Lori J. Zeigler |
What lens is best for portraits? What lens is best for portraits?
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
Whatever lens you happen to have with you. ;-))) Seriously, there is no single lens that is the best for all portraits. Portraits can be made with any lens from a fisheye lens to a 600mm lens. It all depends upon how you want the shot to look. That's the real world answer. The text book answer is that a lens somewhere between 85mm and 200mm is the most flattering. That being the case, a 70-200mm lens gives you all kinds of options. My favorite lens for portraits is my 85mm f1.8 lens. The 85mm is long enough for flattering headshots and short enough so I don't have to stand 2 blocks away to take a full length shot. I also like the f1.8 aperture because it allows me to not only handhold in lower light but it keeps my DOF short allowing me to blur distracting background.
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Lori J. Zeigler |
Thanks Jeff K. That is just what I thought. I have 3 different lens. They all work really good for portraits. I just wondered if there was a special one. Thanks again. Lori Z.
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
You just have to be aware of the characteristics of different lenses and how they affect portraits. Longer focal lengths tend to compress features. Consequently if you shoot someone with a big nose and use a 200mm lens it will help to shorten the appearance of the nose. Conversely if you take a head shot of person with a 28mm lens it will make them look like they have a very long nose. If your subject has short legs shooting them from a lower perspective with a moderate to wide angle lens (50mm-28mm) it will make them look like they have longer legs. Lenses are just tools. Pick the right one for the job you need to do.
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Bunny Snow |
On my Nikon FE and FM3A, I've always used the 105 mm lens, as I did not have anything longer. With my Mamiyaflex C2 professional, now an antique 2 1/4 square format (circa 1962-1986), I used a 135 mm - 165 mm, and 180 mm lenses. Since a "normal" lens for this formatted camera is an 80 mm. These are good sized telephotos. The normal lens on a 35 mm camera is 50 mm. And, on my Pentax K-1000, I would use the 135 to 200 mm. This is the same that my photography teachers. They told me that with a longer lens, you can get OUT of your On the other hand, a wide angle, distorts and the distortion may not be flattering to the subject. I used to think that it was better to shoot large groups with a wide angle. But, the people on the outside near In general, it is better to move your subject into a tighter 45 deg. angle pose (to the camera), and move back Bunny
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