jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

A B&H hat! Now that's dedication!

Dds82

It is well documented in portraiture photography that 85mm to 105mm ( according to Scott Kelby for one ) is the proper length for head shots. I use up to 150 mm and still like the results.
It's all about getting less distortion, and taking advantage of compression from long lens, which apparently is flattering to the human face.

Cheers,

Louis

Rosanna Loc: Montana

Thanks for sharing this! I appreciate anyone who goes to the effort to "test" and share the results so Thank Ypu!

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Gotta give equal time to the competitors!

(Download)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

How about Amazon and ebay?

rtrpics Loc: WV

a fair and balanced photographer... and a very good one, thanks

Papa Joe Loc: Midwest U.S.

Shows what I don't know. I'm sure you're right in your assessment Bob, but if I were asked to 'compare' the two photos, (without your comments), I doubt I ever would have noticed those differences you point out.

Popeye33

Back in the old days of film and 35mm cameras, the 90mm lens was considered the best portrait lens (actually 87 1/2 mm). How that compares with our new digital cameras and sensor crops, I don't know.

Dds82

Still the thinking today.....85mm and up

sumo Loc: Houston suburb

my fav also... :thumbup: :thumbup:

OonlyBonly

:thumbup:

yhtomit Loc: Port Land. Oregon

Great post .Thank you.

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

Very interesting to see it proven in this thread, especially the shots of the girl by rpavich. But wouldn't the horse face be avoided by just stepping back with whatever lens you are using and cropping the picture later? With modern DSLR's having a lot of megapixels, this could fix the problem. After all, what really causes the horse face effect, and I didn't see it mentioned in a quick skimming of answers, is the distance between the subject and the camera, NOT the lens itself? Ok, RJM does mention it. But really, isn't that the main point, a different focal length does not cause this distortion, but the fact that you have to get closer to fill the frame. All lenses would show the same face at the same distance, only short focal lengths (below 50) would have smaller faces and longer focal lengths would have larger faces. This is the important thing to remember so you understand WHY it is happening. The lens itself does not make a big nose, getting close to the face does. It is all in the angle and perspective, closer objects are larger (the nose), the sides of the head are cut off(the ears) from view in a camera shot that is close to the face.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Just to be clear...that's a picture off of the web.




yes..you are right..it's the distance that does it.




Yep...but I know that unless I was forced to..I wouldn't want to step back 20 feet just to avoid distortion in an image...I'd just use the proper focal length.




correct :)

rob s Loc: La Mesa, CA

Of course we know the focal length of the lenses in the samples shown but were these on a full frame or APSC or 4/3 or .................
The Hog making the point about distance being the determing factor was right on the money - all else is about how YOU make the image the size you want on the sensor of your camera.