Cropping body parts off

[ndwgolf]

Guys
What's the rule of thumb for cropping body parts off in portraiture photography. The reason I ask is that I am using my bedroom as a studio (a little cluttered but not too bad) Im using my 85mm lens as my portrait studio lens.
At a push I can get my girlfriend/model into the full frame but she has to stand very close to the background..........meaning the background is getting too much light. My alternative is to start cropping parts of her legs off. I could just do head and shoulders shots but eventually that will become boring so Im thinking of doing 1/2 and 3/4 length body shots so wondering where to crop off on the lower part of the body......above, below or directly in the middle of the waist and the same for the knees?
Example below

Thanks

Neil

 

[Scooter]

Hi Neil,

If there is a rule of thumb for this, it is to include the majority of a limb segment. I.e. if you don't want the lower leg, crop just above the knee, rather than just below it (the majority of the thigh, vs a very small piece of shin). In practice, I find cropping anywhere along the thigh works just fine - and your example above looks great.

It is your shooting distance that matters. Focal lengths are just an outcome of the calculation: i.e. how far away you need to be to get the look you want, and how much of the subject/scene you want in-frame. From your example above, I'd say your shooting distance is fine. So if you want more in-frame, just use a smaller focal length from the same distance: contrary to some "advice" you'll find online, wide-angle lenses do not distort things - shooting too close does this (and long lenses do not "compress the scene" - shooting from far away does this) There isn't an "85mm portrait look" (apart from bokeh considerations) - there is a "shooting from 5ft away look". Focal length is just crop.

I have this issue if I shoot in my own small studio - I can just about shoot full length with some separation of the model from the background, but I'll be close to my model, which means I need to be very careful with camera height and angle. The size of objects in-frame is inversely proportional to the square of the distance to them: half the distance, 4 times the size (area), so if your model's hand is closer than their face, it will appear disproportionately larger. The closer you are to your subject, the greater the significance of differences in distance to parts of your subject (eg if you are 100m away, 20cm from hand to face is nothing, but if you are shooting from 1m away, it's a 20% difference).

You can also deal with the background light, by using a darker background. I know this sounds obvious, but a very dark grey and/or black backdrop will do you a big favour in a small space. A dark grey backdrop, "select subject" and the overlay blend mode in PS will give you any backdrop you need. My studio wall is Dulux Storm Grey (not in their current catalogue, but most paint shops can mix you up a can).

Example (NSFW):-

https://flic.kr/p/2okU4st

View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/52733712315/in/dateposted-public/

(My studio is in Cheshire, UK. The wall is in Rome).

 

[ndwgolf]

Hi Neil,

If there is a rule of thumb for this, it is to include the majority of a limb segment. I.e. if you don't want the lower leg, crop just above the knee, rather than just below it (the majority of the thigh, vs a very small piece of shin). In practice, I find cropping anywhere along the thigh works just fine - and your example above looks great.

It is your shooting distance that matters. Focal lengths are just an outcome of the calculation: i.e. how far away you need to be to get the look you want, and how much of the subject/scene you want in-frame. From your example above, I'd say your shooting distance is fine. So if you want more in-frame, just use a smaller focal length from the same distance: contrary to some "advice" you'll find online, wide-angle lenses do not distort things - shooting too close does this (and long lenses do not "compress the scene" - shooting from far away does this) There isn't an "85mm portrait look" (apart from bokeh considerations) - there is a "shooting from 5ft away look". Focal length is just crop.

I have this issue if I shoot in my own small studio - I can just about shoot full length with some separation of the model from the background, but I'll be close to my model, which means I need to be very careful with camera height and angle. The size of objects in-frame is inversely proportional to the square of the distance to them: half the distance, 4 times the size (area), so if your model's hand is closer than their face, it will appear disproportionately larger. The closer you are to your subject, the greater the significance of differences in distance to parts of your subject (eg if you are 100m away, 20cm from hand to face is nothing, but if you are shooting from 1m away, it's a 20% difference).

You can also deal with the background light, by using a darker background. I know this sounds obvious, but a very dark grey and/or black backdrop will do you a big favour in a small space. A dark grey backdrop, "select subject" and the overlay blend mode in PS will give you any backdrop you need. My studio wall is Dulux Storm Grey (not in their current catalogue, but most paint shops can mix you up a can).

Example (NSFW):-

https://flic.kr/p/2okU4st

View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/52733712315/in/dateposted-public/

(My studio is in Cheshire, UK. The wall is in Rome).

Good Morning Owen
Here are a couple of pictures of my home studio setup. Ive taken everyones advice and moved my model about 2 metres from the backdrop (defiantly can't get full length body shots now), I've still got the beauty dish above and pointing down about 45 degrees and now have the strip box lying on the bed slightly back from the beauty dish tilted up maybe 20 degrees but directly under the beauty dish, camera is very slightly off centre.

Love your attached picture