Could use some feedback on what is a good standard portrait lens. I can't afford a Cooke or other high end lens, and a Petzval is out of the question. I need a good basic for shots from full body to shoulder up. Hope I'm not being over simple, I have a few lenses already and I'm curious which would be best. Currently I have a Caltar 210, 150 and 135. I also have a Kodak 127 and a Dagor around 120 and a Shnieder 180. These are used on 4X5.
Hi RP,
An excellent all round lens for multi format use is the Fuji 300 A.
I haven't used it for portraits but it should work well. Others on
this format also have wide experience with this lens.
Warren Clark
Nikon/Nikkor f9 300M and Fujinon f8.5 300C.
These lenses are relatively small, and both are mounted in Copal 1 shutters. They are capable of covering 8x10 with minimal movement capability.
They make excellent portrait lenses for 4x5.
Your 135mm is great for portraits when you want to include the environment. A 210mm lens is great for full length shots. A lot of photographers favor a 240mm for portraits but since you all ready own a 210mm I would go with a 300mm like suggested. A great focal length for getting in close.
As you can see there is no actual standard portrait lens for 4x5.
I have no experience with 5x7. Karsh used a 14" Kodak Commercial Ektar and I believe that Richard Avedon used a 360mm Schneider for 8x10. These lenses would be equal to a 180mm on a 4x5 camera. Of course you have a lot of room to crop with an 8x10 camera.
Just remember that women over a certain age hate sharp lenses. That's why Hasselblad sold a ton of softar filters!
You might consider trying some lenses which open wide and have circular apertures.
Wide lenses (f/4.5 for example) allow you to focus and shoot in softer light, with less depth of field when you want it.
Circular apertures tend to give pleasing blur rendition.
In 4x5, I like a 180 or a 210.
For 5x7, I also liked the 210, sometimes a 250 (but rarely).
I'm not a fan of too much compression in the image for portraits, so a 300 or longer is out of the question in either format.
You have a good range of lenses right now. Are you looking for a lens which has "aura" or "luminescence" to it, or some portraiture-specific quality? There was a recent posting about a home-made meniscus lens, which would be excellent for portraiture. There are also some good soft-focus lenses, which had an interesting filter attachment which you could make yourself. The old Wollensak lenses are good, too, and if you watch eBay you can come up with something in good condition at a reasonable price. There's also the home-made lens thread, with lenses made from cheap plastic magnifying glasses.Originally Posted by RPippin
Depending on what specific effect you want, there's lots of ways to get there.
There isn't really a generic "best". I'm speaking B&W shooting here.
For normal non-SF stuff, I think a tessar or clone of a tessar with lots of aperture blades is very nice. The planars are great too. These are the two most common designs in recent history and some of your lenses are these.
For soft focus, it depends on what you are comfortable with, what you can afford or cobble together, and lighting conditions including contrast. Some people have done nice stuff with magnifying glasses in a cardboard tube; other people make great photos with valuable lenses hand made 110 years ago from unobtainium.
I consider X flash sync to be bonus points so I can use the lens with studio flash. Going too old school precludes this option, but packard shutters can have sync sometimes.
I am new here so i was going to ask about lenses, i did ask about wide for landscapes and/or architecture, got answers about that, now i also looking for a lens for portraits, for now i use 4x5, so i was not sure, 210mm was the most i was thinking about, but there are many going with 240 and 300 as well, so i can't tell which FL can be standard for portraits, but it sounds that with LF i need to go with 2 lenses on different purposes, we do that with digital as well, and are there zoom lenses so it can help rather than getting 2-3 primes?!!!
There are no zoom lenses for LF. When it comes to portraits, it depends on what you want to do.
There are some "soft focus" lenses which are made to be soft or luminescent at a specific apeture. Take a look at the thread about the home-made meniscus for a good example. Typical soft focus portrait lenses also include the Rodenstock Imagon, and Fuji Fujinon soft focus. (Looks like Fuji made 180mm and 250mm versions) Note the diffuser disc for the Imagon. The Fuji disc is similar. There are various filters which will also soften an image, but not exactly like a soft-focus lens will.
There is no "standard" in LF for portrait lens length. Also, whether to have a sharp portrait or not is entirely cultural. The Japanese like to have smooth features, while Scandanavian countries like all of the wrinkles.
Last edited by Brian C. Miller; 28-Feb-2011 at 15:19. Reason: Fuji info
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