by Rolando Gomez
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It is often said, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” but what most photographers don’t realize when photographing models is that a good part of a model’s beauty is achieved through proper lens selection. Choose the wrong lens and a photograph becomes a picture—even when photographing the most beautiful model imaginable.
One of the keys to maintaining beauty in great glamour photography is to separate your model from the background. While there are many ways to achieve this, one sure-fire way is through proper lens selection. Normally the lenses that provide this separation are within the 85mm to 180mm range for 35mm cameras, or within the 140mm to 210mm range for medium format cameras. (see equivalent focal length chart)
These mid to full telephoto lenses have built in advantages: one is the longer the lens, the narrower the angle of view. The less of an angle, the tighter framing the photographer can achieve of their subject, and tight composition is critical when photographing models.
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| Photographed with a 85mm Lens, f/5.6 with black scarf filter. +1/3 stop compensation |
Photographed with a 300mm Lens, f/4 with black scarf filter, |
The tighter angle of these lenses optically provides less depth of field, allowing the photographer to focus on the model’s eyes, while throwing the background out of focus. This creates a natural and more pleasing separation of the background from the model. In glamour photography the model is the image, and the background should never be busy, cluttered or distracting unless the photographer needs the additional subject matter of the background in the image. Normally this would be the case when photographing a model with a car or similar product, and in this case the photographer should shy away from a telephoto lens and steer toward a wide-angle lens.
While wide-angle lenses can be used in environmental portraiture or glamour, a photographer should use them only when the background has some importance in the final image. Wide-angle lenses have a shorter focal length, providing for greater depth of field, which leads to an image where the model and the background are in sharper focus.
But watch out--they tend to distort the model in an image. Some photographers take advantage of this wide-angle lens characteristic, but are careful about what they are distorting in their images.
Distortion is an effect any lens can produce if the lens is not used properly. Professional photographers know distortion is easier to achieve with a wide-angle lens than a mid to full telephoto lens—hence mid to full telephoto lenses are considered the glamour photography lens of choice.
Understanding lens characteristics is vital to photographers interested in capturing the full beauty of their models. Professional photographers pre-visualize what they want to achieve in a photograph prior to a photography session. Part of the photography process involves selecting the right lens that benefits the photograph and the model. Capturing that “radiant beauty” from a model is what we’re all after—it’s what separates glamour photographs from just a picture.
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©2002 Rolando Gomez