Wrong lenses for portraiture?

[john_vandale_]

Hi there!

I'm a bit confused today... I earn my first LF camera with a standard lens. It's a 4x5 Linhof with a 150mm lens.

I wanted to make head and shoulders portraits and I was aware that I'll need a longer lens for this purpose.

So I get a 300mm one and it works. Sometimes... and sometimes not...

Those 3 pics were made with two different lenses. The one on the left, whitch I found a lot too compressed, is the 300mm one. Apprx. 3m...

The two others are made with a 150mm lens, approx. 1m. I believe they feel much more natural in fact...

What do you think?



Thank you so much for your help!

[mdarnton]

Probably somewhere between is best. I use 210mm for 4x5 portraits and am happy with that. The old standard was film length + width, which would mean about 225mm. However, I think most everyone would agree that 150 is too short and 300 is long, for a natural look.

[Pere Casals]

IMHO first shot cannot be compared to the 2 and 3, very different light, aperture ?

The focal you use for a certain framing imposes a subject distance, so a perspective. This is a completely personal choice.

Human mind remembers how people look from some 3m, under 3m nose starts to grow https://www.olivier-chauvignat-works...t-deformations

Yousuf Karsh favourite was 14", some 360mm for 8x10, so a 180 for 4x5, https://www.google.es/search?rlz=1C1....0.85QG1ysYs8s

think that normally it's the lens that has a problem with the photographer, and not the counter.

You have the 150 and 300... as Michael said perhaps something in the middle it would be also good, but no doubt that both 150 and 300 focals are able to make incredible protraits, just each can be used in a different way, specially when using tilt-swing... at the end the 300mm in 4x5 its like a 105mm or 135mm focal in 35mm format, so delivering not a rare perpective for portrait, "perhaps" in LF there is some tendence to frame a bit more open, that's a personal thought...

[mdarnton]

If you google "effect of focal length on portraits" you will get quite a few sets of photos shot of the same subject with different lengths (most on 35mm, but you can recalculate for 4 x 5) and articles to go along with the pictures. That will show you what you can expect.
https://www.google.com/search?q=effe..._98YfZq69jTLM:

[jnantz]

hello john

there really is no right or wrong lens to use for portraits. some suggest
the "normal" for the next format up, so 210/250 for 4x5 would be about right ..

john

[cowanw]

For me the first portrait on the left has far more modeling and three dimensionality.

[Tobias Key]

I think most people gravitate towards a 210mm for portraits, but that is partly because that is the longest lens that is 5.6 and comes in a no.1 shutter. It's actually comparatively short for a portrait lens. It's important to remember that different face shapes look better at different focal lengths, so there is no one answer to this question.

[chassis]

Agree with John. It is your own taste that is important. Making portraits with shorter lenses is in style at the moment. It could be, the portraits you made with the shorter lens, look better to you because this is what is popular at this time.

[mdarnton]

Wider lenses are more popular maybe because of cell phone selfies, but that doesn't mean people like the look. I saw an article the other day about how more people are asking for plastic surgery because they think their noses look large, and the Dr has to discourage them because they are basing their opinion of their appearance on cell phone shots, selfies being the worst because the camera is too close. W/A lenses as on phones widen a nose about 20-30%, and so the people looking to have their noses fixed are wrong about how they look. I think the 150mm shots are grotesque, myself. Which does the subject prefer?

When people are asking to alter their bodies to fix bad photography, there's a problem with the photography, not the subject! Not the article I saw: https://nypost.com/2017/02/15/people...etter-selfies/

[Tin Can]

Image #1. The face is slimmer. The sitter seems more comfortable without a camera too close.

I think a Schneider Tele-Xenar 360mm f/5.5 is nice for face on 4X5.

I use a Nikon 135mm DC f2 on 35mm. I like distance from the sitter.