FE 14mm F1.8 GM | Shoot daily life shots conveniently | Review by Ray Kay
A photographer who fell in love with video and filmography in 2019. Since then, he has embraced videography – becoming a professional filmmaker and releasing his first film, "Love Youth". Today, he continues expanding his creative boundaries and sharpening his expertise in this exciting field.
The compelling nature of video
I started my career as a photographer and have always loved portrait shots. On my travels and in everyday life, I would snap photos of the beautiful places and people around me, writing notes in my journal while doing so. I enjoyed capturing stories in the photos I took, but always felt that I wanted to capture… more.
In 2019, I travelled to Iceland and was captivated by the amazing environments and landscapes around me. In that moment, I decided to encapsulate those memories in videos – and that's how I made my first film, "Love Youth", and embarked on my filmmaking journey.
Why I film with a prime lens
I'm inspired by lights and shadows, and am particularly captivated by the low sunlight and long shadows of the "golden hour" – where buildings, people and nature all become extraordinarily beautiful when bathed in this combination of shadow and light.
When out and about, my choice of camera and lens is the Sony Alpha 7C and FE 14mm F1.8 GM prime lens. Why a prime lens? I like how prime lenses have brighter aperture values and better resolutions than their zoom counterparts. This makes the depth of field more diverse – especially in close-up situations, where the shots become a lot more dramatic.
I'm a fan of Sony's G Master prime lenses and own almost all them, along with a few zoom lenses as well.
Today, I'll share some videography tips and use scenes from my film to illustrate the points I'm talking about. I hope you'll find these useful when shooting your videos!
Scene 1: Transitioning from indoors to outdoors
This is an interesting shot for two reasons. Firstly, it takes viewers from a dark indoor area to the bright outdoors. Second, the doorway was especially narrow – which provided a unique opportunity to showcase the two contrasting areas.
As I filmed this scene using a closed aperture, I didn't need to pay particular attention to the focal distance. This meant I was free to adjust the distance and angle to get my "perfect shot". My 14mm FE 14mm F1.8 GM prime lens enabled me to perfectly capture the subject passing through this narrow doorway, with the contrast setting the scene.
I made the scene more dramatic by using a high contrast to really highlight the shadows. Realising that the background was bright, vibrant full of textures and details, I set the aperture to 16 – and really captured as much of the scene's vibrancy as possible.
Scene 2: Motion amidst the vast outdoors
Here's another where light takes centre stage. This time, we were out shooting at 1pm, when the sun was at its highest. This scene takes place in a picturesque grass field with tall grass surrounding my subject.
To get the ideal feel for this shot, I used an infinite focus and set the aperture to 16. Here, I balanced the harmony of all the various elements in the frame, rather than only thinking about the distance of the subject and camera. This way, I could capture all the intricate details in this uniquely gorgeous environment – the grass and subject in the foreground, as well as the trees, mountains and sky in the distance.
Shooting was done at 29.9fps with a shutter speed of 1/60 – creating a beautiful motion blur, while capturing details like the grass swaying and the model's hair moving as the ran through the field. To get the full effect of how the model's motion affected the grass, I shot from low angles.
Scene 3: Candles in the dark
This scene was filmed in an area that was engulfed in complete darkness, with only candles illuminating the environment.
This particular shot was very close to being a macro shot, with a shooting distance of only around 25cm. During these close-up shots, I set the aperture on my FE 14mm F1.8 GM lens to wide open – which created a soft and beautiful bokeh effect in the background.
In your videos, you can consider using candles or smaller lights (like Christmas tree lights) to maximise the bokeh effect and create some truly stunning shots!
Everyday videos. Not-so-everyday ideas.
I love recording beautiful scenes, and really like using a shallow depth of field because it heightens the emotional intensity of a scene. And because a lot of what I record involves everyday life, the lightweight combination of the Sony Alpha 7C and the FE 14mm F1.8 GM are fantastic companions on my filmmaking adventures!
