When it comes to portrait photography, one of the most fundamental and important creative decisions you can make is the focal length you use. If you are newer to portrait photography and curious about how it affects the look of your final images, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you a set of portraits shot at a range of different focal lengths.
Coming to you from Anita Sadowska, this helpful video tutorial will show you how your choice of focal length affects the look of your portraits. The thing to remember is that a wider focal length exaggerates features, while a longer focal length compresses them. While photographers will use a range of focal lengths for the desired creative effect, 85mm lenses are often considered the classic option for portrait work, as they balance these competing extremes by creating enough compression to be flattering to the subject while also not flattening the subject so much that you lose the dimensionality that makes every face unique to that person. It's a balancing act that changes with every subject and creative situation. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Sadowska.
If you would like to continue to learn about portrait photography, be sure to take a look at our extended tutorials.
The photographer did not seem aware, or at least did not mention, that it was actually distance to subject that was controlling perspective, not focal length. Distance controls perspective, focal length controls framing.
Came to say this.
Half 'n half. For example, no matter how close you are, you'll never get a 200mm to look like this. Focal length + distance is doing this.
the first thing to know is that if you shoot a face closer than 4-5 feet, you'll enlarge or exaggerate the nose. Nobody likes that at all.
Otherwise, most any lens works, depending on what you want to show along with the primary subject.
But showing the subject along with his/her environment will some thought - do you want to suppress the environment or emphasize it.
Black Z Eddie . You said "Half 'n half. For example, no matter how close you are, you'll never get a 200mm to look like this. Focal length + distance is doing this."
Yes, you can, and it will look like that. If you get that close with a 200mm lens (it might require a short macro tube to focus that closely) and use the Brenizer method to create a mosaic to match the framing...it will look just like a wide-angle lens at that same distance.
Lol, dude, seriously? No. Just no. What multiverse Youtube did you learn that from? Talk about grasping at straws.
Actually, I did something like that 'way back in the early 70s before I knew better. I shot a panorama of a building with a short telephoto from a single tripod position and mosaicked the images. It looked like a wide-angle shot even though I used a telephoto lens. It's still a matter of distance, not focal length.
Now that I know how to use shifts and tilts in a view camera, I know how I'd take that picture differently with a fixed-back camera.
If you're using the brenizer method, you're essentially changing your field of view to an equivalent to a wider lens.
Exactly right. The point is, perspective is a matter of distance, framing is a matter of focal length. You can do it the opposite way: Back up to 10 feet, shoot with a 20mm lens and crop. The perspective will be the same as with a longer lens.
See my comment below:
To the photographers mentioning that it's based of the distance and not the focal length. You're correct, however human subjects are all relatively the same size, and as you increase your focal length long enough, it becomes impossible to stand within a certain distance and still keep your subject in frame.
Literally every few months the same exact article or video will be posted explaining focal length and photographers will be so arrogantly mad because of technicalities. However, from a practical perspective, most portraits will be framed somewhat similar to each other and human subjects aren't all that different in size. It's time to stop being so butthurt about people making saying that an super telephoto will tend to make someone's face flat.
There is a particular reason and use case that I point this out. When working within normal studio situations, small changes in distance can cause significant changes in perspective, particularly when any part of the body is extending toward the camera.
At these short distances (within 3 meters, maybe within two meters), short camera movements can significantly change the proportions of a shoulder or a knee or a leg--or even an ear or nose or chin--from one shot to the next as the photographer shuffles in or out (zooming with the feet).
When the photographer has zeroed in on the desired perspective, that would be a reason to zoom rather than change the camera distance. Or if the photographer does want to control the perspective, knowing that changing the distance does so is a tool in the box.
My money is you've mistaken/forgotten what lens you used back in the early 70's. :)
If you think about it:
1. a 200mm doesn't have anywhere the distortion a 12mm has. Not even close.
2. a macro tube is so you can focus closely hence the magnification.
3. The Brenizer method is basically just stitching images.
To the photographers mentioning that it's based of the distance and not the focal length. You're correct, however human subjects are all relatively the same size, and as you increase your focal length long enough, it becomes impossible to stand within a certain distance and still keep your subject in frame.
Literally every few months the same exact article or video will be posted explaining focal length and photographers will be so arrogantly mad because of technicalities. However, from a practical perspective, most portraits will be framed somewhat similar to each other and human subjects aren't all that different in size. It's time to stop being so butthurt about people making saying that an super telephoto will tend to make someone's face flat.