Portraits with modest telephoto lenses

Kathryn at Kelowna's Canada Day celebration.  Left:  135 mm @ f/2.5    Right:  f/10

I used a full-frame mirrorless camera and an f/1.8 135 mm lens to photograph my wife on Canada Day.  The high cloud meant there was very little shadow; fill flash wasn't needed.  I took a variety of shots ranging from f/1.8 to f/16.  The two above were taken at f/2.5 (left) and f/10 (right).

Depth of field is influenced by many factors, but the main ones to consider are the aperture (f/number) and the focal length of the lens.  Relative focal length plays a role as well when using crop-sensor cameras, although the end results are similar.  The smaller the sensor, the higher the crop-factor.  You get more depth of field at any given relative focal length and aperture setting compared to the same settings on a full-frame camera.

Some of my best portraits were done with modest telephoto lenses at low apertures.  At the low end of the scale is a good 85 mm lens; an f/1.8 85 is much more affordable than its f/1.4 counterpart.  But I love my f/1.4 over the f/1.8 I used to have.  The high end is a 200 mm f/2.8 lens; I have used a 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens to get some nice portraits.  It also has the advantage of allowing the use of different focal lengths without changing lenses.  

In between is the 135 mm lens.  You can get them in different focal lengths, ranging from f/1.8 to f/2.8, but all of them tend to produce sharp portraits with pleasing out-of-focus backgrounds.  So, why not use the 70-200 f/2.8 at the 135 mm mark instead of a 135 mm f/2.8 prime?  Some people do.  A prime lens will almost always be sharper than a zoom lens, all other settings being equal, but cost also becomes a factor.  Unfortunately, you can only buy the 135 f/2.8 lenses on the used market as no one makes them anymore.  They tend to be manual focus and may not work with modern cameras.

In general, I like to use a mild telephoto with a low aperture and a distant background that appears attractive when out of focus.  I use flash to fill the foreground when shadows or backlighting is an issue (in fact, flash helps is all situations).  I have written a lot about fill flash.  Click here to see an example.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com


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