DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

Portrait lens for Grandchildren and picky parents

Started Sep 23, 2019 | Questions thread
yokken
yokken Regular Member • Posts: 204
Re: Portrait lens for Grandchildren and picky parents

If shooting in a house where you might not be able to back up a whole lot, then the 35/1.4 should be great. But for mostly head shots, the 56/1.2 will also give that "professional" look (AKA bokeh). Protip... don't shoot the lens wide open if you can't get everyone's face in focus. That alone will make a better photo (assuming decent composition). Also don't overdo it with sharpening; sometimes a lens can almost be "too sharp" for portraits because of how much detail it resolves, but you can decrease sharpness in post if you want. I like sharp images but faces are one area where I've learned not to shoot for ultimate sharpness up close.

I totally agree that you should make sure you're shooting correctly, regardless of which lens you use; i.e. posing them well, telling them where to look, where to put their hands, all sorts of stuff. Just look at examples of portraits online and it'll be pretty obvious what you want to replicate.

 yokken's gear list:yokken's gear list
Fujifilm X100V Fujifilm X-E2 Fujifilm X-T3 Fujifilm XF 35mm F1.4 R Fujifilm XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM OIS +3 more
Post (hide subjects) Posted by
(unknown member)
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow