Why I Shoot Wide Open | Mark Mann on His Portrait Photography Style

There's a lot of controversy on shooting wide open. Some love it, some hate it. In this video, Mark explains why he loves shooting wide open at f/2 when making his portraits. He also does a test photoshoot with Alex to demonstrate how taking photos at f/2 can add dimensionality to portraits.
Obviously, f/2 doesn't work for everything. In the video, Mark talks about when to shoot wide open and when to choose a different f-stop. He also explains what happens when you change your aperture, and the different ways it affects your photos.
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Complicated Things is Alex Hooks and Mark Mann.
Mark Mann is a celebrity and advertising photographer. His editorial work has appeared in Esquire, Men’s Health, Vibe, Spin, Fortune, Billboard, Parade, and Complex, among others. He has shot countless celebrities, including Robert Redford, Michael Douglas, Iggy Pop, Jack Black, the Black Eyed Peas, Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, Rihanna, Queen Latifah, Simon Baker, Stevie Wonder, Bradley Cooper, Willie Nelson, Sean Connery, John Hamm, and Jennifer Hudson. Mark loves to shoot people from Presidents to Kids who want to be Presidents.
Alex Hooks is a fashion and lifestyle photographer. His work has been featured in numerous internationally published editorials, catalogs, and ad campaigns. He is consistently the worst dressed person at any fashion event.
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Find us online:
Complicated Things:
/ comp_things​​​​
/ complicatedthingsyt
Mark:
/ markmannphoto​
www.markmannphoto.com
Alex:
/ bananaguns
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#aperture #portraitphotography #fstop

[@jkinze]

My first hired portrait photography job was for an escape room. All the picture's were going into photoshop, then aged so they look from the 1800s. I scoured the internet for research of 1800s portraits, and the fake ones today were all taken at f9+. I decided to go pretty open. f2.8 with an 85mm lens. The blur replicated old photos extremely well! My clients loved them! Ps, that first photoshoot taught me a lot about PS too!

[@ComplicatedThings]

Great work, in the 1800s they had very slow ISO and shooting wide open was often the only option.

[@corey688]

This is great. I imagine shooting full open has a more pronounced fall off effect when shooting tighter compositions compared to head and including shoulders and or more. The blown out cheek and hair become the background compression in the photo creating that depth when shooting tighter. Shooting medium head to waist would likely not give the artistic benefit unless your background was in need of compression.

[@tonystriplen3914]

Loved this video! Thanks for sharing your opinions on shooting portraits wide open. Great and helpful explanations!

[@iainmacdonald7034]

Great point about relative harshness of speculation highlights at smaller apertures. I’m sure I’ve seen that in my own photos but not realised the correlation. I’m definitely going to do my own testing a lot more. Thank you for another insightful and engaging film.

[@ComplicatedThings]

Thank you so much for your kind words

[@Maik1968]

Thanks Mark for this very teaching video, now I understand better what these settings in my camera can do. Take care and stay healthy 😘👍

[@Smoothblue90]

Mark Mann, I watched the Leica Capture One online Complicated Things live stream yesterday. Then ssearched KZbin and found a few videos with you. Have learned a lot from you. Thank you.

[@DelDelap]

Hope you do more tutorials like this, it's really helpful when looking on ways to up my game in portraiture photogrphy. I normally shoot at f7.1 to 8.0, generally so the whole face is in focus, but thinks i may start to go wider open now.

[@BougVR]

Every one is different but great to try new stuff out I'm often lazy and stick to my own go tos...

[@vivid710gamer6]

You're an amazing photographer. I am using you for a research project in 1 of my photography classes. The class is all about portraiture

[@alexjenkins5632]

Mark is just brilliant

[@JeffreyHauser]

Another way of seeing. I believe that this is what makes photography & photographers unique. We can all see the world differently. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with others.😊

[@ComplicatedThings]

Couldn’t agree more…

[@luissalazar2021]

Good stuff bro! Thanks for sharing!

[@ComplicatedThings]

You bet

[@thirtyyearcosmetologist]

Awesome tutorials!

[@TomO-rw2xd]

Great video, inspiring!

[@ComplicatedThings]

Thank you very much! Let us know if there is anything else you want us to show.

[@hurleygreen927]

I really appreciate your portrait tips: shooting wide open goes against the usual recommendations, but you opened up a lot of eyes! Thanks for this...,,

[@ComplicatedThings]

Thanks so much! Let me know if there is anything else you want to learn about and happy shooting.

[@KarlHenrySanon]

Thanks for the video. I really like shooting wide open, that’s kind of my style. I remember, I had a teacher in my photography class who gave me A- not A+ for one of my assignments just because a small amount of my subject’s face was in focus including the eyes. He told me that I had to use a smaller Aperture like 3.2 or 4.

[@charliegreen1989]

As you know I’m a massive fan of your close up shallow depth of field portraits. You have a great style.

[@BougVR]

Thanks so much charlie.. you ok?

[@charliegreen1989]

@@BougVR pleasure, I’m ok struggling a little at the moment with feeling a bit down and low.

[@brsaravia]

Thank you for this tutorial. Helped me a lot!! I wish you could do more . Thank you for sharing 💪🏻. Great job !!

[@ComplicatedThings]

Keep watching and we will do more! Any specific requests?

[@brsaravia]

@@ComplicatedThings I'll keep watching, yes. Thank you, about lighting, how to chat in order to get the true inner portrait, the connection.

[@ComplicatedThings]

Your in luck! We have a video coming out on Monday about multiple different ways to light a model with only one light.

[@markwang77]

it helps to have 'Eye AF' capabilities that the mirrorless cameras offer when shooting wide open. the feature is so good at tracking the close eye automatically that the photographer can just focus on connecting with the subject and not worry about locking focus. modern Eye AF technology can focus on the eyeball and not the eyelashes or nose - it's just a great tool that gets out of your way as you create

[@ComplicatedThings]

I know the SL2 has it. I will give it a try

[@iunderstanphotography2780]

You are right. Its so good it feels like cheating in some way

[@dangerbeered]

Top class big man, love everything about that image. Got my juices flowing. Reminds me of a pic of Harrison Ford in a two page spread in some magazine in the 80s. Loved that pic and did a hyper realistic pencil drawing of it back in the day. I’m considering that very camera - could you make the raw files of those images available for download so I can see it in the flesh, or is that verboten?

[@healthid]

Interesting perspective. I notice on the celebrity work you showed it was all shot with a ring light - was that also part of "the look" or just what you liked using for location work?

[@craigcompoliphotography1235]

Great video by an amazing photographer.

[@ComplicatedThings]

Many Thanks! If you get a chance check out Penumbra's website.

[@scottweaverphotovideo]

No reason to shoot only one way. Sometimes wide open can be great, other times f/8 or f/11 is going to be appropriate for an assignment and a look.

[@BougVR]

Agreed.. wish I could remember that

[@Dustyphoto915]

I’m a fan of creative constraints. But shooting wide open only seems inefficient. I shoot general reportage in lots of different lighting. I love having all those apertures at hand. Including 1.4!

[@marike1100]

Lol. And you don’t think Mr Mann, a renowned portrait photographer, is aware of that? It’s a stylistic choice that he makes to give images depth, he knows about f8, ffs. ;)

[@ComplicatedThings]

Listen there is no right or wrong. That is why Mark does photography. Shoot what makes you happy 😃

[@jasonbodden8816]

This is how I operate as well.

[@andyqbui]

LOVE your work. Would love to get some critique sometime.

[@hugueslawson-body6588]

Merci !

[@ecando54]

I've always shot open. I just didn't know why. Thanks!

[@gregshawphotography8828]

Hello. I’m a little late seeing this video. I too love shooting single subject wide open as well. What is most interesting is your use of the single brolly with diffusion. I plan to travel soon and I want to bring a minimal kit. What do you bring with you when you travel?

[@ComplicatedThings]

Depending on where I am going and the clients budget, but the honest answer is as little as possible. Thank you for your kind words.

[@Isaypreach]

"The only thing i don't like about them is the subject" man that line going into my vault. 😂😂 good work bro

[@ComplicatedThings]

Must have been my inner dialog you heard. Thank You! MM

[@antonmedvedev1128]

It's funny how this same effect you can easily get shooting with a crop camera and a 50 mm lens where focus misses the point whatever the apperture and other settings are 😅😅😅

[@ricardocastroromero464]

Thank you so much Mark. I love your style and I really appreciate you explain on this video so well.

[@iunderstanphotography2780]

I loved Mark's series for Esquire for Father/sons, and his Iconic photos of influential men I never shoot so stopped down because I'm not good at it! Its something I need to practice. Slight movement puts everything off; i find myself liking sharpness rather than blur love his sense of humor

[@ComplicatedThings]

Go for your sharpness! There is no right or wrong. Thanks 😊

[@jasonbodden8816]

You mean you never shoot so wide open. When you stop down you go to a smaller aperture, which makes more of your image more in focus.

[@iunderstanphotography2780]

@@jasonbodden8816 no thats the opposite. more of your image is in focus at f11 than at f2, which is what Micheal demonstrated. The eyes are in focus but not the nose or ears

[@iunderstanphotography2780]

@@ComplicatedThings still, there is learning in the exploration!

[@ComplicatedThings]

Completely agree!

[@mattboggs6304]

This is the best example video I've ever seen of why NOT to shoot wide open. All of his shots stopped down were better than the ones wide open. Somewhere between f/5.6 - f/9 probably would have been the sweet spot for me. The ones at f/2.5 look like an amateur who just bought their first 50mm f/1.8 lens after only using a kit lens before, and now shoot everything wide open.

[@ComplicatedThings]

Hey Matt thanks for your comment. Our video titled “why I shoot wide open” was an example of why I shoot wide open. I wish you much success with that 5.6-9 aperture range. All the best MM

[@philcrowphoto1]

Even harder large format! 🙈

[@BougVR]

Yup...

[@bkenn1994]

What focal length do you usually use for your close up portraits?

[@ComplicatedThings]

For medium format Mark likes to be somewhere between an 80 and a 120 lens. His go to is a Leica S 120mm Macro.

[@BAstudios5]

I only shoot with shallow DoF most of the time

[@filibertkraxner305]

That was a fun shoot. Lol, photographers make the worst models (I should know ;-)). Interesting point about the softer specular highlights wide open: I'll have to look into that. I mostly shoot around F8, basically te get more sharp keepers in a short amount of time. My Fuji GFX autofocus isn't brilliant, so I can't count on the eye being in focus every time. That said, my 110 is way more pleasing at f2 or 2.8 than stopped down. I'll have to be brave next time and give it a go (tethered in so I can check if I have at least 1 sharp image, lol). Meh, not so brave after all.

[@ComplicatedThings]

Focus is over rated! Lol 😝

[@jasonbodden8816]

I don't mind wide aperture portraits but when something like the nose is out of focus in a closeup portrait it's really jarring for me and I'm not a fan. But like the saying goes, to each his own.

[@gohumberto]

The human eye is always looking for areas of brightness and of sharpness. Bright eyes, in sharp focus draw the attention immediately. It's like the subject is in the room with you. I changed to shooting more wide-open portraits after seeing the cover of Guy Martin's "My Autobiography" book. Guy Martin has amazing eyes and this image taught me that it's really about the eyes. I have no interest in his ears or the wallpaper.

[@jeffreyallen3461]

Ugh... too much round beauty lights ruining those eyes!

[@ComplicatedThings]

Appreciate your feedback

[@julesgardet659]

Annoying conversation 😬

[@ComplicatedThings]

That’s what my wife says!

[@olegprovochevitch8851]

Much ado about nothing!

[@ComplicatedThings]

Agreed :)