portraits

[Ben Syverson]

I'm with Christopher... I like half-length portraits. Close-ups of faces tend to be a little too intense for me.

[Armin Seeholzer]

Shoulder and head would work fine with a 210 mm lens and a bit longer of course also!

Just my 2 cents Armin

[Maris Rusis]

There is another way to approach portraits. It does not start with the camera or lens but rather the distance.

When you look at good portraits they often seem to have been taken from the same distance. This is the distance from which two strangers look at each when they are being attentive, interested, engaged, and respectful. They are close but not close enough to invade personal space. At this distance the proportions of the face, the nose to ear ratio, the neck to forehead proportions, and so on, look right. The "face looks right" thing is probably instinctive among humans who are used to looking at other humans.

The distance is about 1.5 metres.

In my studio I set this distance and use a long lens if I want a tight face portrait and a short lens if I want more of the body. This rule seems to work for me irrespective of film, lens, camera, or format.

[cjbroadbent]

....At this distance the proportions of the face, the nose to ear ratio, the neck to forehead proportions, and so on, look right. The "face looks right" thing is probably instinctive among humans who are used to looking at other humans.
The distance is about 1.5 metres....

Maris has it right. Face perspective is something in infant learns in the first few months.

[Nana Sousa Dias]

You can do it with a 210mm lens. Look at this photo:
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...=44446&page=11

I shot this with a Nikkor W 210/5.6 and a Wista 45 DX, wooden folding camera, wich has shorter bellows than the Shen Hao.
The distance to the subject was about 1.5m, wich is the "right" distance, as refered by Maris.

You can buy a lens like that very cheap. A lot of guys say it's not good, I find it very good, indeed. Well, I'm not an "equipment freak" anyway, probably the lens is not the best in world but, to me, it's quite good and does waht I want it to do...

[Ernest Purdum]

There was some confusion here in an earlier response.. Grandagon and Imagon are two different lens names. Assuming the Imagon was that intended, it is a lens that allows control of diffusion. Although many photographers and subjects like this, it is not an essential characteristic of a lens used for portraits.