make-over shoot

[Christie Photo]

It is considered a good portrait lens when used with an APS-C digital body, because it becomes an 80mm lens after the "crop" factor.

Ohhhh... Well, thanks for that, Matt. I'll agree... 80mm is pretty good.

Pete

 

[mysteryscribe]

They used to say in 35mm that 90 to 105 gave the least distortion to the face. I always found 135 to flatten the nose. anything under eighty you wind up in their face and can be intimidating.

A lot of portrait is more than just the equipment you shoot. You have to be concerned with how the subject reacts to being photographed as well as what the image looks like. If you shoot with a very sharp lens you might want to think about a number one difuser or even more.

The nikon lens and probably the cannon as well can play hell with facial pores ect.

Just some random thoughts

 

[Philip Weir]

My only comments would be to use a longer lens. you have a better chance of pulling focus on the subject and emphasizing your point of interest, being the face. It also gets you further away from the subject, so you're not infringing their personal space. Bounce flash is fine and much better than straight flash, but if the flash is on the camera, it's almost impossible to know exactly what the final effect will be. If you are using flash on camera, look at bouncing the flash more from the side, not straight up, see sample below, flash bounced from top left. I often swing the flash head to left or right, gives better modelling.

Trust this helps. Philip.
www.philipweirphotography.com

 

[AprilRamone]

I also have been basically using that gaussian blur technique, but will probably try out Matt's technique also. The only thing that I've found when doing it is to make sure you don't go too overboard with having the blur at too much opacity because it can look a little weird with sharp eyes and other features. That last one is kind of cool, I can see why you like it, but I think it's a bit too dark and that big nose shadow is pretty distracting as well.
But once again, from a girl's perspective (haha) I think you did great with the makeover! Maybe if I'm ever in Australia, I can see what you can do with me