Shift for portraits?

[reinhard_scheuregger]

hi all,

 

just out of couriosity: did anybody out there ever try a shift lens

(in this case a Sekor L Shift 4,5/75) for portraits? any good?

 

thanks

 

reinhard

[mikeseb]

What is the problem you are trying to overcome with the shift lens? Are you the official photographer for the Very Tall Portrait Subjects Union? :)

[reinhard_scheuregger]

:-)) no, i'm not. there's no problem to overcome, either. i was just wondering if one might get really unusual angles or an interesting DOF ... just thinkin'

[Jochen_S]

For a strange DOF you'd need a tilt lens. But OTOH using a slightly wide shift would be good to control the perspective of bookshelves in environmental portraits to make them either look more formal (our anchestors shifted a lot!) or stranger. Shifts aren't known for extreme killer resolution so they should be useable portraitlenses.

 

Try it out and have some fun, get a viewcamera for more fun.

[reinhard_scheuregger]

thanks, sounds reasonable. background being: i tried my SWC for portraits once and, although not very flattering for the ladies, the results were interestingly odd. sometimes it's fun to use things not the way they are meant to be used ...

[Ed_Ingold]

You need to keep the camera level. Shifts can result in some odd perspective effects on 3-dimensional objects (like people). You don't often see the side of someone's head when they are facing dead on.

[tom_musselman]

I take environmental portraits with a Pentax 67II. The lens I use the most is a 75 shift. As Jochen said, to tilt the plane of focus you need a tilt lens, not a shift. I shift the lens to make the vertical elements parallel. Nothing more. Good luck.

[reinhard_scheuregger]

oops. you're right and i stand corrected. shift won't do, tilt's the one...thanks, though.