A perspective on “flatteringness” of portraits

There have been a lot of discussions around shooting portraits. Fans of full frame often state that a full frame camera like the Canon 5D series will always produce more flattering portraits than a cropped camera (like the x00D, x0D and 7D) can, and that medium format cameras wil do an even better job at “flatteringness”. So what is the deal here? In this blog post I’ll try to explain what is what.

Shooting angles

It all comes down to shooting angles and the perspective you end up with. Does it really matter how long your lens is for a good portrait? It definitely does matter. To put things into extremes, consider these two lenses to shoot a portrait with:

1. Samyang 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Aspherical;
2. Canon 300mm f/4 L IS USM.

Both lenses are great quality lenses for sure. As you may notice, one is very short (14mm) while the other is very long (300mm). Let’s compare the distance we need to the subject for a good portrait shot:

As you can clearly see, the 14mm lens has a distance ridiculously close to the subject, while the 300mm lens needs an absurd distance from the subject. But the distance required is not the only issue here: as you change the distance to the subject, you also change the perspective you see….


Perspective is ALL about distance

So using different lenses on different kind of cameras (meaning cropped of full frame here) will effectively change the distance you need to be at from the subject if you wish to retain the same composition.

The problem with distance is, that the perspective changes as you change the distance to the subject. If you get too close, noses will be blown out of proportion. If you get too far away, the picture will look very “flat” plus you need a huge room to get the shot. So what is the “perfect” distance?

I do not think there is one perfect distance, but if I have to throw out a number anyway, I’d vote for somewhere between 2 and 3 meters. That is ALL to consider. There are NO other parameters to think of when looking at perspective. No sensor size, no focal length of the lens. This immediately shows that the sensor size is not important for the perspective; the tale that full frame will shoot more flattering portraits is simply NOT true.


So what IS a portrait?

In general, people consider a portrait to be a head and shoulder composition. That is what we generally talk about when talking about portraits and portrait lenses. But you could also have a “head shot”, which generally uses a longer lens, or even parts of a face which generally uses an even longer lens. On the other side, we also have “full length portraits” which generally require shorter lenses (or a really big space to take the pictures).

You could call these compositions portraits (from wide to narrow):

• Full length group shots
• Full length single person shots
• Bride and groom head & shoulder portrait
• Single person head & shoulder portrait
• Head shot
• Partial Head shot
• Macro shot (like a single eye)

For the items on the list, you’d generally use a wide lens. Going further down the line, the lenses will get longer and longer. You actually end up with 100mm (cropped) or 180mm (full frame) macro lenses!


So what lens should we use for killer portraits?

As I wrote, the perspective only changes with distance to the subject. Given that plus the size of the sensor size you have in your camera, should give you the focal length you need for a certain composition. So could a 35mm be a great portrait lens? Sure, as long as you stick to the 2-3 meters rule. At 2 meters, a 35mm lens will give a nice composition for a bride and groom (on cropped). For a head shot, a 35mm lens would be at a distance of around one meter (cropped); too close to be flattering.

the maximum aperture of a lens is also important: It will determine the Depth of Field you can acquire. In some situation being able to get a limited DOF is very important in portraits; it is widely used to blur the background, but it can be very effective in blurring parts of a person as well which can give a killer effect. If you want to calculate what DOF your setup will deliver, check out my DOF Calculator.

I have taken the liberty of putting all of this data into a table, and just putting some cool lenses to each use case for you to consider. This list is in no way complete, it’s just some of my suggestions where I look at the focal length, distance to the subject and the maximum usable aperture of each lens:

Looking at the table, you need various lenses for various compositions. Start to see why a lot of wedding photographers use the 24-105L or the 24-70L on full frame? Or why cropped shooters often use the 15-85mm for weddings? Looking at the table above, you could easily find the lens arsenal for you if you’re into this type of shooting:

Cropped Zoom: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM is the winner hands down.
Cropped Prime: A set of the Canon/Samyang 35mm f/1.4 , Canon/Sigma 50mm f1.4 and a Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro will get you a long way.

On full frame, the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM and the EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM are hard to beat.

For the classic portrait shooting, the Canon or Sigma 50mm f/1.4 lenses are great on cropped (also see the fast-fifty dilemma). The Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 is a great (underestimated) choice for this on full frame.

On any platform, any of the Canon 70-200mm L lenses will never disappoint.

And yes, I have a weak spot for Samyang primes 🙂

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