Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/17

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Portraits
From: Greg Locke <locke@straylight.ca>
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 08:49:56 -03-30

At 10:45 17-11-00 +0100, you wrote:

>distances and apertures. When Greg said he diasagreed with my advice, he had
>a totally different type of portraiture in mind.

I was just stating that the common aesthetic in professional corporate and 
editorial portrait photography is to shoot wide open for minimum depth of 
field.

The usual focal lengths (in 35mm cameras, anyway) for this is 50-90mm.
135 is a bit long for this but I have seen it done with 300mm ...which is 
common on fashion shoots on the street.  The objective, of course, is to 
reduce the background to a blur thus removing all distractions from the 
subject.

I have done this, at times, with a 35/2 lens and it sings if you have the 
right subject and conditions. A subject close to the camera with a wide 
panorama spread out behind, just out of focus.

...then again, I often use a 21mm for portraits too so....


Greg Locke
St. John's, Newfoundland
locke@picturedesk.org

PICTUREDESK INTERNATIONAL     ...news pictures ONLINE
1-800-340-4970 / http://www.picturedesk.org
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