What are my options when doing a full body portrait?

[AgentDrex]

I would like to do a portrait of friends. I want their whole body in frame, foreground OOF, background OOF, friend in focus...

What focal length would be good for this...I can seem to only do shoulder/head shots like this at the moment...

Thank you for assistance in this matter....

 

[MohaimenK]

I'm guessing this is outdoor shoot? If so, you'll have to lower your apature and pretty much stand far and zoom into the subject. That's the other way to blur BG, to stand far and zoom in. Give it a try

 

[AgentDrex]

I have a prime lens...Hanimex 1.8/50

What I'm wondering is what focal length would work best for a full body shot...I bet if this 135mm didn't have the stuck blades, it would work the way I'm thinking...

 

[Big Mike]

The thing with a full body shot, is that you either need to back up, or use a wider lens...and either of those will extend your DOF....and you want to keep a nice shallow DOF.

Using a longer lens will help.

 

[MohaimenK]

The thing with a full body shot, is that you either need to back up, or use a wider lens...and either of those will extend your DOF....and you want to keep a nice shallow DOF.

Using a longer lens will help.

Mike so say using 200mm at f5.6-f7.1 would do the trick?

 

[AgentDrex]

So, I guess I'll be looking for an old 200mm m42 mount lens?

 

[MohaimenK]

So, I guess I'll be looking for an old 200mm m42 mount lens?

Or any long telephoto zoom would work. Doens't have to be a 200 prime

 

[Derrel]

How about a 50mm prime? Used at around f/2.2 or so, a 50mm can do an okay job of throwing the background somewhat out of focus on a full length shot...as was pointed out, longer lenses require a longer camera-to-subject distance, and that long distance creates reasonably deep depth of field.

 

[AgentDrex]

My 50mm prime goes to 2.8...but I don't seem to be able to get the whole body in focus with everything OOF like I have in my head...I'll go and practice at lunch...

 

[MohaimenK]

or you can just get the 10-22 mm lens, but I haven't tried that before so I will know tomorrow once the new cam & lens shows up how that'd work. Will post a reference image

 

[Travis F]

A couple questions that might help give some more solutions;

What lenses do you have now other than the 50mm?

How do you plan on posing your friends? Standing, seated, laying.....?

How many friends are going to be in this photo?

What's the distance to any main distracting points in the foreground and background?

Given a little more info maybe somebody can come up with some more specific pointers.

Travis

 

[Village Idiot]

Canon 600mm f/4L IS will work.
Canon Telephoto EF 600mm f/4.0L IS Image Stabilizer 2534A002 -

or you can just get the 10-22 mm lens, but I haven't tried that before so I will know tomorrow once the new cam & lens shows up how that'd work. Will post a reference image

Nope. 10-22 is wide. Wide angle creates a very big DOF and will have everything in focus. I shoot at f/2.8 with my 15mm fish and pretty much everything is in focus.

Longer focal length lenses will isolate the subject and can control DOF better. That's why an 85 f/1.8 will have shallower DOF than a 50 f/1.8 with both at f/1.8.

It also has to do with perspective. Putting a subject closer to the lens with background elements further away will blur the background more.

Problem is, with trying to use longer lenses for full body shots, you have to have space. I was in my kitchen shooting with my 70-200 with my backdrop in the living room so I could get full body shots at 70mm on a 1.6 APS-C sensor.

 

[MohaimenK]

I have the CHEAPEST option for ya! Take your camera, shoot the pic w/ ur 50 prime at 5.6 or so then take it over to PS and blur the background

 

[Big Mike]

Mike so say using 200mm at f5.6-f7.1 would do the trick?

200mm good. F5.6, not so much, if you want that shallow DOF. 200mm at F2.8 would be better.

And yes, using a wide angle lens like the 10-22mm will give a rather deep DOF, even wide open.

 

[Gaerek]

I have the CHEAPEST option for ya! Take your camera, shoot the pic w/ ur 50 prime at 5.6 or so then take it over to PS and blur the background

Cheap? Yes. But very difficult to make it look right. It's much easier to get the effect in camera than it is to do it in post.