RDKirk wrote: Live View: I\'ll make this short, since I\'ve written a longer article at my blog about this.
Dan, I disagree with your blog comment about Live View not being useful for portraits. Portraits are what I do, and I now use Live View nearly 100% of the time--any time the camera is on a tripod, and with Live View I make that any time I can possibly put the camera on the tripod. Live View works so well, I\'ll tripod the camera even if it\'s not necessary just to use Live View.
Even your point about getting from behind the camera to look at the subject directly is more applicable to Live View than to the viewfinder. It\'s certainly easier to glance briefly down at the LCD while otherwise interacting directly with the subject.
Perhaps counterintuitively--something you have to try to understand--putting the camera on a tripod with Live View is actually more liberating than being the tripod and thus being attached to the back of the camera.
I\'ve just gotten a radio trigger for the camera so that I don\'t even have to stay in physical contact with the camera after I\'ve set up the shot. I can move toward the subject, staying just outside the frame, and fully interact. This is working wonders for photography of children.
Interesting points, and I actually have thought more about my statement regarding portrait photography (which isn\'t my main thing, by the way) since I wrote that. I keep coming back to some photos I saw of Avedon doing the \"American West\" photographs - he seemed to be doing pretty much exactly what you describe: standing back from the camera and communicating directly with his subject.
The more I think about it the more I agree that your description of how to use Live View for certain types of portrait photography is exactly right. The only qualification I\'d make is to point out that once you are away from the camera and making eye contact with the subject it really doesn\'t matter what mode you are in since you are not looking at the display... (However, I just added a footnote to my portrait comment at the blog acknowledging the point you make.)
(For anyone who wonders about my feelings about Live View on the 5D II, I like it a great deal and I rely on it a lot in my own work.)
BTW, what wireless controller are you using? Any upsides/downsides to this solution for you?
Take care,
Dan
Aug 11, 2009 at 12:20 PM
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