm lens or going closer to the subject and in both case you will get much narrower DOF.

[@lensman5762]

@@holdmylenscap7241 Yes, if you tokk the lens on its own, theoretically any lens of the same focal length and apertue would give the same depth of field, but this academic unless the lens is used on film or sensor. Here the size of the sensor or film will dictate the apparent DOF due to the difference in scale, and in term of digital the pixel size determines the limits of diffraction.

[@holdmylenscap7241]

But in the end of the day... No one really cares about DOF and diffraction when a photo is great. No one will stand in front of an Ansel Adams or a Henry Cartier-Besson photo and check sharpness from 5 cm. And the Zuiko 45 definitely creates images that are very pleasing to the eye. It has a character, a nice bokeh and that beats any DOF :)

[@jeffslade1892]

Real world - mft lenses are all good at f/11 but go off the boil above f/16 (sunny 16). Whilst the pixel size is smaller, it is easier to control noise on a small sensor, large sensors generate more heat, more electronic noise. The latest 20Mp have an even smaller pixel, but are more sensitive, produce less noise and a greater dynamic range. The image circle from a mft lens is larger than the sensor so there are less edge effects.
For portrait, where you might use a 45mm lens on FF, use a 45mm on mft, it's the perspective, a wider lens will "pinch" the facial features. The 4/3 sensor produces a "crop", it does not change the focal length of the lens.

[@jeffslade1892]

When in "snow" the rule of thumb is to overexpose by 2/3 to 1 stop to prevent it looking grey. This is best done in camera to get the exposure right (even for the raw). If it is fixed in post later, that can introduce artefacts. Get the exposure right at the camera. The other way of fixing the grey is to fiddle with the WB, this alters the exposure solution too. The meter is fixing to 18% grey, it is all white.
The Ollie 45mm is a great lens, a trifle soft wide-open, which is good for some portraits. The edges go soft first, which we can use. And a good lens for nighttime photography on the tripod.

[@holdmylenscap7241]

Thanks for the great tips Jeff! Coming from Philippines Alyssa had not much chance to shoot in snow yet :) but on the next occasion we will definitely follow your tips!
To be honest for portraits a little softness is an advantage, back then lenses with softening effects were well sought after by portrait photographers and went for crazy prices. I find the 45mm f1.8 to be one of the best portrait lenses, especially for headshots. It's rendering has some sort of magic for me. :)

[@gamingwithstand6886]

Just a small tip I have a iPhone 7 Plus and the app called Flashlight you can change the color of the light with this app to a warm color. Look for Flashlight with a circle within a circle. It should just be the first one in search. There is a red dot on a wheel just move it that's how you change the color.

[@holdmylenscap7241]

Sorry... Android users here :D

[@pmradlz]

My favourite Lens. I have two...

[@holdmylenscap7241]

I was thinking to do the same :D Have one in my bag and one at work (where my other Olympus camera is) :D

[@RichRobinson]

I’ve subscribed for your giggles. ❤

[@PaulDieterScharpf]

You could have lowered the ISO values even more by using longer exposure times. There would have been no shake problem due to the excellent image stabilization of the Olympus cameras.

[@holdmylenscap7241]

True. She is not used to Olympus. She was using it like it was a full frame with 85mm :) I bet she could get away with 1/20 easily :)

[@mfs62789]

You can get away with 800 ISO handheld

[@jeffslade1892]

Long shutter can still have movement blur. Depends on the subject, could be breeze lowing leaves. Whilst there's probably 5 stops in the IBIS with that lens, it's not your hand shaking but it doesn't pay to go too slow. You may be able to hand-hold at some silly slow speed like 1/2 second but then get unacceptable movement blur.

[@JezdziecBezNicka]

Exactly - I was surprised to see 1/100, I'd go as low as 1/25 in these kinds of situations.
But technical stuff aside, this was a very creative photoshoot, which is what matters the most! :)

[@mfs62789]

Welcome To the magic of Olympus!!! You haven't already update to topaz AI it does a much better job for removing noise.

[@holdmylenscap7241]

We have both Photo AI and Denoise AI. Personally I am not a big fan of Photo AI :)

[@pafflechien5136]

Thanks for the video !
You do have a really nice creativity !
I'm using m4/3 too since a couple of years, I firstly used Lumix G80 and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II then I bought myself a OM-D E-1 Mark III on mpb. Micro 4/3 did a nice progress into noise reduction since their 2015 gears. If you're interested about a good denoise software do take a look to Dxo Pure Raw², it's better than the Topaz AI softwares ;).

[@holdmylenscap7241]

I will definitely give a try to PureRaw, read many good reviews of it. I also have Luminar with Noiseless AI which also does a good job

[@ridealongwithrandy]

True! I am thinking of a mk3 for my backup to my EM1Xs. Cheers!

[@holdmylenscap7241]

@@ridealongwithrandy well the Em1 Mk3 is like a mini EM1x :)

[@WparuSlowach]

M4/3 with dxo PureRaw 2 = Amazing RAW performance. I wouldn’t go above ISO 3200 with M4/3. Luckily IS give us advantage to lower ISO. :)

[@holdmylenscap7241]

For a night street shoot I went all the way to ISO6400 and I am pretty happy with the results. For me noise is part of the photography, personally I prefer to leave a little noise on my night time images as in my opinion it adds to it. Probably that's why many (street) photographers add noise to their images in post process to have a bit of analogue feeling! :D

[@astrozeugs]

Hi, i have Exposure X6 too and i and can say your editing results will be far better with DXO Photolab oder DXO PureRaw. Noise reduction, sharpening and exposure controls - everything is better in DXO Photolab oder DXO PureRaw.
Regards
Andreas

[@holdmylenscap7241]

We use exposure mainly for digital asset management, all our editing is done in Affinity Photo

[@jaypeerayco4744]

are you a filipina? pinoy pride! 🇵🇭

[@holdmylenscap7241]

Syempre naman! ❤️🇵🇭

[@lvarming]

What is the light you're using in the park? Nice video btw

[@holdmylenscap7241]

I think it was just an "average" Ulanzi or Godox LED video light.

[@thegroove2000]

Fillipino?.

[@holdmylenscap7241]

Yes! 😊