I recently switched to medium format for my studio work and got me a GFX100. Honestly, this camera is amazing (I am not getting paid for this statement and have no commercial relationship with Fujifilm – other than being an ordinary private customer for their equipment). With the camera I also bought a few lenses and so the bill piled up. Living in Shanghai but not speaking Chinese is some kind of burden. However, I recently accepted an invitation to the Shanghai Naval Club, where Fujifilm sponsored a portrait workshop. Although the workshop was certainly in Chinese and most of the participants did not speak a single word of English, I accepted the invitation. I was curious seeing how the subject was addressed and how the shooting was organized.
I don’t need to spend a lot of time here, talking about the introduction, because I did not understand a lot. My neighbor translated the topics to me. The basics were covered, and the crowd was actively listening.
The we went outside for the shooting. I felt very sorry mainly for the two models because at 37 degrees centigrade it is not much fun for them. But they mastered well, looking beautiful even under these difficult conditions.
The pretty large group was split into two and we followed the models and the instructors to several locations at the navel club area. The choice for those locations was done well. It was a sunny day and the was a lot of light and shadow. I was the only one using a flashlight on the scene. Actually, it was worth it, bringing one, because brightening the faces and overcoming the shadows was necessary almost in every of the selected locations.
Trying to use my 110mm lens (medium format), I gave up quickly. It is the finest portrait lens offered for this system, but the crowd was just too big to get close enough to the models without taking too much room. So I tried my new 250mm lens, which equals to 197mm on 36mm film systems). That was much better and allowed me to take a few nice shots.