Aperature setting w/ Depth of Field

[JanB56]

Any of the lenses you have will be fine at f/5.6. The closer you stand to people, the more-critical absolutely dead-on accurate focusing becomes. I personally think that seven feet is the absolute closest you ought to ever be when doing people photography, unless you want distorted hands, arms, legs, noses, etc.. For pleasing, portrait-type photos of people, I think it's easier to be a little bit farther away from them, say 10-15 feet, and to use a zoom lens to get the right framing. If you shoot portraiture at f/5.6, you almost always can hit focus, even on two people, and as long as you are in the 12 to 20 foot distance range, focusing is not super-critical, the way it is at the closest distances.

If you want to do say a very tight head shot, you could use the 35mm lens from three feet away, OR move back, and use say the 55-200mm lens from 15 feet; moving back, and using the longer lens will result in a different picture, with the SAME head size in the frame. My vote is almost always for a longer lens, from a bit farther back, than it is shootjng from too close a distance.

Derrel, thanks again for great advice. I will certainly use it. I'm excited now to put my lens on & go do some shooting, as soon as the sun comes back out. your help & advice is very much appreciated. Thanks again for helping another Newbie !!