which body/lens combo for portrait?

Rocketman766

I will be shooting a team's individual photos and they/we want to do full length body shots. I can use my 1DMKIII with a 50mm lens or my Xsi with the 18-55mm kit lens. I want to use the mkiii, but to do full length with a 50mm lens, will I need to put too much distance between me and the subjects? I want to frame with enough room to crop for a 8x10 print. I tried to obtain a 30mm lens, but one was not available on short notice. Thanks for any advice for a new portrait shooter here...

craig_d

The Rebel with the 18-55mm lens will allow you to get a full-body shot (I assume by full-body you mean standing) at a closer distance than the 1D3 with a 50mm prime, but the closer you are, the more perspective distortion you will see in the figure. Ideally a full-body portrait should be taken from a distance of 15 feet or more. At that distance, a 1D3 with a 50mm lens (equivalent to 65mm on FF) should be able to frame a standing figure the way you want to.

So I think either camera with the lenses you have available should be able to do the job unless you are forced to work at significantly closer distances than I would recommend for this sort of work.

pathfinder

How about your 70-200 or your 50-150 zooms? One of these should work quite nicely for full length portraits with a 1DMkIII

craig_d

pathfinder wrote:

How about your 70-200 or your 50-150 zooms? One of these should work quite nicely for full length portraits with a 1DMkIII

(slaps forehead) Good point. I didn't pay any attention at all to his sig, which lists a number of useful lenses. The EF 100mm f/2 is another good option.

Nikolai

When dealing with portraits you really don't want to use anything shorter than 50mm, unless you ready to deal with facial and barrel distortions. So I guess a need to put some distance between your and a group is kinda unavoidable.
Unless... you want to use the "panoramic technique" as shown here
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=149904
which allows you to capture an unlimited size groups withough stepping back a couple of miles first....
HTH

Rocketman766

Thanks for the input here. I had originally wanted to use one of the 70-200s after hearing and seeing all the results and good things people say about using them. Since this is my first session like this (portraits for teams) I didn't want to be 40ft away (just pulling a number out of the air...) if I didn't need to be. Just taking my lumps with stupid questions here, thanks to everyone who helps me out and here. I am going to take the 70-200 and the 50mm. Once again, thanks to everyone...

bloomphotog

I'd suggest the 50mm for full length and the 70-200 at 135mm+ for the tighter shots. Good luck!

Art Scott

personally I would just use the 70-200.....i have several many many many team photos with a 70-210 and a vivitar, 285HV flash & handheld flash meter.........

Shark

What is "perspective distortion"?

Rocketman766

Well, I ended up using the 50mm and thinking back, I would have chosen the 70-200mm if I could go back. Lucky for me, I am going to do more for this team in Jan. so I will use the 70-200 at that time. Learned a ton just on that one session, but still only scratched the surface.