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Helena

A Portrait Series

Story by Jonas Jacobsson August 30th, 2014
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Photos over coffee

Me and Helena go way back. We’ve been friends since high school and both of us currently studies at the same university here in Gothenburg. Every now and then we meet up, have coffee and talk about life in general.

This time I came with the suggestion of me bringing my camera over and take her portrait(s) at the same time. She kindly agreed and we had a great time. All photos are shot indoors, at Helenas apartment, which I thought at first would provide a bit troublesome lighting since I (almost) never work with flashes. How wrong I was - it turned out to be a great environment to photograph in.

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All smiles

As I said, we had a great time the both of us. I rarely do pure “portrait photography” - I'm more of a street photographer - but this is something I really want to improve on. I want to be able to do all kinds of photography.

I mean…

…who doesn't love smiling?
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Trio

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Natural

I am not a professional portrait photographer of any kind, quite the contrary, in this field I’m a beginner. But I want to get better. When I invested in the 56 mm lens (roughly 84 mm on a full frame) it was specifically for this purpose.

In my mind I had thought of Helena for a first test of this lens since she is so natural in her expressions, something I’m looking for in every photo I take - originality. I kind of knew beforehand that this portrait series would turn out great if I just could do my part. Helena claimed that she is a bit camera shy - something that is absolutely absent in these photos.

I told her to just be herself.


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B/W or color?

I’m a huge fan of black and white for the simplicity and timelessness it provides. Less distraction, more focus on the subject in my opinion.

However, every now and then color needs to be there as well. In some ways it’s more lively.

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Thank you

Huge thanks to Helena for letting me take her portraits. I think we both had a lot of fun and the results turned out fantastically in my humble opinion.

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Footnote: Special thanks to Helena Sand. All images shot on a Fujifilm X-T1 along with the XF 56 mm F/1.2R lens. Processed in Lightroom. Property of Jonas Jacobsson, August 2014.
Gothenburg, Sweden