Studio Lens advice

[donkeymusic]

Morning,

working towards studio improve on the technical side of things.

watching a photo shoot on tv last night i was noticing that a lot of phootographers appeared to have large zoom lens which i presume would be 50-300mm?

i guess this is so they can get full length, medium and close up shots withuot changing lens?

if this is the case would i be better buying one lens to cover a range rather than having several that i would perhaps interchange?

thanks for any advice?

 

[Lazlo Woodbine]

It's purely down to preference. Fixed focal length lenses (primes) are generally produce higher image quality photos, but in most studio work lenses are stopped down which lessens the difference in quality. Primes are also usually a lot lighter than good quality zooms which is pretty handy if you have a long shoot planned. They are also a fair bit cheaper than a zoom of similar quality.

A zoom lens on the other hand is just more versatile and prevent the need for changing lenses. (Handy in windy outdoor conditions)

 

[vaizki]

With a longer lens you can have the subject further away from the background without needing a huge backdrop (think angle of view). This way you can blur the bg more with a large aperture and have less light spill from it on the subject (backlit hair isn't so nice). Also allows you to light the subject and bg more independently with flash heads.

Edit: Also a longer lens will give you less "change in relative distance" between facial features such as nose and ears, giving a much more natural & pleasing look. A short focal length will tend to make the nose bigger and face rounder.

I'm no studio shooter myself but these benefits come to mind

I don't know the Sony lenses but 50-300 sounds like a compromise in image quality. You want something fast, with a maximum aperture of at least 2.8 if you're serious about it. I guess the 70-200/2.8 would be a good choice in alpha mount as well.

Shooting groups of people or full body portraits is a different artform from doing head & shoulders shots.

 

[Wookie]

a physically large lens does not necessarily mean a large zoom range (however, it is likely to indicate a larger price tag)

my limited understanding of the studio scenario is you've got to be more careful about glare from strong light sources aimed towards the camera lens, hence I would expect them to be using the lens hoods, and that would make the lenses look a lot bigger . . . ?

for the same reason (glare) I've seen warnings that a prime is a better choice in the studio, as its optically less troubled in such situations and the hood on a prime is the correct size rather than compromised for a zoom range.

 

[david1701]

for canon i hear good things about 24-105 its sharp and 105 is nice and long

if you have a big studio 70-200 ftw

85/1.8 is good too

 

[HoppyUK]

For shooting people in a studio, on your crop format Sony, around 30mm for full length and 50/60/70ish for head and shoulders.

 

[donkeymusic]

For shooting people in a studio, on your crop format Sony, around 30mm for full length and 50/60/70ish for head and shoulders.

based on that i presume i am gonna need to stand quite far back to use 30mm to get full lenght in which case would get the edge of the backdrop in view?

 

[HoppyUK]

based on that i presume i am gonna need to stand quite far back to use 30mm to get full lenght in which case would get the edge of the backdrop in view?

Shouldn't be too much of a problem in an average kind of room. Angle of view with a 30mm lens on a cropper is around 45 degrees so that should give you an idea.

Home studios are usually a bit of a workaround.