Up close in the studio

[dubaiphil]

A portrait at 35mm on Full Frame, lit with 2 lights and shoot through umbrellas. Unfortunately I had the triggers but not the time to adjust the setup due to time constraints at a local photo club meet.

A black dress on a very dark grey background was unfortunate too!

[Digital]

Very nice portrait. If this was shot at 35mm on a FF camera I do not see any distortion.
You did a nice job Phil.


Bruce

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, shows that certain focal lengths work well for portraits.

[Manfred M]

Nicely executed shot Phil, and to me it clearly demonstrates why a wider angle lens is generally not used in portraiture.

Unlike Bruce and John, I see the distortion (enlarged forehead. eyes and nose) and small chin and neck. Bottom line, nicely lit, but not the lens I would use.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Phil,

I see the distortion (enlarged forehead. eyes and nose) and small chin and neck.

As do I Manfred, in practice we could see that same viewpoint - if we were allowed to be that close to her (with our face, not a camera lens)

So I guess it could be natural perspective of the "young and in love" who are often just inches from each other - well that's how it used to be - these days there might be a smart phone or two in between them

Bottom line, nicely lit

I agree

lit with 2 lights and shoot through umbrellas

Yeah, they show in her (lovely) eyes Phil

[Manfred M]

As do I Manfred, in practice we could see that same viewpoint - if we were allowed to be that close to her (with our face, not a camera lens)

So I guess it could be natural perspective of the "young and in love" who are often just inches from each other - well that's how it used to be - these days there might be a smart phone or two in between them :

I agree Dave - if you look at a lot of the "selfies", taken with camera phones, we see even more distortion in the posted images. Phil (as always) executes his shots extremely well. The main reason for the comment is Bruce's response that he did not see any distortion, whereas I (and you) picked up on it immediately.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to work with participants in a makeup course at the local community college. I got some great experience in shooting portraits and the make-up artists (MUA) got some high quality photos for their portfolios. I didn't shoot everything, but did provide a bit of help with them photographing their own images. The MUAs generally had point and shoot camera (with an occasional bridge camera and at least one DSLR).

The two most common errors I tried to correct was:

1. Don't stick the camera in the model's face and in fact use a telephoto setting to get a more pleasing shot; and

2. If you are using flash (i.e. the tiny ones built into the cameras), have your model stand at least 2-3m / 6-10ft away from the wall to eliminate the ugly flash shadow.

[Digital]

I am glad you pointed out the distortion in this photo since my untrained eye did not see it; however I generally do not shoot portraits with anything less than 70mm.


Bruce