Portrait Lens

Someone has asked me to take some informal portrait photos of them for a book cover.

Which of my lenses (listed below) would be the best one to use :

It's a bit vague becasue we don't know what style you may be after, or indeed what the location will be.

For informal pictures of an author aome shots in a study or library might be good, but there are so many alternative possibilities.

Rather than ask which lens I would be thinking first of which style and which location. The choice of lens will probably follow logically on from that.

Well the person in question (a first time author writing non-fiction on a non mainstream subject) had some taken indoors and they are awful in all respects, so I suggested outdoors in a garden, which she liked but in terms of style, she is currently unsure

I prefer using natural light.

The 16-50mm should give you plenty of options without any messing about changing lenses.

In those circumstances that's what I'd use.

Hope that helps and that the shoot is successful for you.

By going outside you lose the distance constraint you most likely have shooting inside therfore I would use the DA*50-135, 50-70mm for head an shoulders going out (and stepping back) to 135mm for full length shots.

Indoors I agree with John, the DA*16-50 would be my lens of choice when space is at a premium.

The DA*16-50 would do a great job.
If you want to do some tighter head shoulders shots it's better to get some distance, if you come too close it can disturb the porportions of the head and she would look funny then if you aren't carefull. The DA*50-135 would be the preferred lens for such shots in my opinion.

My vote is for the 10-17 !

Book cover - head, maximum head and shoulders, outdoors, blurred background, flattering perspective.

ONLY the 50-135. (probably around f3.5/f4)

Good Luck

I have not shown her your entry in the 'Wide' competition

Presumably the f3.5/f4 in order to achieve the blurred background :

Yes!

No???

I tend to stop it down just a little to achieve perfect sharpness.

What is your opinion?

Well I would normally stop it down to achieve the best sharpness but I agree that the background needs to be OOF or suitably innocuous.

With the interior shots that have already been taken (indoors by A. N. Other) there is a mass of distracting clutter in the background (in focus) with the subject of the photographs slightly out of focus

Great.

SO you have a real easy job here!!!

Make sure the background is not distracting, and with the 50-135 you can surely achieve very sharp results at rather large f-stops, to have a beautifull OOF background.

This is not a good shot, but gives the idea of the in-focus sharpness, and OOF background.
Shot at 115mm, from about 8 metres distance. The background was a further 5-6 metres behind the bin, f4.
Oh, if its not perfect, its because its shot at 1/20 handheld, in a rush...

[IMG]http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u332/nathanever82/JiminaBin.jpg[/IMG]

For me, on a Pentax digital, portrait means a minimum focal length of 50mm, and a maximum, in practical terms, of about 120mm. Plus a reasonably wide aperture.

So I side with Nathan. 50-135.

G