 |
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 55mm
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f/5.6
Flash: SB-600
|
How many times have you seen this. It is pretty common nowadays with the proliferation of social media, everyone want to show a new pic of themselves right where there at. On the one hand, we now have more pics of ourselves and families than we ever have in the past, but at what expense. Portrait pictures are all about the perspective of the shot, and the 3ft of your arm just isn't enough to do you justice. Now, I have no thoughts that people are going to stop shooting photos of themselves with their phones, it is just way too convenient, but you as a photographer should keep it in mind.
Now one of the things that is great about the web is that there is a lot of information available, the bad thing is, there is also a lot of wrong information. Now people aren't trying to point you in the wrong direction, they are just parroting what they've heard, it's human nature and we all do it. The biggest one for portraits is the 85mm lens, or less often the 135mm lens. The bad thing about this is that these wives tales have been around since film, and they didn't change when everyone started using DX sensors. People just kept on parroting. What you need to remember is that you select your focal length to frame the shot the way you want, you don't simply put on an 85mm lens and then move 5ft away from your subject to do a head shot.
Portraits are all about perspective and you get that perspective by maintaining a proper distance from your subject. No matter what kind of shot you are taking, headshot, or full length, you need to maintain a minimum of 15ft from your subject for proper perspective. Now I will demonstrate that. My beautiful daughter has allowed me to post the absolute ugliest photo I could make of her on the web for your benefit, so here you go.
 |
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 18mm
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f/4
Flash: SB-600
|
18mm DX / 27mm FX: POOR GIRL. She is such a trooper that she allowed this. At this focal length I was right in her face, and just look at what it has done. She is balding worse than her dad, her nose has grown like Pinocchio, where are her ears, and you can see every pore on her face. Every feature at this distance of about 1.5 feet is grotesquely exaggerated. Now even you people shooting yourselves with phones are doing it this close, but it magnifies just what your are doing with that close perspective.
 |
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 35mm
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f/5.3
Flash: SB-600
|
35mm DX / 50mm FX: Already we have improvement. This has moved me back to about 4ft. Her hairline is still receded and her nose is still enlarged, but this is definitely improving.
 |
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 55mm
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f/5.6
Flash: SB-600
|
55mm DX / 85mm FX: Here is your fabled portrait lens (on 35mm film). So this lens is really still too short for this shot as we are only about 7ft away from her here. Even though we are still too close, the proportions are really starting to become "human" and this shot could be used if we can't get any further away due to a confined space. And although this picture is looking good, you will see that there is still more improvement and that her hairline is still receded in this photo.
 |
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: 70-210mm f/4-5.6
Focal Length: 110mm
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f/4.5
Flash: SB-600
|
110mm DX / 165mm FX: Now we are getting somewhere. This is longer than any of the so called "portrait lenses" due to the fact that we are framing a headshot here. For this shot we are just short of the 15 feet at about 14 feet. If you looked at these shots in order you probably thought the last shot looked really good, until you saw this one. This is a completely usable shot, and I think my daughter would be happy with this one. Unless forced by constraints of my environment, this is the closest perspective I'd use for any portrait shots.
 |
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: 70-210mm f/4-5.6
Focal Length: 135mm
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f/4.8
Flash: SB-600
|
135mm DX / 200mm FX: We are to the point of incremental improvement here, but still improvement. We are about 16ft now. Although the improvements are incremental, why not give your subject all you can and flatter them. That is why I didn't stop here, I had zoom left, so lets see what's left.
 |
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: 70-210mm f/4-5.6
Focal Length: 210mm
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f/5.6
Flash: SB-600
|
210mm DX / 315mm FX: I am still seeing improvement here at 20ft, but it is minimal at this point.
Now portraits aren't just head shots, so lets take a quick look at a full length shot.
 |
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 18mm
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f/4
Flash: SB-600
|
18mm DX / 35mm FX: So here we are at that original 18mm lens we used for the first shot, but since this is a full length we are about 6ft away. Not terrible, but we aren't doing her any favors here either.
 |
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 55mm
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f/5.6
Flash: SB-600
|
55mm DX / 85mm FX: Now we are back to 15ft, and there is a noticeable difference. Just like the headshot, 15ft gives us the proper perspective for a full length photo too. But as you see here, it required a much shorter lens than the headshot.
So make sure you flatter your subjects by providing them the proper perspective.
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment