Modern hybrid photography in action: mastering portraits in stills and video

Ask professional portrait photographer Tom Barnes what he does, and he'll tell you straight: he's "basically a bank robber" on set – fast, focused, gone in a flash.

"I'm able to go in and get stuff very quickly without getting stressed. I do a lot of work with advertising agencies, where I'll often have to run in with an assistant to take shots alongside a TV ad shoot. It's a 'smash-and-grab', essentially, and I thrive in the chaos."

He's not exaggerating. On assignment to photograph actor Liam Neeson, he had four seconds to grab his shots – all five of them.

Tom, whose client list includes Channel 4, Top Gear Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Bloomberg, Pepsi and more, isn't fazed by the short time he usually has to shoot big names.

"Perhaps years ago I might have found my first celebrity shoots a bit daunting, but now I do them all the time. We're all professionals there to do a job – theirs is to be in front of the camera and my job's to be behind it. If you don't have much time, you have to take control and tell them exactly what you're after. You need to let them know you've got this sorted and they're in safe hands.

The reason Tom opted for the compact Cinema EOS camera and hybrid lens setup is that he is a hybrid photographer. He says the ability to shoot a mix of stills and video is now an expectation rather than a bonus. "I feel as though it's gone past the stage of 'Oh, you do video as well?' to 'Why don't you do video?' – so if you're not shooting video now as a jobbing photographer, you absolutely should be."

He describes himself as a shreditor, providing the complete shooting, editing and producing package whenever clients require it.

"I believe that if you shoot video, you should also try to edit it and grade it, because then it will make you better across the board. You'll understand how you can shoot slightly differently to make it easier in the edit. With stills, you just have to get the shot. I'll work out how to make that one frame look good. Whereas with video, you have to think about how things progress. You need to look at flow and how all these frames are going to marry together to make sense."

As the Canon EOS R5 C has much in common with the EOS R5, it is an equally powerful tool for portrait photography and video – and the speed at which it switches between 45MP full-frame stills and professional 8K video makes it a great option for hybrid photography.

Tom recalls an advertising shoot in Poland that required high-quality photos and videos of the same scenes. "Most advertising jobs normally include elements of motion – and the joy of the EOS R5 C is that you flip the switch and you're in cinema mode. I was able to shoot all the stills and moving images with the same camera, using the same tripod position and the same lighting."

The sophisticated autofocus, which combines Canon's EOS iTR AF system for video with Dual Pixel CMOS AF II technology for stills, makes the job easier for a portrait specialist like Tom. He says he no longer worries about eyes being in focus. "I've probably only had five frames out of focus since moving to the EOS R5 line."

Being able to rely on accurate eye detection is reassuring when using a wide aperture on a portrait lens such as the Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM, where the shallow depth of field would make any focusing errors obvious. But Tom says he wouldn't normally shoot tight portraits wide open anyway.

"Unless you step back for a wider body shot, using an 85mm lens at f/1.4 will throw the tip of a person's nose out of focus in a headshot. I always think that the full plane of the face should be in focus, otherwise it becomes a bit distracting. I'm sure a lot of people will want to use the lens wide open for the effect it creates, but for me it's all about the extra quality it gives you when you stop the aperture down to f/4 or f/5.6. The quality is unbelievable – in fact, the RF lenses in general are outstanding."

As a photographer who rarely shoots wide open, it's little wonder that Tom would reach for an 85mm f/1.4 lens over the ultra-fast 85mm f/1.2 portrait lenses. "I'll use whatever gets the job done," he says, "but a lighter 85mm f/1.4 lens is a far more usable option for me."

Tom explains that a big part of his job is making sure people feel comfortable on a shoot. "The RF 24-105mm F2.8L IS USM Z is absolutely phenomenal – everything about it is just brilliant – but subjects can find zoom lenses intimidating." This lens is actually very compact for a lens with its focal length range, but as Tom observes, "the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM is about half the length – in fact, it's only maybe 50% longer than my RF 35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM.

"It means I can get quite close to people without being imposing. That is the magic of 85mm – you can come in and get a nice frame, but you're still far enough back that you're not invading their personal space."

With their smooth, silent Voice Coil Motor (VCM) focusing, minimal focus breathing and dedicated Iris Ring, Canon's hybrid lenses such as the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM are ideal for solo shooters like Tom, where most jobs demand professional precision without the bulk and cost of dedicated cinema lenses.

The hybrid prime lenses have a uniform design, ensuring more convenient lens changes when a camera's rigged up for video. They share the same image characteristics as well, so grading footage shot on a mix of lenses is a seamless experience.

Tom explains that the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM has been a "brilliant lens" on his portrait shoot tests and has slotted right into his workflow – and slots in literally, too. "When you pack it into your camera bag, these VCM lenses just fit easily, and you don't have a lot of added width with the lens hood.

"It's really lightweight compared to some of the lenses that I've been using, the autofocus is really snappy and the quality is excellent – it gives you a really nice image rather than being too clinical."

He adds that he'd rather have the cleaner output of the hybrid lenses than the distinctive character delivered by some cinema lenses. "I don't want the image to be too clinical, but I do want to be able to put my stamp on it later. I always try to keep it relatively clean on the way in, so I can do whatever I want on the way out. If you have something done in-camera that the client doesn't like, there's no coming back from that."

The consistent image rendering throughout the hybrid prime lens family is one of the reasons that Tom is considering adding a set of these lenses to his kit bag. "It would be nice to have them for when I'm shooting interviews," he says. "I could have the RF 24mm F1.4L VCM or RF 35mm F1.4L VCM for my main shot and the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM for close-ups."

A 60:40 split between stills and video in his work means that Tom has to be ready for anything. He could be photographing media personality Jeremy Clarkson for The Sunday Times Magazine cover one day and shooting video clips for a corporate client the next. So it's essential that his camera kit is versatile enough to take on both jobs and won't slow him down. "The Canon hybrid line of lenses are equally as good for stills as they are for moving image – and that's never really been the case before," he says.

"I shoot so much video now – particularly for B2B. I might be asked to shoot a lot of talking heads content for a business, but they'll often ask if I could shoot a few portraits while I'm there. There you go – that hybrid thing again."

Tom's work continues to sit firmly in the hybrid world, where client briefs calling for a blend of stills and video are increasingly the norm. Hybrid lenses like the Canon RF 85mm F1.4L VCM and RF 24-105mm F2.8L IS USM Z are designed to match the needs of photographers like Tom, who have to switch between the two disciplines without breaking stride. As the boundaries grow increasingly blurred and hybrid shooting moves towards standard practice, these creative tools fit naturally into a fast-paced, flexible workflow.