Nikon lenses for family portraits

[aschwinghammer]

<p>Hello,<br>

I am trying to advance my experience and portfolio and will be photographing a family for free at the end of this week. I currently have a the Nikon D5000 kit lens (18-55mm) and the 55-200mm lens. <br>

I will be taking some candid shots as well as posed, and was wondering if I am better off using my 200mm lens for the posed shots and the 18-55mm for the candid shots?<br>

I want to be able to take the most amazing pictures i'm capable of for them, even though they know I'm a beginner. Thanks for your time and advice!<br>

Amanda</p>

[orcama60]

<p>Amanda, the Nikon 35 mm f/1.8 is you best choice for a family pictures. It is very cheap ( $200.00 ) and an excellent lens. I have heard a lot of very good opinions and matter of fact, I am going to buy one for me this coming weekend. I do have the 50mm f/1.8 but it is too long for a group so I guess the 35 mm would make a good choice for you. The 18-55 mm that you have, is also another good lens for this kind of pictures. Don't hesitate to use it. </p>

[bikealps]

<p>For a group, you will need some depth of field to make sure all the people are in focus. Therefore, you don't need a fast lens. Your 18-55 should be just fine and its zoom feature will make it easier for you to work quickly, handling the camera technical details while you pose and interact with the group.<br>

For individual portraits, you may want to have narrow depth of field. A lens that can do f2.8 would be really nice. The 35mm f1.8 will be good, but you may prefer a longer focal length. A good choice would be 50 mm. I believe the D5000 does not have a built-in motor and therefore will only autofocus with AF-S lenses. Therefore for 50mm lenses, you're forced to buy the 50mm f1.4 AF-S at $440 instead of the otherwise adequate but really cheap $120 50mm f1.8.<br>

To really distinguish your photos, you need to control the lighting. Are your shots outdoors or indoors?<br>

If outdoors, you should work early or late in the day to get soft lighting. Alternately, if the light is softened by fog, you can get a nice soft look.<br>

If indoors, you should either soften your flash with some sort of light spreading device or bounce it off the ceiling.</p>

[steve_levine]

<p>I'd worry more about the posing and lighting. Have you hit the learning tab above? It is a great resource of 411.</p>

<p>If it were me, I'd shoot them in the shade, with a dark (out door) background. And of course hit them with a gentle kiss of flash to open up the eye sockets.</p>

[luis_g]

<p>The OP said nothing about buying new glass, only about which lens to use. My first question would be how many people are we talking about?</p>

<p> </p>

[bms]

<p>You got 18-200 mm covered.</p>

<p>For a larger group, your 18-55 is probably better. I often shoot with my 24-70 on a full frame sensor, which would be 16-47mm on your crop sensor - probably use the longer end. Personally, I like to shoot individual portraits at longer focal lengths - it is all about perspective. If you ever try to do a portrait at 18mm, you'll see what I mean - wide angles tend to make things close to the lens appear larger than thise further away. You can employ this for effect, but it may not be flattering. Even a groups of 2-3 can be shot with your 55-200, maybe at around 55-70mm quite well. Bottom line, you are in good shape with your lenses.</p>

<p>If you have money to burn, I'd invest in a flash and start practicing how to use it.... in the future, if you can find a good cheap used 105/f2.5, that would be a great investment IMHO, it makes for an excellent portraits lens, even on DX. You'll need to expose manually on the D5000.</p>

<p>Happy shooting.</p><div></div>

[eric_arnold]

<p>the lighting/background will have a lot to do with how good the pics look--probably more so than the lens. the 18-55 will be great for candids and group pictures. i'd try to shoot stopped down to f/8 if possible. for individual portraits, the 55-200 will be better to isolate your subject with longer focal lengths.you do want to make sure the lighting is adequate, i'd stop down at least a click from wide open for better sharpness, at 200mm, that's f/6.3. if you're shooting indoors at that aperture, you're either going to need an external flash or really good background lighting. i'd consider getting a flash even if shooting outside, for fill- to remove shadows. the sb-400 would be adequate for shooting 10-15 feet from the subject(s). any farther and you may need to go one step up, to the sb-600.</p>

<p>the 35/1.8 IS a good lens for available-light candids, but i'd master the lenses you have now before adding on. also, don't shoot in AUTO. try to avoid the scene modes too. shoot in P(rogram) or A(perture-priority), and don't be afraid to bump the ISO if you need to. the d5000 should reasonably be able to handle ISO 1600.</p>

 

[frank_skomial]

<p>Of course there are better lenses than what you have, but your lenses are sufficient and great to take family photos, portraits, and everything else, if you provide proper lighting, or during daytime.<br>

You should be able to take amazing pictures with your equipment. If you do not take them yet?, try learnig and experimenting until you do.</p>

[aschwinghammer]

<p>Thanks everyone. The reason I am taking these photos is for experience/experimenting. Some of you are saying that I should experiment before I experiment? The family is aware of this, they know that I am a beginner. <br>

It sounds like I should just stick with my 18-55 lens, although I have reading things online that say that a portrait should never be taken at less than a 70mm focal length. Here is a copy and paste: It's from digital-photography-school.com</p>

<h3>4) Never, ever, shoot a portrait at less than 50mm; try to stay at 70mm or higher.</h3>

<p>The last thing you want to hear from a client is “Why does my head look swelled?” Any focal length below 70mm can distort your subject, however it doesn’t become very noticeable until you are below 50 MM. The compression effect of a telephoto lens will also increase the blur of bokeh. Most of my portraits are done between 120mm and 200mm.Read more: <a href="http://www.digital-photography-school.com/13-tips-for-improving-outdoor-portraits#ixzz12sGXzH1K">http://www.digital-photography-school.com/13-tips-for-improving-outdoor-portraits#ixzz12sGXzH1K</a><br>

I've read so many different things...I guess I'll just learn when I experiment. Thanks for all the advice.</p>

[CvhKaar]

<blockquote>

<p>4) Never, ever, shoot a portrait at less than 50mm; try to stay at 70mm or higher</p>

</blockquote>

<p> This goes for full frame and is left over from the fil days, whit an APS-C sensor I think this should read :<br>

4) Never, ever, shoot a portrait at less than 35mm; try to stay at 50 mm or higher<br>

Also, why not should <em>a lot </em>of pics with all different settings so you can see the effect of your choices .....</p>

[jose_angel]

<p>Focal lenghts doesn`t distort; it`s the subject to camera distance.<br /> I haven`t read that tutorial, but I suspect they refer to this lenses as the result of a viewing-angle/shooting distance.<br /> This means that <em>at an optimal portraiture distance</em>, a 105mm, 85mm or whatever focal lenght will cover a head, head and shoulders or full body. Any shorter lens will force you <em>to get closer</em> (for a tighter framing), increasing that distorted-looking faces.</p>

[alvinyap]

<p><em>4) Never, ever, shoot a portrait at less than 50mm; try to stay at 70mm or higher.</em></p>

<p>This is a guideline. Great portraits have been taking with short focal lengths (see portraiture [environmental portraiture] in the learning section - or put in wideangle portraits in flickr's search). Don't limit yourself.</p>

<p>Re: Lens to use: This depends on your style. I much prefer to get in close and wide to capture the subject in the environment. My first choice will be the 18-55, though it will depend on whats going to happen on that day. Exaggerated features are caused by perspective - which is a feature of the distance between subject and camera.</p>

<p>May I suggest using this portrait shoot as a chance to experiment and explore with the lenses you have? Those two make a great combo. I've taken many memorable shots with them.</p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>It is a good guideline.</p>

<p>On DX, even, I think 35 is too wide for portrait. 50 is better. If there isn't room, you might need a different venue. And certainly the background is the number one concern.</p>

[StuartMoxham]

<p>The 18-55 will do you just fine. Lighting and posing will be far more important.</p>

[bikealps]

<p>I take the majority of my portraits using my 50mm f1.8 and a DX camera (D90). I believe the recommendation was for film cameras or full-frame. For DX, the recommendation would be to use 50mm or up.<br>

The historical recommendation has been to use a focal of length of 85mm if you own a Canon and 105mm if you own a Nikon. I believe the two communities chose these focal lengths because Canon made a great 85mm lens and Nikon made a great 105mm lens. This rule got set in ancienty history.<br>

Nowadays, you can use all sorts of focal lengths. I regularly use anything from 28mm to 300 mm on DX for portraits. 28mm is a little wide. When I use the 300mm lens, the subject is usually so far away we can't communicate effectively.<br>

If you're doing a head shot, 50mm or more will be fine. If you go wider than 50mm, you should include more of the person. There are some really cool "environmental portraits" taken using really wide angle lenses, for example 24mm on FX, which would be 16mm on your camera. In these portraits, the person's entire body is only part of the photo.</p>

[tombest]

<p>I agree with the consensus here that the lenses you have are more than adequate with the wide lens being the most useful for the family shots and the 55-200 for the portraits. <br>

In my experience, what will make your shots great will have less to do with the exact lens and focal length you choose and more with your creative control of the camera and the light you work with. Lighting will have the greatest impact on the quality of your shots (IMHO). Control and use of light is what photography is all about. If you have flashes available to you, learn them and use them. Your camera will not control additional flashes wirelessly so you would need at least an SB800 to do that for you, but multiple flashes give you lots of options. The Nikon CLS (Creative Lighting System) is phenomenal and gives you tremendous control. And don't be afraid to use whatever you have available to diffuse or reflect light such as white boards or white bedsheets. Light modifiers can sometimes rescue a difficult lighting situation.<br>

Shoot lots of pictures and experiment. And be on the lookout for the candid moments before and after the 'official' shots are taken. Frequently they are the best of the batch. Good luck and share some of your shots with us afterward.</p>

[andylynn]

<p>By family portraits do you mean group shots? Group shots are different, you want wider lenses than individual shots. For individuals, the 55-200, and for groups, unless you want to stand farther away to use the 55-200, the 18-55. Unless you want more options for blurring background when shooting individuals, you don't need any more lenses.</p>

<p>(Warning: pontification follows, readers may disregard)</p>

<p>But frankly I think that "never, ever" using less than 70mm is way too restrictive. It's a style choice that has a lot to do with how you shoot. Not everybody shoots people by taking ten paces back, focusing on the eyes and shooting head and shoulders while the subject poses. This is particularly true for casual shooters. When I'm out with friends or doing casual shooting my most useful lens is a 50mm prime (on film) or 35/1.8 (on DX).</p>

[brooks_lester]

<p>Focal length recommendations for portraits need to be more specific: for head and shoulders and head shots, telephoto compression is more flattering and will blur the background more than a wider lens. If shooting full body and environmental portraits, a normal to wide angle focal length is traditionally used. The classic focal lengths for 35mm format portraiture are 35mm for full body, 50mm for half body, and 85-105 and beyond mm for head and shoulders to head shots. <br>

What you want to avoid, if flattering the subject is of prime importance, is shooting a tight portrait with a wide angle focal length, however, if you want see the subject, full body or similar, in an environment, such as an aesthetically pleasing natural scene or dramatic urban setting, a wide angle is usually the best choice to render both the subject and the background with detail.</p>