I’ve been a huge fan of SIGMA lenses for many years which started with the SIGMA 10-20mm F4 in Nikon mount as the first SIGMA lens I owned. I remembered being so impressed with the optical quality of this lens which has only intensified over the years. I now use the SIGMA Art ranges of lenses which are honestly the sharpest lenses I have ever used and way more affordable than the other branded lens of the same focal length. Their professional build quality and performance capabilities earn them awards which are well deserved!
I’ve been a professional photographer since 2013 and found that I was starting to lose my creative inspirations and enjoyment of picking up a camera and doing something different. I needed to gain that back and therefore decided to do one personal project per month and shoot something that was entirely for me! My first shoot to overcome my creative block was my ballet shoot and the lenses I choose to inspire me are the SIGMA 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm | F1.4 Art lenses. These four lenses gave me every focal length I would need during the shoot but the two which stood out for me on the day are the SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art and the SIGMA 85mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art.
My SIGMA | 50mm Art is usually my go to focal length of choice because it gives me a lovely balance of compression but its wide enough to take in the environment. This is more paramount when I travel as I like to include the surrounding environment which can often be its own subject and helps to perfectly complement the person I’m photographing. If you’ve never tried the SIGMA 50mm | Art lens then I strongly urge you to have a little go! The auto focus is pretty darn quick too.
Using the SIGMA 85mm | Art lens was a new experience for me as I had never used it before but I was instantly impressed again by the sharpness of a SIGMA lens. It gave me the feeling of shooting medium format with my Canon 5D Mark III. I didn’t know I could get a sharper image. I had experimented with this lens during a head shots session before the actual shoot and was blown away with the quality. It’s worth every penny.
When doing most of my photo shoots, I also like to include a film version on my YouTube channel and share what happens behind the scenes. This of course was included for the ballet shoot and even my videographer, Michael Mowbray, was filming entirely with SIGMA glass too. Mike and I both love the SIGMA 24-105mm F4DG OS HSM | Art lens which has been our ‘go to’ lens for video for many years now for a couple reasons;
1. The focal length has a brilliant range for both wide angle and getting in nice and tight for those detail shots. No need to switch lenses every 5 minutes using shorter focal length or prime lenses which made our workflow extremely smooth.
2. The Optical Stabilisation (OS) works fantastic in keeping the footage nice and smooth, especially when Mike was operating the Steadicam to achieve even more smoothness to the shots making it look even more cinematic. Hardly any stabilisation was added later in post to the shots.
If you’re a videographer I totally recommend you use the SIGMA 24-105mm | Art lens and think everyone should have this in their camera bag. Mike did also use the new SIGMA 14mm T2 FF CINE lens for a few shots which looked absolutely breath taking.
Overall I couldn’t be happier with this shoot and the SIGMA Art range of lenses were the perfect items to help unleash my creative inspirations to complete my personal project. Thank you SIGMA for producing amazing lenses and for helping us achieve not only amazing photos but equally an amazing BTS video to accompany this special shoot
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Website: https://tommyreynolds.co.uk/