I posted a couple of weeks ago about finding the right 8x10 lens for a tight studio setting and got a lot of great advice, now I find myself with a perspective problem.
I'm shooting 8x10 vertically oriented full standing portraits (with my 250 mm Fujinon W lens) and I'm getting too much floor in the shot. I am constrained by needing the subject to be a certain size and position - I can't move them closer to the backdrop which I believe would help. To give you an idea how much floor I am seeing the floor is taking up 25% of the final image (height). In a vintage portrait I want to emulate the floor takes up 15% of the total image height, that 10% is the difference between elegance and clunkiness to my eye. Moving the camera up and down and changing the angle that way doesn't seem to help.
My understanding is that the only way to change the perspective on the floor in relation to the subject is to use a longer focal length lens, right? If I get the camera further back I will see less floor in relation to the subject at the same size.
The specifics of my setup: I'm currently shooting with the camera 10' from the subject. I have space to move it to ideally 13' (to 16' max) from the subject. My subject is 5' 6" on average, standing about 2' in front of a 8' high backdrop with 8' usable width.
If my use of lens calculators is correct I need between a 370mm and a 500mm lens but I don't know enough about lenses to be sure that I would have the right angle of view.
Any thoughts and suggestions? And, as I am not well educated about lenses, any suggestions of books to help me with that would be appreciated.
Thanks!
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