The Ice Queen

A spontaneous portrait, with the shallow depth of field of the 50mm f/1.2L.

Fluorescent lights do have their uses. This was shot in a lift, which has fluorescent tubes running vertically behind greenish glass on both sides. The quality of light is quite unique, giving a flat ring-flash-like effect of lighting without shadows, but adding a greenish colour cast from the fluorescent light that doesn't usually make it seem suitable for portraits. However, this time I wanted to express a distinctly wintery mood, and the lighting helped a lot with that.

I've recently switched to using the EC-S precision matte focusing screen, and I'm enjoying it a lot - it makes a huge difference when manually adjusting focus with lenses with such wide apertures as this and my Helios 85 f/1.5. Without it, I don't think I'd have been able to place the focal plane so confidently, quickly enough to capture the natural expression in this spontaneous portrait.

Editing was fairly minimal; a small crop to place the eyes and lips almost exactly on the golden sections. Curves to emphasise blues in the shadows (mainly the scarf and coat), reds in the lower midtones (especially the hair), and slightly raising all three of greens and reds and blues in slightly different areas of the highlights. Resize, and selective sharpen.