Portraits: Looking at Aperture and Focal Length

This extensive video by Joe Brady (from MAC-On- Campus) takes a look at two important aspects for shooting  portraits – aperture and focal length and how they play together when shooting from different distances.

Brady talks about what happens to a model’s face when using different focal lengths and plays with different distances. As with some of his other videos, Brady goes over the equipment he uses and how to use it and several questions during the guide coming from different photographers.

Brady looks at two popular professional lenses (24-70mm and 70-200mm) and how they effect the  look of the face of the model and the results are pretty dramatic (basically never use a wide lens to shoot a model up close – something which is pretty basic). Brady also demonstrates how a 50mm lens look up close and again at least to us the image seem to be distorted (50mm can be a good full body or even head and shoulder portrait lens but is less suited for headshots).

Different focal lengths – different looks

Portrait-Style-with-Aperture-and-Lens

You can check out some of Brady’s previous videos here as well as many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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