Wide angle lenses and people photography

[Ken Price]

I've heard that one should never photograph people with a lens wider than 50mm. 35mm lenses for example will make people look bad. How true is that?

Are 50mm lenses appropriate for people photography? Or should I stand back a certain distance with a 50mm or wider lens?

[RocketRick]

Originally Posted by Ken Price

I've heard that one should never photograph people with a lens wider than 50mm. 35mm lenses for example will make people look bad. How true is that?

Are 50mm lenses appropriate for people photography? Or should I stand back a certain distance with a 50mm or wider lens?

Wide angle lenses distort perspectives from what we are "used to" seeing. Closer objects look bigger, and further objects look smaller. If you tilt the camera up or down, so that your subject is no longer parallel to the film/sensor plane, you'll get distortion, as well. The wider the lens, and the closer your subject is to the lens, and the more extreme the tilt, the more exaggerated these effects are.

There is no "hard and fast" rule that always applies in all cases. Generally speaking, a "normal" or "long" lens (whatever that means in the context of your particular camera film or sensor format) will be the "best" choice for "most" portraits. But, there are times when you just plain don't have the working distance to get a full-length shot, or especially a group shot, with a normal lens. In those cases, a wider lens can still work quite well.

If you do use a wider lens, be sure to hold it level in both axes, as perspective distortion is emphasized more at shorter focal lengths. Position the camera at a height that "splits the difference" between your intended top and bottom of the frame, rather than tilting the camera. (In other words, for a full-length portrait, shoot from waist-high.)

[tomrit]

We (at least us of Northern European decent) normally view people from about 5 feet at the closest. Anything closer is a bit uncomfortable, unless we are intimate with the person. The so called rule, reflects that Northern European viewpoint.

People from other cultural backgrounds have different ideas of what is comfortable. Some peoples would consider you standoffish if you insisted on that 5 feet of space.

There is a joke about the Englishman and the Italian trying to have a conversation, the Italian kept moving closer, and the Englishman kept moving away, so they kind of migrated across the room each trying to stay in what was for him a comfortable distance.

There really are two things you have to know: 1-- Distance affects perspective and focal length affects angle of view. 2-- The affect is not as extreme as most people thing it will be. I remember when I first got a 24mm lens, I took a close head shot of a friend. When he saw the photo, he said, "That's not as bad as I thought it would be. Of course not, he was comfortable with me taking his picture from 2 feet away, why would the photo have bothered him?

Which brings up a point. Most of these things have to do with social psychology, if you understand how and why people react to things, you do not need a bunch of rules. Just do what seems comfortable.

[jerryph]

That depends. Look at this example. In real life, this man had no nose, it was a mere pimple on his face. Via the magic of the fisheye lens, he has a schnoze that makes Jimmy Durante proud:



Ok, ok, I am obviously joking... but it is NO joke to misuse a wide angle lens (in this case, a 15mm fisheye), unless it is on purpose... lol

That said, you can photograph people using ANY lens as long as you understand what you are doing. I do a lot of "people shots" using a 20mm lens on a full frame quite successfully.



When it comes time to get up close and personal, I may start out with at least a 50mm but prefer the 85mm, 135mm and higher lenses to minimize the distortion.

[jerryph]

Originally Posted by tomrit

We (at least us of Northern European decent) normally view people from about 5 feet at the closest.

Very true. While in China, I was at first really disconcerted about the fact that their personal space is something closer to 1-2 feet nose to nose when doing 1 on 1 conversations. I really did find myself often backing up and being followed... lol

[KA_Style]

I love my 50mm for portraits.

[Sailor Blue]

The real problem is how close you are to the subject, not the focal length of the lens. Extension distortion is incorrectly called wide angle distortion because photographers go to wide angle lenses when they can't back up far enough with their normal or telephoto lenses to get the image cropping they want.

The techniques RocketRick give will minimize extension distortion. Another thing to keep in mind is that the more the subject is kept in a single plane flat on to the camera the less the distortion will be.

The example shown by jerryph is an example of what happens when your subject has one part of their body much closer to the camera than other parts. It is an extreme example but you frequently see this with more conventional close in wide angle shots.

You see extension frequently see distortion when a subject has one arm extended toward the camera, which makes the hand look much larger than normal. If you shoot the same crop the extension distrotion becomes less with the longer focal lenses because you are further away from the subject. If you shoot a proportionately smaller subject from a small distance with a longer focal length lens you will again see extension distortion. Try using a long focal length lens to do a waist up portrait of a doll with one arm extended toward the camera and you will see what I mean.

As you can see in jerryph's photo, causing extension distortion can also be a great creative photographic technique. One more trick to add to your bag of photographic tricks.

[Sketch]

There are very few nevers in photography. Photographing people wider then 50mm is not one of them.

Mostly it depends on what kind of work you are doing and what camera you are using. Generally speaking the 50mm in DSLR's and SLR's is close to perfect. Wide enough to get the environ and mostly distortion free. Arguably it is closest to what our eye sees.

When I am photographing people on location I tend to go wide a lot. Usually the environment is large part of the frame. The studio for me is slightly different. There I fix the lens close like 70mm.

[Rain Lily]

Originally Posted by Sketch

There are very few nevers in photography. Photographing people wider then 50mm is not one of them.

Mostly it depends on what kind of work you are doing and what camera you are using.

+1

[Great Pixel]

Originally Posted by Ken Price

I've heard that one should never photograph people with a lens wider than 50mm. 35mm lenses for example will make people look bad. How true is that?

Are 50mm lenses appropriate for people photography? Or should I stand back a certain distance with a 50mm or wider lens?

Never Say Never! There is no correct answer! It all depends on many factors and or styles! Learn the foundations, find your niche, and create your own style that sets you apart from the millions of other photographers.