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Use your standard zoom for great portraits
Techniques
24 October 2007 14:22
Fast, easy and versatile, the standard zoom is the lens of choice for most people.
The zoom ring allows you to quickly select different focal lengths to get the right crop in an instant, from head and shoulders portraits to group shots and full-length body shots.
However, shooting from close to a portrait subject with a wide-angle lens will enlarge and stretch a nose – hardly flattering. To avoid this, step back and use a longer focal length to flatten perspective, resulting in a much more flattering picture. As a rule of thumb, the closer you want to crop in on your subject, the more zoomed in you should be.
Aperture is another important consideration. Using a wide aperture, such as f/2.8, will give restricted depth-of-field that can be used to draw attention to the subject’s eyes – the key focal point in any traditional portrait. The eyes are the most important part of any portrait, as this is where your attention is instinctively drawn. Experimenting with eye contact is one the most powerful tools available to you, and you can choose to have direct contact for maximum impact, or have your model looking elsewhere for a more a solemn or detached feel. Always focus on the eye nearest to the camera.
A smaller aperture, such as f/11, may be used to bring other areas of the face into sharp focus but you’ll need good light to achieve this, as it’s important to get a fast shutter speed of around 1/180sec to freeze subject movement and get your picture pin-sharp.
To ensure that your model’s face and limbs aren’t foreshortened or distorted from being too close, use the table to find the right settings.