[Klaus]

In one of the recent threads, one fellow asked to shoot portrait images for the sample image section.

 

What exactly tells a portrait about a lens ?

- the subject tends to be near the center

- massive DoF impact at least with head portraits so which softness is actually created by the lens

- do I want to have tack shark portraits anyway? 

- assuming a head portrait - which lens >50mm and <200mm isn't "good enough" for this ? Bokeh ? Completely irrelevant here (note: bokeh != blur).

- distortions - irrelevant

- vignetting - actually a creative element here

- CAs/PF/BF - wedding dress maybe

- Ghostings - mostly irrelevant

 

It's different for full body portraits, yes. For full body shots you have to have fast lenses. But do I have to have sharp lenses ? 

 

Let's have a look - here are some of the most of famous portaits:

http://www.photographydo.com/portrait-ph...eed-to-see

 

Which one of those would be particularly challenging for an average lens - say a 200$ 50-200mm f/4-5.6 ?

 

[toni-a]

For portraits IMHO the most important element  is the model's attitude and pose  comes next, lighting whether it is ambient light or the way you use the flash, all the rest are simple details.

Vignetting can be creative if is gradual, however black corners  aren't  something you'll enjoy seeing.

Not always I pud my subject at the center of the frame, so corners performance is important however you don't always need high sharpness except if are shooting for example elderly people and you want to show every wrinkle  

[Studor13]

I like the one with Gadafi best. Almost makes him look human.

[JJ_SO]

90% of the portraits in the gallery are centered, half of it studio shots and/or cropped to be centerred. But also for the rest, there hardly will be a lot of shots to show the subject in a corner - and if, it's mostly wide angle and distortion already drops in as well.

 

But:  The reason to ask for portait samples mostly is the bokeh, and therefore I also could say, playcards as used in PZ tests don't say much about bokeh or not  :wacko: there's nothing compared to the real proportions of "normal" portrait distance without being a studio shot.

 

I cannot see a reason to take a low quality or slow lens for portaits just because I need them to be unsharp enough to cover skin inpurities or wrinkles. I like to see sharp eyes, eyelashes, maybe jewellry - and the rest is a matter of softening the skin. Which is also necessary with a low quality lens at f/8. A sharp picture can always be treated selectively with Gaussian blurr. An unsharp picture will not get more details by using an unsharp mask. Also, if I want to accentuate only an eye or another part of a face, nothing beats a fast lens 

 

As for CA: A lot of my portraits with Nikkor 85/1.4G wide open with front light suffer of CA. I find the dealing with it possible, but unnecessary and waste of time - a lens without or with less CA can be a time saver, not only for wedding stuff.

[Klaus]

Most of these images have artificially increased contrast and reduced tonality - thus they are heavily post-processed either digitally or in the lab.  Merely 3 or so images have a subtle contrast.  Thus the lens contrast does hardly matter. 

Regarding sharpness - a 200$ 50-200mm is PLENTY sharp till "135mm" in the relevant image area - you won't go longer that than anyway.

 

@JoJu - the card test for bokeh has a purpose. The harsh contrast in there emphasizes nisen bokehs. Testing blur is utterly useless.  That cheap 50-200mm can produce awesome blur for those head portraits. In fact I can take the worst bokeh lens of em all and produce a smooth blur - all it takes is a short focus distance and a pronounced focus spread ... like in essentially all of those famous portraits.

[Klaus]

I should really start a game with you folks. Take some portraits with the best and worst lenses and make you guess.

But then ... I hate portraits ... ;-)

[JJ_SO]

I have no worst lenses.  Pity. Can't play the game. 

 

[toni-a]

I should really start a game with you folks. Take some portraits with the best and worst lenses and make you guess.

But then ... I hate portraits ... ;-)

If you want I can do it.


Will post pictures taken with crop and full frame, taken with primes and zooms and we'll see if you will guess

Will do on 750D Efs 18-55 vs 17-55 vs 50f1.4 vs 24-105f4L vs tokina 24-200@ 50mm

Also 70-300IS vs 100mm macro vs 24-105 vs tokina 24-200 @ 100mm

And I will repeat the tests on the 5D

Is anyone interested before I spend my time doing the tests

[Rover]

If you want I can do it.


Will post pictures taken with crop and full frame, taken with primes and zooms and we'll see if you will guess

Will do on 750D Efs 18-55 vs 17-55 vs 50f1.4 vs 24-105f4L vs tokina 24-200@ 50mm

Also 70-300IS vs 100mm macro vs 24-105 vs tokina 24-200 @ 100mm

And I will repeat the tests on the 5D

Is anyone interested before I spend my time doing the tests

Yep

[thxbb12]

If you want I can do it.


Will post pictures taken with crop and full frame, taken with primes and zooms and we'll see if you will guess

Will do on 750D Efs 18-55 vs 17-55 vs 50f1.4 vs 24-105f4L vs tokina 24-200@ 50mm

Also 70-300IS vs 100mm macro vs 24-105 vs tokina 24-200 @ 100mm

And I will repeat the tests on the 5D

Is anyone interested before I spend my time doing the tests

 

I am :-)