How does one take good portrait shots? What lens should I be using

find good background then use low depth of field because you cant handle composing an entire shot

apply portra preset

85mm eqiv. Or 65mm - 100mm if you're a cheap cunt. Try to at least get 2.8f minimum for the lens.

And do basics, don't have the frame cut at joints and shoot the subject at eye level or near eye level etc. Use light to reflect a desired mood. Bring a giant piece of white cardboard and a slave if you shoot in the sun

>>3063820
>what lens?
use a fast 80mm or longer- that will give you nice depth of field and make the face thinner and less "bubbly"

Going to differ a bit.
I think anything above 50mm is fine provided you're doing more context and body too

Don't really see a need for ultra fast lenses either unless you're shooting at night. You can get good separation even with f4 on a decent zoom.

Very wide apertures are a good tool but they can definitely be overkill sometimes.

Don't forget to convert focal length for your camera sensor size!!

Don't neglect the lighting. An off camera flash or reflector in the right place can do wonders.

>>3063854
get the fuck out of here

go with 35mm 1.4

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>>3066457
>35mm portrait

>>3066457
maybe on a crop sensored body but that's stretching it

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>>3063820
Corporate school photographer here, this is what the company has to say:

35mm for full body shots, 55mm for 3/4, and 85mm for portrait.

Eye level for portrait, nose level for 3/4, chin level for full body shot.

We are not allowed to move aperture from f11, but that's just company policy BS cause they want the prefab backdrop to show. Personally I think F5 is about perfect. Narrower than that and you could start having the subject be partially blurred. Note the example photo taken at F1.8, you can see that the subject isn't completely in focus with such a narrow DoF.

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Learn about focal length compression and subject isolation.

You should really research and maybe do some photography homework before buying gear like a mindless consumer and asking some Laotian Shadowpuppet Fair to spoon feed you. 120-200 gives you the best subject isolation, which has nothing to do with DOF, and being st 2.8 is fine at 200mm for bokeh.

Anyways, it's impossible to just spoon feed you this shit so re read the start of my post and research the relationship between focal length and and subject isolation. There is no best portrait lens because different lengths give you different looks for diffferent portraiture applications.

>>3066512
>120-200 gives you the best subject isolation, which has nothing to do with DOF

Holy shit you're a dumb fucking twatwaffle.

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>>3066533
JL is the Kanye of photography. You won't appreciate if you have more than pleb taste, but anything less than top patrician taste.

>>3066602
fuck off Jason

Any particular great book about portrait photography?

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>>3066602
I love his brand

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>>3066492
gotta have that grey background in the shot

>>3066705
Gotta have that saturation and contrast all the way up in every fucking photo don't you, you overhyped instagrammer?

>>3066547
he's right you shitpancake. maybe if you weren't a dumpster millenial street photographer using only 35-85mm you'd know wtf happens at that length.

>>3066547
he's right you shitpancake. maybe if you weren't a dumpster millenial street photographer you'd know wtf happens at that length.

>>3066533
Getting kinda tired of this photo spamming all the threads here.

>>3066457
>35mm
>1.4
>Portrait

Yes I too like my portraits to have large distorted noses that are the only thing in focus

>>3066492
that portrait blows

>>3066457
Whatever you do, don't do this

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>>3063820
I use a 50/1.4 to great effect. Shoot wide open too for that creamy dreamy look. Pic related

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I use 55mm ff for 3/4 body with good results.

>>3063845
Can you post some photos with good composition then?

>>3066487
The crop factor doesnt effect compression. A 35mm on an apsc will have to "zoom" or crop of a 52mm but it will still have the distorting characteristics of the 35mm. Youre cropping the edges of the image in, not changing the physics.

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50mm just do it brah

>>3067495
Oh for fucks sake. Compression isn't inherent to any focal length. It's a function of perspective, I.e. How far you are from the subject. A given focal length on a smaller sensor will exhibit "more" compression simply because you have to be farther away to get the same framing.

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>>3067511

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>>3067543
Welp, stay an ignorant fool then.

>>3067511
Further away = less compression

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>>3067670
So shooting a 20mm gives you less compression than a 200mm assuming the same framing?

>>3067670
also, the fucking word is "farther" mongoloid.

>>3063820
Select a model that does not suffer from brain damage

>>3067682
why are u so mad