Reader's Comments - Index of - Free

Portrait Photography
Is the 80-200/2.8 zoom useful?
Well, you can tell me. The photo at left (Dieter) was taken with a
Canon 35-350L zoom lens. I was traveling light in Costa Rica
and didn't have room for a supertelephoto. The 35-350L slows
down to around f/5.6 at longer focal lengths. The photo at right
(Emma) was taken in Alaska's Katmai National Park. I was there
to take photos of bears so I had my 300/2.8 with me. For my
taste, the portrait of Emma is vastly better due to the shallower
depth of field and consequently less distracting background. Too
bad I was using Fuji Velvia film, which is not the best for skin
tone.
Though the big professional zooms are heavy and not as sharp as primes, I find that
they encourage me to experiment. At right is a standard portrait that I took for my New
York section. If I'd had a fixed 180 I probably wouldn't have been able to back up far
enough to get in this much of Tal's body. On the other hand, if I hadn't been able to
rack my Canon 70-200/2.8L lens out to 200, I might not have gotten the photo below
(sadly the negative was damaged by the Duggal lab in New York).
6x6: Give your subjects some room
The rectangular format of most cameras encourages photographers to crop rather tightly around a subject's face
or torso. The 6x6 cm square format encourages you to give subjects a little bit of space.
http://www.photo.net/portraits/intro (7 of 37)7/3/2005 2:16:41 AM