Hi, this is Jay P Morgan. Today on the slanted lens, we're gonna start a new
series called one light portraits. I'm gonna take my black background out on
location, and I want to do portraits of real people on location emphasizing a single
principle. I'm going to teach a principle at a time so you can understand the
portrait process. But most importantly, where you get some great black and white
portraits of individuals as we go out on location and explore one life portraits.
Today our principle is: the lens.
I'm on a horse.
So Insidro lives right around the corner from me, and we live in horse country.
I see him riding these horses I've talked to him several times but his buildings
almost burned down. Remember that?
So I've always wanted a portrait of him, so today we're gonna do that portrait.
Most people think there's only one lens you can use to do a portrait, and that's just not true. There's several different things to
consider as you choose different lenses so I'm gonna choose several different
lenses see what each of them going to do and then see which one is going to be
best for you as you do your one light portrait
So here's our setup: first I've got the Aputure Light Dome Mini 2 which is a very small round octodome and it's
got a grid on it it allows me to kind of tilt it up and take and shadow some of
the light off from his chest gives me a nice pool of light that kind of falls
off that's very pretty it's also smaller which gives me a harder light I like
that for this kind of a portrait, Black and white. I want hard 1 light portraits
that really accentuate the face for the background I've got a piece of duvetyne
Duvetyne is just a piece of fabric you can get at B&H, you can get it at fabric stores
I'm not sure if they're gonna call it duvetyne at fabric stores but it's a non
reflective surface just sucks up the light and allows you to just give you a
dark dark background so dooba teen then we're just gonna have a little reflector
we'll push that reflector in to kind of open up the light on his face and I'm
shooting this at one 200,000 at about f/8 at 100 iso those are my camera
settings but most importantly what plans what I choose to do this portrait and
why our settings going to be absolutely the same for each lens so let's shoot
through these different lenses and just see how they affect the face and why I
would choose one over the other first lens is a 45 to 50 this is a camera on
45 millimeter 1.8 why do people use this range 45 to 50 because it's a very
normal focal length the camera now sees the same good way
that your eye sees doesn't flatten the figure out it doesn't distort the figure
it just looks very normal to what we see with our eyes it's really a starting
point for most people probably may have though is our background it's not a
telephoto which brings the background in which means I may have to bring my
background closer or have a larger background to be able to use a 45 or 50
millimeter lens so let's get some shots with that Tamron 45 1.8 so there we've
got the 45 mm rear 1/8 it's just a nice normal look at him doesn't compress his
face doesn't distort his face I had to bring my background forward to be able
to accommodate but it worked out great so now let's go to something wider why
would I choose a 35 millimeter or a 24 millimeter to do a portrait well one a
35 millimeter is much wider and so what it means is I can get in much closer
some people have that intimacy of being really close to their subject matter be
very close to their face but what it does is it distorts the face so that's a
decision do you want a more comical kind of look or a more intimate or close but
it also gives you a context as well you can be in close to the person but see
their kind of environment around them backgrounds probably gonna be of a
problem I'm gonna have to move even closer to be able to stay on that black
might be impossible to do we'll see what happens so shooting within 35 or a 24
especially you're gonna if you're trying to stay on a background it's just really
tough to keep it on a background because you need a very large background it's
really a better lens for if you're doing environmental portraits because you can
I can see all the bar and everything where he works here in that context that
wider lens is really great gets him closer gives me a great view of
everything around him okay so I'm gonna jump in on that 24 millimeter I'm not
gonna be able to keep my back on my background I know I'm not but I will
move in and so his face becomes larger his shoulders become smaller as they
fall away from us and the backgrounds become very hard to stay on so there's a
24 millimeter not my favorite but some people love that look so we're now gonna
shoot some stuff on the 85 1.8 I think it's a fabulous lens when you're
shooting people in their faces it's a great place to be the 90 millimeter
macro made by Tamron there's also a fabulous
lens for doing faces because it's a 2.8 lens but it gives you that flat
but it also gives you a macro capabilities if you want to get in
really tight so now the 85 I can move my background back so I don't get light
spilling on it so I have a nice deep black background it also makes it easier
for me to bring my fill card in a lot closer so contrary to what you might
believe the 85 makes people look a little heavier a little more bulky
because it's compressing everything so everything is a little larger it's like
a telephoto it's all compressed together whereas if you go to a 35 the body gets
a little slimmer the face gets a little slimmer so it's just a very different
look now if you shove right in on their face that's gonna become a balloon if I
keep the sombrero the same size the face is much wider in the 85 and a lot less
so in the with the 24 so there's no shots on the 85 millimeter you take a
look at that now 24 35 45 85 look at those together see how that face is
changing now let's go to a 135 and then a 200 so I'm gonna shoot these rather
quickly backgrounds not gonna be a problem now because I'm going to longer
telephoto lenses which is gonna bring that background closer and be really
easy to stay on that background so I'm gonna go to 135 a lot of people love 135
millimeters for faces but it boy it's really flattens things out shoulders
become big you know face becomes really flat a little bit wider in some ways and
then we'll go to 200 what's the true advantage of 135 or 200 you get gorgeous
bokeh in the background and it brings your background and you can shoot on a
very small background with a 135 or 200 millimeter lens we don't have any bokeh
we're on a black background so it's really not an issue for us to date but
that's one of the main advantages of that 135 200 millimeter lens is it
really gives you a beautifully soft and out-of-focus background which is really
pretty so there you have it we've got some great shots here with Cedro
everything from that 24 to 35 to 45 to 85 135 and 200 you can see how they
affect the face and how they're different each one of those images for
me the sweet spot is about an 85 millimeter it's a beautiful look the 135
they look fabulous as well so you have to decide for you your style what works
best for you so the answer the question is why or what lens would you use it
really depends on how you shoot what you want to look like hell
are your background how much room do you have in the room you're shooting in and
if I'm in a very small room I can't shoot with a 200 millimeter lens because
I can't get far enough away those decisions become a personal decision for
you but I just love that 85 to like 135 that's the area that I think looks
fabulous for a face I love this one like look because it just lets the face show
you all the life and living that they've done in their lives it's just a great
look so there's a look at those different focal lengths this is a one
light portrait focusing on what lens do I choose and Cedro here says you should
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