Why I Use Longer Lenses for Portraits: 85mm, 105mm, and 200mm
There are a lot of ways to shoot a portrait, and there are a lot of lenses that can technically get the job done. You can make a portrait with a 35mm lens, a 50mm lens, an 85mm lens, a 105mm lens, a 200mm lens, or even something wider or longer. But just because a lens can make a portrait does not mean it creates the kind of portrait I want to make. For the way I like to shoot portraits, especially headshots, 3/4 portraits, and city portraits with architecture in the background, longer lenses are a big part of the look. I use an 85mm Zeiss 1.8 for headshots, and I will also use a 105mm or even a 200mm because of the way these lenses handle perspective, compression, background size, and subject isolation. This method is not just about standing far away and zooming in. It is about controlling the relationship between the subject and the background. It is about making the person look good. It is about keeping the background meaningful without letting it become a mess. And in many c...
