Lens choice for outdoor family portrait

AnthonyL wrote:

AshleyMC wrote:

AnthonyL wrote:

I've offered to take some photos of my elderly next door neighbour and his family. Neighbour (to be seated), two adults and 3 late teen/early 20 girls. I'm not a portrait photographer, more a "snap-shot" but this is likely to be a one off occasion.

I've checked out that I can have them in their garden and maintain social distancing by getting onto my extension flat roof.

They'll be closely grouped.

Would using the 100mm of the 100-400 give a good result or be too flattening? I could get closer with the 55-250 but of course it is not quite so good a lens.

Thanks - will help me get organised. They'll be south-west facing (UK) in the late afternoon hopefully with a nice light cloud cover.

I suppose you will be using a camera with APS-C sensor.

Yes I should have specified but it is the 700D as per my camera gear listed at the bottom of my post.

Although I have no clue as to the subject distance available (plenty? average? limited?) for your portrait shooting, I would say that the 100-400 might be impractical.

The Canon EF-S 55-250? I’m surprised that you said “not quite so good a lens” as I have found it to be one of Canon’s excellent APS-C lenses.

So are you saying the 55-250 is as good as the 100-400? Please note I'm very happy with the 55-250 as I am with my copy of the 18-55.

I was not saying that! Not even implying!

I was suggesting that the 55-250 - which is a very good lens - would give you more latitude in working distance. You may need, say, 80mm and the 100-400 won't be able to give you that.

But if 100mm worked for you, what more can I say?

(By the way, there is no absolute goodness, only situational appropriateness. What's the point of, say, bringing the best machine gun to a sword duel? )

I would recommend the 55-250 for this occasion. Also bring the 18-55 or 18-135.

But with the 18-55 I'd fall off the roof.

How so? It's not a telephoto lens, and you would not have to back out too far. I would believe it if you said you would have to come too close those people.

A group portrait of one person plus 2 adults and 3 young women? Full body? Face and shoulders? Full body? Those considerations, plus working distance, have bearing upon the choice of focal length. It rarely make sense to name a particular focal length, say, 100mm - because “it depends.”

I said, and ended up using the general composition, Elderly man seated, rest standing.

I would also recommend that you (1) stop down to ensure enough depth-of-field for all of them, (2) use a tripod, and

Yes I used f/7.1, 1/320 ISO 400 and had good but not direct light from behind me, all on tripod.

(3) arrange their sitting or standing far enough away from the background - unless, of course, it contains certain details that your client want to be seen clearly in the image.

Yes noted, they were in the nicely ordered garden which will add to their memory that it was their father's/grandfather's home.

I took all the photos with the 100-400 at 100mm and moved closer for a half-body shot of the three grandkids. They are delighted with the results but I wouldn't like to do it for a living and I was lucky with the light.

Thanks to all those who've commented.

OK.