What are my options when doing a full body portrait?

[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

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.

Send it to Schwetylens he's good at it :thumbup:

 

[SrBiscuit]

photoshop aint cheap.

 

[gsgary]

300mmF2.8L works a treat

 

[Travis F]

300mmF2.8L works a treat

I actually use my 120-300 f/2.8 occasionally for shots like this (or at least what I am imagining). I find it helpful to have someone help them pose though or have a 2 way radio handy to mitigate the yelling.....

Travis

 

[AgentDrex]

Here is what I did with the 50mm:

#1

#2

#3

 

[AgentDrex]

Thanks Travis...that's exactly the look I have in my pea-brain...so...new lens for qwaanza in my future...

 

[Scatterbrained]

This is the reason the 70-200f2.8 is such a hot seller.

 

[Geaux]

This was shot at 2.8 with my 35mm f/1.8

I had to stand a good distance away ... but it was worth it. Just make sure you nail the focus

 

[AgentDrex]

I wasn't all that pleased with these...but I really haven't had all the much practice shooting humans (outside of playing Desert Combat). Underexposed, OOF, and two fully body shots are centered...

They had good spirits humoring me. They looked at them and said, "Oh, wow!" and I'm thinking to myself, "That's why unskilled 'pros' make money, shoot something that's a notch higher than a normal 'snapshot' and you've got buyers apparently..."

Not that they paid or anything, I'm not confident enough to go "pro" as the case may nor may not be.

I'll definitely look at getting a used m42 somewhere, I'll have to research to find the best lens I can afford, which in my case, is about a peanut and two pocket lints...

 

[gsgary]

300mmF2.8L works a treat

I actually use my 120-300 f/2.8 occasionally for shots like this (or at least what I am imagining). I find it helpful to have someone help them pose though or have a 2 way radio handy to mitigate the yelling.....

Travis

This was just a snap shot of my sister in law, i was hoping to shoot some surf, i love the way it make people stand out

 

[Village Idiot]

I wasn't all that pleased with these...but I really haven't had all the much practice shooting humans (outside of playing Desert Combat). Underexposed, OOF, and two fully body shots are centered...

They had good spirits humoring me. They looked at them and said, "Oh, wow!" and I'm thinking to myself, "That's why unskilled 'pros' make money, shoot something that's a notch higher than a normal 'snapshot' and you've got buyers apparently..."

Not that they paid or anything, I'm not confident enough to go "pro" as the case may nor may not be.

I'll definitely look at getting a used m42 somewhere, I'll have to research to find the best lens I can afford, which in my case, is about a peanut and two pocket lints...

This is why you want a telephoto prime. The 50 f/1.8 is not sharp wide open. Step it down a bit and it becomes a great lens. The problem with that is that you're now increasing the DOF on a some what wide lens. Take something like an 85 f/1.8 and you now have a lens with shallower DOF at the same aperture as the 50. You can step it down a little and still retain a shallower DOF for a sharper image.

This was shot with a seriously crappy Quantaray 70-300 at f/7.1. Notice, shallow DOF at 300mm.

 

[AgentDrex]

I do see, thank you so much everyone for showing photos of the different lens lengths and apertures...that was immensely helpful....

 

[AgentDrex]

Not to rehash this thread or anything, but I now have a few lenses that should do what I originally asked about. Again I'd like to thank all of you who were patient enough to give me some really great advice. You guys make my day all the time, thank you!