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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

What lens to use when photographing people

What lens to use when taking people pictures

My friends often ask for my advice on which lens to buy.  There are lots of good lenses out there. One thing I always ask my friends is what types of photos they are going to take with it.  The reason is because there are certain lenses that you use for certain things. For example, if you are going to shoot landscapes you need a wide angle lens that is sharp. If you are going to shoot people I suggest a fast midrange(50mm-200mm) lens. You might be wondering what "fast" means. The word "fast " in photo lingo means that the lens has a wide f-stop. A lens with the maximum aperture of/2 is considered faster than a lens with a maximum aperture of f/5.6.  You might be wondering why I suggest a midrange lens for portraits.  Well, her is why

This was taken with a 28mm lens(wide angle)




This was taken with a 100mm(midrange)




Do you see the difference. The top photo is distorted. To avoid distortion while shooting people use a longer lens. When I am photographing a person I almost always use a 100mm lens.  This also gives you a little more space between your subject and you.

Next time you are shooting your family or friends try this out and see what you like the best. Hope you enjoyed!

Merry Christmas!

1 comment:

  1. Very nice tutorial, Brian. Something a lot of aspiring photographers don't think about.

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