How’s Leica Q2 portrait photography? Does it Bokeh at 28mm f1.7? These questions and more are answered in this article looking at the portrait powers of the Q2.
Introduction
The Leica Q2 has been a resounding success for Leica. It’s pretty much an M camera with modern features like autofocus, video, etc. It’s one of those cameras that are pretty much “good for anything” from macro to travel and street photography. So how does Leica Q2 portrait photography fare? Let’s find out.
Leica Q2 Portrait photography
The first thing to know before looking at the Q2’s portrait prowess, it’s good to know what makes a great portrait in the first place
The issue with wide angles
Usually most people like flattering portraits. That is achieved with longer lenses (75-10mm) at the highest aperture possible. This is a strike against Leica Q2 portrait photography because the lens is a 28mm. Plus the longer the lens the better the Bokeh.
Longer lenses compress space so they make your subject look better. Wide angles do the opposite.
Environmental portraiture
That is why the best use case for Leica Q2 is environmental portraiture. That means instead of focusing on the face and blurring it to oblivion, you show a bit of the entourage of the subject. This might get a lot of photographers enraged but there’s not much to plain portraits with Bokeh besides “Look, a pretty girl!”. Environmental portraits are stronger and richer because they require some thinking about the background, what’s in the frame and what isn’t.
Still Bokehlicious
This is not to say the Leica Q2 can’t Bokeh. Even if it’s on the wide end of things, the f1.7 focal length coupled with a full frame sensor really delivers. One of the factors affecting Bokeh is how close you are to the subject and the Q2 can shoot as close as 11.81″ or 30 centimeters. With all of these you can really make beautiful Bokeh portraits.
Digital zoom saves the day
But here’s the thing. The Leica isn’t just a 28mm fixed lens shooter, with the digital zoom, it can go up to 75mm and you would still be left with a 7 megapixel file. Now granted the Bokeh will not be the same as a 75mm f1.7 but with the crop and basic Bokeh, the portraits are stunning.
When you have the digital focal lengths turned on with the little button in the back, above the screen, you will forget you have a wide angle camera in your hands. Those 47 megapixels are really useful here as unless you checked the file you would never know this is a crop. Especially given that everything is incredibly sharp.
So if you have no problem turning on the crop mode and are ok with the Bokeh is not the same as an actual 75mm, the Leica Q2 is a stunning portrait photography camera. There’s definitely the mythical “Leica glow” in there because the lens is so sharp, and you can see it in portraits too.
Secondary features
While the discussion about Leica Q2 portrait photography is mostly about “how do portraits look when shot”? There’s a few features of the camera that makes it shine for the task.
Firs of all there’s Face detection. Like the name suggests it can track faces when they are in the frame. If there is no-one it goes back to the normal AF mode. The only small caveat here is to make sure you have the latest firmware and that when you have the cropped mode turned on, it will only detect the faces within the frame.
Also the 10 fps is useful here to shoot portraits. It might only be a fraction of a second difference between a winning portrait and a so-so one.
Another great feature for portraits is the stabilization. Flaterring portraits are usually done in the shade and if there’s not a lot of light, the stabilization helps to keep your images sharp.
The last secondary feature that makes Leica Q2 portrait photography great is the viewfinder. At 3,680,000 Dots it’s pretty high resolution so you always have a good sense if you had the eyes in focus or not. Nothing is worse than getting nasty surprises after you shot your portraits and the subject is long gone.
Leica Q2 portrait photography settings
To each their own but here’s my Leica Q2 portrait photography settings.
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mode | Aperture Priotity | Simple operation |
| Aperture | f1.7 | Maximum Bokeh |
| Distance from subject | 12 inches | Maximum Bokeh |
| Crop Mode | 75mm | Tight frame |
Aperture priority makes it easier to shoot portraits because unlike most cameras you are going to shoot two portraits instead of one and you want your complete focus on the composition instead of the settings. Adjust your EV as desired.
Put your camera at these settings and look at the inner 75mm frameline. This is your first shot, make sure everything inside is neat. Once you made sure the portrait is nice, then look at the overall 28mm shot, is there anything in the frame that is taking away from the portrait?
Once you have made sure both images will work, take the shot. You now have a portrait that works in 28mm and 75mm. You would just shoot and focus on the 75mm crop but many times I’ve ended up liking the wider angle after forgetting it on my hard drive for a while.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this article about Leica Q2 portrait photography. In short, it’s a stunner, even if initially the wide angle might seem restrictive. But once you factor in the really great Bokeh at 28mm, the Q2 makes excellent portraits even when cropped to 75mm.
The high resolution sensor and razor sharp lens makes this more than just a 28mm camera. It might not beat a dedicated kit with telephoto lenses but it’s a force to be reckoned with when it comes to portraits, even more if you focus on environmental portraits. Get yours here.