Good morning, I am Ye Zi, and today is the 2045th day of photography morning self-study to accompany everyone.
I found that my voice was still a little hoarse, so please bear with it. Let’s talk about a very important thing today, which is how to choose a portrait shot. The cause is this. A student asked me: Teacher, should I add a 24-70mm head to take portraits, or buy a 70-200mm head to take portraits?
Canon RF24-70mm F2.8 Image source: Canon official website
Canon RF70-200mm F2.8 Image source: Canon official website
This problem is actually very, very typical, 24-70mm and 70-200mm, you see, it just depends on 70. One belongs to the wide angle to the medium telephoto and the other is the medium telephoto to the telephoto. These two heads also belong to what we call a large three-element lens. One of the three lenses that each camera brand must have. So should we use 24-70mm to take portraits or 70-200mm to take portraits? This is related to many factors, let’s take a look at it one by one.
28mm shooting © Ye Zi
First of all, the strongest and most obvious thing that everyone feels, that is, the shooting ranges of the two are different. wide-angle lens is very suitable for use in narrow spaces because of its wide shooting range, such as indoor portrait shooting, such as portrait shooting in small alleys, etc. The telephoto head is likely to not be used here, and you can only take a big head forever, because the photographer does not retreat far enough, and it will have certain limitations. In other words, the smaller the space, the more we need wide-angle . The vaster the space, the more we can use telephoto, of course wide angles are also possible.
35mm shot © Ye Zi
OK. The next second thing is that the two of them have very different effects on the distortion of , which are very large and small. For example, in a 24-70mm lens, it contains a wide-angle end (24mm end) to about 35mm end, for example. When we use these focal lengths to take people, if we stand and take full-body photos, the person must be a big-headed doll - a big head, a small body, and a smaller foot. But if you squat down and pat the character and put the character's feet on the bottom, it will have a clear tendency to be close to, far and small, and will eventually become a big and long leg effect.
92mm shooting © Ye Zi
But telephoto lens can hardly do this, and the 70~200mm end cannot be done. This long-legged effect is usually used to take some energetic portrait photos, such as female riders riding motorcycles, or for example, when taking wedding dresses. Why? Because we don’t want long legs, we want her skirt to be big and long enough, so we will also use a wide-angle head to shoot. Wide angles are more severe than telephoto deformation, and although they are more dangerous, they can also be used.
35mm shot © Ye Zi
The third problem is that the wide-angle end has a background blur capability that is not as good as the telephoto end. For example, if you use 24mm to shoot people, because it is wide angle, its depth of field is very large. Unless you stick it very close to the actor's close-up, the background will be difficult to blur.
90mm shooting © Ye Zi
But what do you want to use to take pictures with more than 70mm, 100mm or 200mm, and the background will almost always be blurred, and no matter how small the aperture you use, the background will not be clear.
So it depends on how much you like the background blur effect and how much you need it to be blurred. If you are taking travel photos, that is, to record people and take portraits for others during the trip, then you definitely don’t need to be as blurry as the background, because if it is too blurry, you won’t be able to see where you are traveling, so 24-70mm may be enough.
90mm shot © Ye Zi
But if you especially like the effect of the background being muffled and you can’t see anything clearly, then you can buy the 70-200mm end.
So to put it bluntly, which one is more suitable for portrait shooting, 24-70mm or 70-200mm? There is no absolute standard for this matter. It mainly depends on your personal photography style and personal preferences. We can finally summarize the things mentioned above. You will find that if you like to take portraits indoors, the space is relatively small, or you like portrait photos with more tension and strength, such as those with longer legs, or you like portrait photos with rich backgrounds and do not want too blurred backgrounds, then you should buy a 24-70mm lens to make portrait lenses. But if you often take photos in a very vast area with a large space, you need the picture to be quieter, not very tense, or you want the background of the character to be completely blurred, then you can only buy a 70-200mm lens and a telephoto zoom lens to take portraits.
75mm shot © Ye Zi
So I will answer this classmate’s question here, I hope it will be helpful to everyone. My more good photography lessons are still in " reading original text ". You can click in and learn about it. Only by systematic learning can you truly master a skill.
Today is the 2045th day of photography morning self-study with everyone. I am Ye Zi. Every morning at 6:30, the WeChat public account "Photography morning self-study" will never end.
