Best Nikon Full Frame Lens For Portrait Style Photography?
Best Nikon Full Frame Lens For Portrait Style Photography? - 1
The job of the portrait photographer is to please his/her client. This can be difficult as most of us have a mental picture of what we look like. This view is derived from the client's view of themselves in the makeup mirror. What I'm trying to say is, a successful professional portrait photographer, like it or not, strives to duplicate the makeup mirror perspective.
Let me add that there are no rules in art; you are free to follow your heart.
How to duplicate the makeup mirror perspective: Most pictures need not depict "correct" perspective however the portrait is an exception. Allow me to explain: Things close to the camera reproduce large and things distant from the camera reproduce small. If you work in too close when imaging the human face, likely the nose reproduces too big and the ears too small. When this happens, the client typically says, "I don't photograph well, watch out, I will break your camera".
The countermeasure is simple, simply step back when you compose the portrait. Easy to say! We abhor leaving empty space around our subject so we work in close. A better approach is to mount a moderate telephoto. This longer lens forces us to step back. In this case the moderate telephoto one with a focal length that is about 2x thru 2 x "normal. Now normal for the full frame is 50mm and normal for the compact is 30mm. By the way, "normal" is a lens about equal to the diagonal measure of the frame (size of imaging chip or film format).
For the full frame the focal length of choice for portraits centers on 105mm. For the compact (APS-C) the center of the preferred range is 60mm thru 75mm. Again, nobody has engraved these values in stone, they are just a rule-of-thumb.
Post Script:
Portraits usually are displayed framed on the wall or mental. Now an image made with any focal length, taken from any distance will have the correct perspective if viewed from a distance about equal to the focal length of the taking lens multiplied by the magnification uses to make the enlargement.
As an example: A full frame us used and an 8x10 inch print is made. The magnification used to make the 8x10 with minimal crop is 8X. If a 105mm lens is used, then the ideal viewing distance is 105mm x 8 = 864mm. In other words a print on the wall or mental will show correct perspective when viewed from about 1 meter (1 yard). Nobody said this is all easy stuff. Sometime I make it seem too hard. However, most of this stuff has real science behind it.
We use one of three lenses when shooting portraits and fashion
Nikkor AF-S 85 mm f/2.8
Nikkor AF-S 105 mm f/2.8
Nikkor AF-S 24-70 mm f/2.8
Each have their own unique characteristics, so the one we choose is based upon each project or assignment.
In general, the 85 mm is used most for actual portraits (head and shoulders) and the 24-70 mm used mostly when shooting fashion (full body)
When we want or need to compress the portrait to render the background further out of focus, we use the 105 mm
50mm, ~80mm, ~100mm, depending on the working distance you are most comfortable with, all at the lowest f/number you can afford.