This Is The Gear Used To Take Obama’s New Official Portrait

This Is The Gear Used To Take Obama’s New Official Portrait


Obama’s has a new portrait to kick off his second term as POTUS, and it is an exercise in pure and simple portrait photography. Here is a rundown of what photographer Pete Souza used to snap the soon-to-be iconic pic.

PopPhoto points out that, thanks to Flickr’s EXIF display, we can easily peer into the technical details of a shoot like this.

Here is the breakdown:

  • Camera: Canon 5D Mark III
  • Lens: 85mm f/1.2
  • Aperture: f/7.1
  • Shutter Speed: 1/125
  • ISO: 200

If you look closely at the reflection in Obama’s eyes, it looks as if Souza used two umbrellas to light the US President. Pretty standard for a no-frills portrait like this one. We also know that Photoshop CS5 was used to process the image. Come on, White House, you can’t spring for the CS6 upgrade?? [Flickr via PopPhoto]


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