Guest Blog #1
Over the next week at DCW we will be publishing and
sharing a number of daily guest blogs from our partners and guest photo bloggers.
Our first contribution comes from commercial photographer and photo blogger
Rachel Devine. Rachel has been shooting consistently with the Olympus System
since 2014. Find out a little more about how she uses Olympus for her work.
Olympus at work
with Rachel Devine
I was first
introduced to the Olympus system through the OM-D E-M10 as a family holiday
camera in 2014. I was so impressed with the performance and features of that
model that I wanted to see if the OM-D E-M1 could revolutionise my professional
photography as well.
From the first professional shoot I did with the OM-D E-M1, it was clear that it was a game changer for my career. The camera is lightweight yet still powerful. I was able to get all the shots I needed with no physical strain. The OM-D E-M1 is small enough that it is not at all intimidating to my models on commercial shoots yet sturdy enough that it can keep on shooting all day long. Despite the small size, the camera with its 16.3 MP Live-MOS sensor and Image Processor was able to capture accurate colour and detail while rendering the image with minimal noise in unpredictable lighting situations which is essential to a natural light photographer.
The
autofocus system on the camera is fast and accurate even in low light
situations and that is an essential feature in my career of photographing fast
moving kids. You can set the autofocus to find faces or even refine that down
to focusing on the closest eye to the camera. For product shoots and detailed
imagery, I like to switch over to manual focus. Here is where the OM-D E-M1
absolutely shines. With focal area enlargement and focus peaking both turned on
in the manual focus assist menu settings, I can be absolutely certain that I
have tack sharp focus even in macro images with extremely shallow depth of
field. What this means is that when I choose the focal point and press the
shutter halfway down the selected area of the image is enlarged in the
viewfinder. As I turn the manual focus ring the outline of what is in focus
begins to glow white at the edges when it is sharp. No more second guessing my
eyesight, I know that I have nailed the focus.
The controls
on the OM-D E-M1 feel so natural in my hands that I can make necessary
adjustments to exposure without taking my eye off the viewfinder. The buttons
and dials are all customisable so I have set them to perfectly reflect my
shooting style. One of the main benefits of this system over the DSLR is the
live electronic viewfinder. I feel more engaged with my subjects with my eye to
the viewfinder instead of on the LCD and the viewfinder on the OM-D E-M1 displays
the changes to the resulting image as I make them. Now I can shoot confidently
through the viewfinder knowing that my shots are perfectly exposed as I press
the shutter release without having to stop and check the LCD.As my clients come
to me for PR imagery and time sensitive campaigns, I must get my images right
in camera so that the editing is minimal and the turnaround time is extremely
quick.
With a short
deadline and the client present at the shoot, I depend on the OM-D E-M1’s
wireless capability. I can either shoot
invisibly tethered to an iPad using the camera’s inbuilt WiFi and the Olympus
Image Share app or I can transfer the shots wirelessly to the iPad at the end
of a session with the same technology. With Live View on the iPad via the Olympus
Image Share app, my clients can see the photographs as they are taken without
having to stand over my shoulder. With the flexibility of wireless available on
all Olympus PEN & OM-D cameras, it allows us to not be physically tied to a
computer or confined to a studio. As the input from the client is in real time,
adjustments can be made in the moment avoiding the need to set up that
particular shot again. All of these innovations with the OM-D E-M1 mean happier
clients who feel like they are a part of the process. This feature happens to be
my favourite for my family photography as well. The kids love to control the
camera for family selfies and with the images then on my phone, I can share
them immediately online.
In the case
of headshots, editorial and PR photography where deadlines can be even tighter
or even immediate in the case of events, I can shoot and transfer to the iPad
on site so that the client makes their image selections as soon as we are
finished shooting. If there is any editing to be done, I can simply import the
selects into Lightroom on my iPad. Simple alterations of exposure, white
balance and cropping can easily be done in the app to the delight of the
client. If any larger editing requests come up such as complex skin retouching,
it is easy with the Creative Cloud version of Lightroom to transfer the working
file to my Macbook Pro laptop to finish in the full version of the program on
there. Then again, that is rarely needed and most of my headshot clients leave
the session having selected their photos, approved the edits and received a
link via email to their gallery of final files hosted on my site without the
images having even touched a computer.
The way shooting
with the OM-D E-M1 has streamlined my photography business is the biggest development
I have experienced since going from film to digital in 2004.
I love
taking photographs. It has been my passion and career for a long time and
shooting with the OM-D E-M1 means I can spend more of my time taking great
photographs and making clients happy than sitting at my computer and editing
images.
Author Bio
Rachel
Devine is a commercial photographer and photo blogger. She has worked in the
children’s media industry since the beginning doing headshots and PR imagery
for many child actors and models. She has shot ad campaigns and kid clothing
lines as well as branching out into photographing grown-ups too. From Los
Angeles, California, since 2008 she has called Melbourne, Australia home. This
year marks her twentieth anniversary in the photography business. Rachel is the
author of four photography books including Beyond Snapshots (Random
House/Amphoto/Ten Speed) and Life in Natural Light (Digital Photography
School). In her two decades of professional photography she has used most every
camera format out there from instant film to large format, but has not shot
with anything except the Olympus system since 2014.
