How and why? 50mm Portrait Photography - Discover Photography EP02
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- Most portrait photographs are taken with the camera positioned at eye level of the subject. In most portraits, the subject is looking into the lens, which can create a real sense of connection between the subject and those looking at the image. Ask the subject to focus their attention on something that is outside of your camera's field of view. This can create a sense of openness and even create a bit of intrigue and interest as the viewer wonders what the subject is looking at.
Alternatively, you can ask your subject to look at something (or someone) in the frame. You can do this with clothing, items, your subjects' hands, or just framing some of it outside of the image. Use a lens with a longer focal length or get closer so that you can photograph only part of the subject.
Photographing a person's hands, eyes, mouth, or even the lower body can leave a lot to the viewer's imagination. Sometimes an overexposed image can help create a clean and flawless composition.
You will most likely be using a regular standard 50mm lens for portraits. However, shooting at a wide angle can spark your creativity and produce unexpected results. However, choosing a non-standard angle can make your portraits stand out. If you're shooting portraits of a single subject, you can use apertures as low as f1.4, but remember that depending on the focal length and the distance between you and the subject, other parts of the subject's body may be blurred, even the nose.
If you're shooting from one side of the subject, make sure the eye closest to the camera is in focus, but to make the portrait look better you might want to consider using a narrower aperture between f/2, 8 and f/4 so that both eyes are in focus. For couple or group portraits, use a smaller aperture to make sure you're all in sharp focus, f/5.6 or f/8 usually do the trick. Another tip on the best aperture for portraits. You can also use a low aperture camera to get the most detail in a photo taken in a dark area.
Position your subject so that it is illuminated by the flash and not by ambient light, and for best results, use a tripod to reduce camera shake. The lighting conditions mean that your portraits may end up with too much contrast. Side lighting can create an atmosphere, while back lighting and silhouetting a subject to hide its features can be powerful. In addition, the use of techniques such as slow flash sync (as well as long exposures combined with light painting) can create impressive images.
Portrait photographers often use professional studio lighting to capture their subjects in stunning magazine-ready detail. You need to properly plan your portrait lighting to match the mood of the shoot, the clothes of the models, and the background.
In classic portrait photography, it's important to know how much light you'll need to use, how shadows will fall on your subject's faces, and what angle you'll need to shoot to get the effect you want. . For a photographer, lighting is the most important thing to work with. Using a lens that will smooth won't distort your subject; well illuminate and expose the scene; and by correctly focusing on the subject, you are guaranteed a great shot.
Following my last portrait video, "Wide Angle Portrait, Why & How", I will discuss the importance of 50mm portrait with lots of examples. I will also explain why anyone who is interested in portrait should start with this particular focal length. As a bonus, I also share my tips on photograph portraits of strangers. #photography #portraitphotography #learnphotography
My complete focal length series:
35mm (17mm MFT) Portrait • Wide Angle Portrait, W...
50mm (25mm MFT) Portrait • How and why? 50mm Port...
90mm (45mm MFT) Portrait • Why, When and How, 90m...
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Thank you for this very informative second episode on portrait and thank's for your beautiful pictures. The last segment is simply lovely, Thanks to Tracy!
Thanks Daniel! Glad you liked the vid! I am having fun making these videos, as it's my language and my job!
Love my 25mm f1.8, 45mm f1.8 and 75mm f1.8 for my portraiture. Mainly head and shoulder shots with the last two. Top vid as usual.
Absolutely loved this video while walking around central London doing street photography with my Nikon D5500
Wow great work Jimmy I have enjoyed your photo shoot great composition in every shot hope all is well and looking forward to your next video tc
I'm enjoying this series. I like the direction you've taken the channel.
Awesome, thank you!
Wonderful work Jimmy - great pictures. It's so helpful to have good access to the people you're photographing.
Way to highlight the nifty 50! You can't go wrong with that lense.....I recently got a 55mm MANUAL macro lens, and once I got used to the manual focusing, I fell in LOVE with it! Thanks
I love my 50 mm 2.8 macro lens for all pictures ! 👍
Thanks for the video. Looks like it will be a great series.
Thanks Evan. Glad you enjoy it.
Very usefull and educational video! No distracting talk and essentials only. This is professionalism! Fast recovery!
Love this series! Appreciate all the pointers. Thanks Jimmy 👍
Glad you like them!
Excellent 👌 .
Every time I see Charlie in your vids, she just seems to be fun to work with ! Get well soon, jimmy. I too am home for the week with Covid. And yes, it clogs your brain a bit!
Cheers mate! Glad you enjoyed it! I miss Charlie too :)
brilliant photos. I must try harder
Thank you for an inspiring series!
I really enjoyed this video with lots of beautiful examples as well as your approach with clients and use of the 50mm focal length. Thanks!
I fell in love with the natural looking perspective I get from this lens, although I do have an 18-55 zoom and a 24-70mm zoom as well! :)
Another great video. Am loving this series Jimmy. Wonderful job! Thank you...
It's wonderful to see Tracey's handywork again, you guys made an awesome team. Miss her dearly. Hope to see more of her again soon!
P/s:- the 25mm focal length is a big challenge for me personally, I don't know why. So this video is just the right antidote to get me trying with it again. Cheers Jimmy
P/p/s:- Hope you all get well soon!
Brilliant! Informative and superbly entertaining at the same time. Thanks for this!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Bellissime fotografie, grazie! Complimenti anche a questa simpatica coppia. Thanks from Italy
Thank you a lot ;)
A stunning photo session...
Cheers mate! Much appreciated your comment!
Love the couple shoots
Thanks mate.
Great information, looking forward to the next video in this series !!
Cheers Joe!
Excellent job yet again and belated happy New year
Happy new year to you too mate.
Fantastic portrait artwork! Especially with blurry foreground
Thank you so much 😀
Muito bom. Parabéns 👏👏👏😍
great video, thank you!
Do you plan a series about flash photography? Maybe on-camera first. I'm particularly interested in event photography.
Mateusz, I will make a note, I need to finish this series first and will do more about lights later, but it's on my list.
Great Video Jimmy, love the 25mm1.2
I’ve tried to like 50mm but I find it boring like 85mm. I love 35mm. The shots you makes it more intimate imo. Great for environmental portraits.
Wouldn't disagree at all, I made a video on wide angle portrait, which talks about it. I personally love 35mm too.
@@Red35Photography I’ll check it out.
Thank you very much. I always lived under the dogma that portraits can only be taken with 80 to 90mm for 135 format. Shorter would give terrible distortions! Secretly, I didn’t notice much of these horrors when I had a 35 or 50mm lens. But I blamed it om my untrained eyes. I bought the Olympus 45mm standard with the idea that I needed it also for portraits. To my astonishment, this lens has so depth of field scale. Very awkward in street photography. And totally unexpected, as my 17mm, where the range is larger, does have a manual clutch.
Your video also convinced me by the beautiful images you included.
Thanks Robert! Glad you found it useful.
Great insights. Thank you.
I like your picture very nice
Thanks!
Great, i have and prefer the Summilux results, more smooth Creamy background in my opinion.
Excellent video Jimmy. I preferred focal length is 30mm. MFT , as I grew up with 55 - 58 mm in the early film days , combined with 135 mm and 40mm on a compact carry anywhere camera . Wider did not figure in my photos until I began using a iPhone . You can get separation of background by moving closer for head and torso shots and wider perspective by stepping back to imitate a wide angle lens.
One lens that does most is the old standard lens, as many of us old timers did not have kit zooms .
The faster the lens the more care that is required to focus on the eyes - that is still critical , but 1.4 snd 1.2 lenses required careful focusing .
I am looking forward to move reminders on lenses to follow .
Thanks Carmen, I made a point about how smartphone changes people's view on portrait, in terms of angle of view. it's now more common to see wide angle portrait than longer focal length, but since 'fake bokeh' was introduced together with 'tele lens' on smartphones, which is basically a 50mm equilvalent focal length, more are getting used to this look. When people move up to using proper camera, they think of 50mm more often than 85mm or 90mm (my next portrait series). It's changing but interesting to see how people adapt when it's marketed and educated that way.
@@Red35Photography I agree entirely Jimmy, which is why your new videos are invaluable in educating and informing this entire issue - what is normal and in what context ?
Love the BTS vid at the end and the photos taken.
👌👍👍🙏
👋🙋
Thanks
Very cool, new subscriber here :)
congrat to the couple another step in their life, send regards to Huong & Richard for me please thanks jimmy. more understanding how to talk to someone who want us to shoot a photo to them.
As with Gary below, use 45mm F1.8 for head/shoulder shot,s and Lumix 20mm F1.7 for full lenth portraiture. In my home studio have about 16 foot to work with, however, lighting stay,s virtually the same for both lenses, adjusting the "catch" light intensity all that,s required. Adult,s holding a coffee cup, youngster,s a teddy, work,s for me. Thank,s Jimmy, take care.
Cheers Steve
Nice images! BUT why the difference in sound levels?
Like the “tutorial” series.Will still get the oly 25mmf1.8
Cheers Leon!
Jimmy, Thank you for very informative series. I use 25mm 1.4 pany and use a 50mm 1.2 Nikon Nikkor. I could not notice you used autofocus assist lamp in couple of your video shots. Is that your norm?
I never switch it off. If it helps AF in low light, I leave it. It doesn't bother me :) But in situations when I think it disturb people, then I will turn it off... but only then.
Gotta love a nifty 50!
Absolutely mate!
@@Red35Photography 😎😎😎
Hmm, well yes, the 50mm lens (or 25mm in mft) gives the nearest appropriation to the human eye. And, if you're a really expert photographer, it can be the best portrait lens. But, young man, for the majority of photographers something like a medium telephoto prime -- 90mm (45mm in mft) -- will typically give better results.
That said, as you say, I totally agree that communication with your subject is crucial. Flirting, we'd typically call it, but human interaction is what it's all about.
Rick
(Professional UK photographer with 40+ years experience; and fan of Red35 Photography)
Happy New Year Jimmy! I noticed that many photographs showcased in this video were taken with the E-M5.2, are they older photographs or do you prefer that body for portraiture over the e-m1.3?
haha, not, both are great and I don't have preference for one over the other. Just the examples I used here are more from EM5.2 I guess. I just randomly picked them from my library.
Just goes on to show just how good even the older models were. The EM5 Mk2 at £300 is a great deal.
Agreed, I use an EM5.2 along side of my EM1.2.
I'm sure I remember from my early days of photography (1960s, I suppose) the recommendation was 85 to 135 for 135 format. I guess tastes change.
haha things do change over time. It isn't what's best but it's what people are used to. The new generation comes from smartphone and no smartphone has an equivalent angle of view of 85mm or longer. Apple and others advertise 50mm or 60mm are 'Portrait' lens so there you go. I simply reflect what's current, but my next series is about longer focal length, which will be up your street more :)
@@Red35Photography I look forward to it. I think that you are right - things like smartphones and social media have changed what we think of as normal or proper photos - including portraits. I do take your point about including things that say something about the sitter - though the very best portraitists (either paint or photo) did put things in the picture to do that.
Hello Jimmy, did you Leica FF for better subject seperation for the couple? The long lens at the video was 50mm?
Although I love my 40-150 PRO for portraits, I think that only with 25mm/45mm f1.2 and feather bokeh we can achieve similar look to FF.
Hi Yannis, no, I used Leica professionally before I moved to M43 (Olympus). So I just used samples I shot before to illustrate. As you can see, my method and approach haven't changed, I did adjust myself in composition and play around with distances between subject to achieve my shots. Yes, 1.2 Pro lenses are a must if you want to get a certain aesthetic for portraiture if you use 50mm FF before.
You have the sigma 30mm 1.4 mft that provides you that nifty fifty FF effect. The advantage of the 25mm lens is that you can then adjust the crop to your liking and in the end you really get it at 30mm.
The advantage of the 30mm is that you're further away from the subject and it's easier for the subjetc, But you have to make the composition more precise because then you have less room to crop.
So i think some of the samples of the video are taken with 25mm but then are cropped to suit the personal taste or to get that portrait effect. (I would like yo know It but im pretty sure)
Thanks for the video!!!!! Very helpful as always!
Why are there no 100mm, or higher, primes?
Next episode in the series
Yes and no, in my experience the 50mm is most lest used focal length. Most of my portrait work is with the 45mm Olympus and latterly the Sigma 56mm 1.4. The Olympus 1.2 is just not worth the money
My next portrait series talks about longer focal length which includes 45mm and longer :)
Wasn't the picture of the woman in front of tower bride (0:36) already in the review of the 20mm f1.4? ua-cam.com/video/qp7r2tn_Qzs/v-deo.html
Same woman ;) I used a few different lenses on the day and I put it here because 20mm and 25mm are very close. Though I did use both 25mm and 20mm on the day.
But looking at her hair the pictures are identical, did you mix something up in one of the videos?
@@Brummbaerchie No I meant, they are the same picture. I just used this 20mm pic in this video, and now I noticed I used the wrong info for this pic in this vid, should have said 20mm
@@Red35Photography Ah, ok! Thanks for clarifying :)
@@Brummbaerchie No worry, working and editing with Covid made my brain goes funny hahaha
I thought you were going to use a 50mm on your Oly. Instead of the 25, try a Sigma 30 F1.4 and give a portrait report. That would be interesting!
Hi Lonnie, thanks for commenting. This video is made for general photography, regardless of formats, so I use 135 (full frame) terms, so more people can benefit, but I did clarify that I use micro four thirds and 25mm lens, which is 50mm equivalent.
50mm Lens is Versatile, but not Ideal for Portraits... Especially in 35mm Film format..
That depends on how and what you shoot. I use 35mm and 50mm mostly for portraits. 85/90mm are actually much less.
@@Red35Photography There is a Focal Length (prime lens) that is made only by a few major Manufacturers - and has been recommended to me by a Pro Photographer some 40 years ago which I've used with Film and sold it around 2010. However, I will keep it in Suspense, and see if anyone can figure it out? It's not a focal length talked about much, and rarer to find? Konica used to make one!
Is a M4/3 -camera not good enough, that you use Leica?
I shoot exclusively M43 now. I use my older Leica examples to show 50mm samples. This video is made for all formats, not just M43. Also to show that I can do that with any cameras/formats
Das ist kein 50mm sondern ein 25mm, also ein Weitwinkel...
Ein 50mm wirkt nur an Vollformat in seiner optischen Leistung.🤷