How Does Focal Length Influence Portrait Photos?

Just a quick test to see how portraits look at vastly different focal lengths. I used two lenses for this starting off with the 24-120mm for the wider to "normal" portrait pics and then the 70-300mm for the two longer focal length pics. I tried out the following focal lengths: 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 120mm, 135mm & 200mm. 

I would like to say at this point that I don't think there is any right or wrong in which focal length you prefer to use for portraits, it really is up to you and your own vision. Don't let anyone try to tell you different.

As you can see from the series of photos below the wider the focal length the more distorted the face and also more background. The longer the focal length the more compressed the face and background become.

I prefer fairly standard focal lengths for my own portraits, more specifically the 85mm for headshots and 50mm for half or full length portraits as well as environmental portraits if I have the space, otherwise the 35mm is great for environmental portraits as well.

The choice at the end of the day depends on vision, so everything goes because it's an art, not a science.

200mm

135mm

120mm

85mm

50mm

35mm

24mm

Landskrona Harbour Area Photo Walkabout

 While I was photographing the church and town hall I also took a little walk around the area, so these are some of the other random pics I got on my evening walkabout. Everything looks good when photographed in the right light.

Landskrona Stadshuset (Town Hall)

The town hall in Landskrona is a fairly modern looking building from the mid 70's that just looks a bit out of place (at least to me) amongst the rest of the much older buildings surrounding it down at the harbour area. However on its own it is quite a nice looking design and of course it does look great at sunset and at night when it's lit up.

As in the previous post these were taken hand held with my D850 & 24-120mm VR combination, edited in the excellent DXO PL 6 software.

Sofia Albertina Church - Landskrona

 Really beautiful old church in the heart of Landskrona Sweden, worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

Taken with my Nikon D850 and 24-120mm lens, ISO 8000, low shutter speeds & hand held, VR on, first two at f8.0 and the last at f5.6, processed in DXO PL 6 and their excellent DeepPRIME XD software.

 

 

DXO Photolab 6 DeepPRIME XD

There was a time when I used to go out with my camera after sunset when the light is just magical and of course I would drag along a tripod to keep the camera steady while using longer shutter speeds and low ISO to get the cleanest photographs possible. Those days are now behind me.

With the Nikon D850 I can use higher ISO and combined with a vibration reduction lens still get sharp & reasonably clean photographs that are perfectly usable. It really sets me free to move about as I please and get the shots I need quicker and more efficiently. However when needed I can also step up to ISO 8000 which under closer scrutiny can be quite noisy anyway, still usable but at 100% viewing size it lacks quite a bit. However the folks at DXO have solved this problem.

The following photo was taken under very low light conditions, hand held. It is sharp, nicely exposed & at normal viewing sizes it is very usable. But if I wanted to print it out at a larger size it would not be as clean as I would like. But now DXO Photolab 6 DeepPRIME XD has revolutionized how I shoot, I am free to shoot at very high ISO and still end up with a clean image to print.

First up the original, resized to use online and looking quite good. The next photo though is a 100% crop in the center of the full size image and as you can see it is very noisy. The second is a 100% crop on the DeepPRIME XD cleaned up image. It is sharp, clean and hasn't lost any detail. Very impressive result. The last photo is the full photo, cleaned up and resized to the same size as the first, uncleaned photo.

Make up your own minds but I am going to keep shooting this way because it really works for me. Well done DXO!

 

Oh, and I think that may be a drone above the church. Never even saw it at the time.

Light, Form and Texture 9

On a discovery of minimalist black and white photography where light, form and texture are more important than subject matter.

Nikon D850 & Sigma 105mm f2.8. Handheld. Elinchrom studio light with grid, remote trigger.

 

Light, Form and Texture 8

 On a discovery of minimalist black and white photography where light, form and texture are more important than subject matter.

Nikon D850 & Sigma 105mm f2.8. Handheld. Elinchrom studio light with grid, remote trigger.