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Lens
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What lens do you perfer to use when shooting a portrait?????????????????
A 18-55mm Lens
or
70-200mm lens or higherThat’s a “depend”
If I’m doing a simple head & shoulders and want to have a natural perspective with a low depth of field then I’d use the 70-200 but if I want to show the environs around the subject then I would use the 18-55. This would be fairly standard stuff but obviously there will be occasions when this rule will be broken but don’t expect to be thanked if you use the 18mm end of the standard zoom to do a full face portrait of your aspiring model.
So that’s my vote :) but you didn’t have a ‘depends’ button to tick.
Also an ‘it depends’;
Portraiture is a very large catch all category, and you should decide what type of portraits you plan on shooting. Traditionally the focal lengths used (and all are 35mm-equivalents) have tended to be:
28- 35mm – Groups/ environmental portraits
50mm – Full-Body
85mm – Half-Body
135mm – Head & ShouldersIf you’re looking for for low depth of field portraits, ala the modern fashion/ current trend in portraits, then a large aperture lens (f1.4- f2.8) of 85mm (35mm-equivalent), in length, or more should suffice.
Personally I use a 50mm f1.4 on my Nikon DSLR for the portraits I shoot. Perfection would be a 100mm equivalent (70mm on a dslr), which I find a very flexible focal length for portraits, allowing me to back off to add more environment into the shot, or step forward a bit to tightly frame a headshot.
Damien
There’s a gap in your focal lengths, a very important one for portraiture.
What format are you using? or rather, it doesn’t matter-
asking ‘what focal length?’ is approaching the question from the wrong direction.A more fundamental question is, how far away from your subject should you be?
After that, focal lengths are only supplying your framing, loose or tight.Both of the lenses, and all of the focal lengths in your poll
will produce the same relationship between the features of the face when shot from the same position.A useful exercise is to look at someone, from different distances-
too far away and features are flattened, too close, and protrusions like the nose, lips, and forehead become more prominent than perhaps they should-
unless of course, you’re calling attention to them for a particular effect.Anyway, I’m not answering your question, so I’d better stop now-
Although, if I were using the Nikon 70-200, I might be challenged by the 2.5m minimum focusing distance,
especially at the more appropriate shorter focal lengths.
I did some headshots the other day, and the 85mm never came off the camera.So I haven’t ticked a box on your poll…
All good points by JB.
Shooting distance to subject can be quite important indoors, where space is limited. I know there used to be a chart on the web illustrating the field of view for all common focal length’s on dslr’s, ie how much of subject can you capture with a 35mm lens at a distance of 10 feet, for example.
Outdoors, working distance is not as critical, in that you’re not confined by space. Here the main consideration is that by shooting at a longer distance from the subject, the features of the subject will look more compressed, and often more flattering.
Lastly, is your own comfort zone to be factored into all the above. Many photographers are uncomfortable shooting at close distances to subjects and prefer longer focal length lenses to allow them to ‘stand off’ their subject so to speak..
Damien
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